Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

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Forensic Victimology 2nd Edition

• Chapter Eight Psychological Aspects of
  Victimology

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Psychological Aspects of Victimology

• Psychological aspects of victimization can be
  very helpful to the investigator, prosecutor, and
  defense attorney.
• Not only will investigators review psychological
  information related to a deceased victim, but
  also they will collect information from and
  interact with live victims.

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Psychological Aspects of Victimology

• There are two features of victimology that
  interfere with its function as a body of
  knowledge and as an investigative tool
• Deification of the victim - the tendency to view
  the victim as lacking flaws. This can happen
  after a violent crime, when investigators are
  given reports that victims were saintly in every
  aspect of their lives.
• Blaming the victim - how some perceive any
  suggestion that a victim may have contributed to
  his or her own victimization.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Victim response to violent crime is variable from
  person to person, making it very difficult if not
  impossible to predict how a crime victim should
  or will behave.
• A victims response usually involves three stages
  of recovery
• Dealing with the initial impact of the attack
• The intensity and length will vary according to
  the intensity of the assault, the level of
  physical injury, and the perceived threat to
  life.
• The event will be filtered through the age,
  personality, and general mental health and life
  experiences of the victim.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Attempting to reconstitute his or her former self
• Victim attempt to deal with the effect of the
  crime on themselves and their lives.
• Emotions will be varied and include sadness,
  anger, self-pity, fear, and guilt.
• The length of time and psychological depth of
  this stage varies depending on the person.
• Reorganizing him or herself to attend to lifes
  daily activities.
• The emotional intensity is expected to lessen,
  and the victim is more energized to deal with
  lifes activities.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• There have been several attempts to pathologize
  the normal reactions of victims.
• This following syndromes that have been used to
  describe these pathologies
• Acute Stress Disorder,
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
• Battered Woman Syndrome,
• Rape Trauma Syndrome, and
• Stalking Trauma Syndrome.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)
• A diagnosable mental disorder characterized by
  the emergency of at least three dissociative
  symptoms (emotional numbing, feeling dazed,
  derealization, depersonalization, dissociative
  amnesia) within one month after suffering a
  traumatic event and lasting at least two days.
• As part of the response to the event, the victim
  experiences intense fear, helplessness, or
  horror.
• The condition resolves within a month, or the
  diagnosis is changed to reflect the chronicity of
  symptoms.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• This is a response similar to the Acute Stress
  Disorder, but is more chronic.
• It is acute if less than three months,
  chronic if greater than three months, and
  delayed is the onset is six months or after the
  traumatic event.
• The diagnostic criteria include exposure to a
  traumatic event with a response including intense
  fear, helplessness or horror.
• The event is reexperienced in a persistent manner
  in various easy, including one or more of the
  following dreams, flashbacks, and psychological
  and/or physical reactions on exposure to cues
  connected to the event.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Battered Woman Syndrome (BWS)
• A proposed mental disorder suggested to affect
  women who have been involved in long-term violent
  relationships the victim learns no longer to try
  and affect the course of the abuse, as she
  believes it will not change the outcome.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Rape Trauma Syndrome (RTS)
• A syndrome claimed to be developed by victims of
  rape or attempted rape, which consists of a phase
  of acute disorganization followed by a phase of
  long-term reorganization.
• During both phases various lifestyle factors may
  be affected, including physical, psychological,
  social, and sexual.
• This syndrome has no criteria for accurate
  diagnosis other than a person having been
  subjected to the rape itself.

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Victim Response to Violent Crime

• Stalking Trauma Syndrome (STS)
• Stalking refers to a repetitive act usually
  undertaken to cause distress to the victim, it
  may be perpetrated both in the real world and in
  cyberspace. Behaviors can range from unwanted
  communications with the victim to sexual assault,
  kidnapping, and homicide.
• Stalking Trauma Syndrome involves a cycle of
  crisis, recovery, and anticipation, as the
  harassment is ongoing.

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Victim Recollection

• The ability for victims to recall correctly in a
  forensic context is affected by hypnosis,
  medication, alcohol, and street drugs.
• The investigator needs to be aware of the effects
  these processes and substances may have on the
  memory of a victim or witness.

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Victim Recollection

• Hypnosis
• Hypnosis refers to the art of putting someone in
  an altered state of consciousness, wherein
  critical thinking tends to be relaxed and the
  subject is more suggestible than normal.
• Those undergoing hypnosis may be susceptible to
  suggestion made by the hypnotist and may make
  things up or believe their recalled memories to
  be accurate than they actually are.

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Victim Recollection

• There are three general problems with using
  hypnosis in legal contexts
• The subject is more suggestible than he or she
  would be otherwise, subject to many influences,
  including verbal and nonverbal cues from the
  hypnotist and a possible desire to please the
  hypnotist
• The subject may unintentionally confabulate so
  that the memories presented are more complete and
  comprehensive and
• The subject may have an enhanced belief in the
  veracity of his or her hypnotically recalled
  memories, regardless of their actual
  truthfulness.

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Victim Recollection

• Victim Toxicology
• Victim toxicology refers to the presence or
  absence of various substances in the system of a
  victim at a time that is related to the criminal
  event or the reporting of that event.
• The ability to recall accurately can be affected
  by prescribed medications, alcohol, cocaine, and
  other street drugs.
• The investigator must be aware of this in order
  to question victims as to medication or drug use.
  

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Victim Recollection

• Memory consists of several steps
• A stimulus (something the victim heard, saw, or
  felt) must first be perceived by a person.
• Once perceived, the stimulus can be mentally
  recorded.
• Once recorded, at some future date a memory of
  the stimulus can be retrieved.
• Drugs can potentially affect all three processes,
  with difficulties in retrieving memories often
  related to the effects of chronic drug use. Drugs
  known to affect memory include alcohol,
  benzodiazepines, and marijuana.