M1_A2
Most of the courses that you have taken or will take in this program deal with the offender side of the victim/offender equation. The offender is what is typically focused upon in traditional forensic psychology courses and textbooks. In this course, the focus is instead on the intersection of psychology and the law from the victim's perspective. From this vantage point, you will have the opportunity to see the other side of criminal behavior and traumatic events, namely, the impact of crime on victims and their family members.
You will learn about victim definitions and demographics, the impact of victimization, and the intersection of psychology and law in the treatment of victims. You will also learn about the assessment and the treatment of the victims. At the end of this course, you will integrate theory, published research, and practical application to the assessment and treatment of victims.
In the pursuit of your degree in forensic psychology, you have been exposed to the intersection of psychology and the law. Most of you also have a solid foundation of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the variations in how abnormal and normal behavior are categorized. If that is not the case, you will find that for this course you will need some extra time to familiarize yourself with that material.
The assignments for this course rely heavily on the analysis of case vignettes. Through these cases, you will learn to apply the theory and research to real-world situations. This is an invaluable skill for your career. Applying your knowledge to the case vignettes also forms the basis of the comprehensive exam that you must take at the end of your coursework to graduate. You will also write a literature review on a topic relevant to victim psychology.
Taking Care of Ourselves
Even though we hear difficult things during the course of forensic psychology studies, we are sometimes able to detach from it while focusing on the perpetrators by saying to ourselves that we are not like them. With victims, however, it is more difficult to establish this barrier, especially because most of us have been victims in one way or another at some point in our lives. It has not been uncommon to hear people say that they wanted to deal with offenders because dealing with victims was too hard.
It is difficult to hear the stories and to take in so much suffering. Some of us, fortunately, do not have to live with it, but being exposed to this material can result in vicarious trauma (or secondary victimization), which is something we will learn about. This course will start by modeling certain behaviors that you should put in practice when dealing with victims.
The first one is informed consent. When you are assessing or dealing with trauma victims, you will have to provide them an explanation of the expectation of your assessment or treatment, the limits of confidentiality, and the expected positive results as well as side effects (such as getting worse before getting better) in a language that the victims will understand. You will then document the fact that this was explained and will obtain the victim's signature for your record. Even though this is a course and not a psychological assessment or treatment, we will model this first professional behavior by letting you know that the content of this course may be hard to deal with, especially if you have suffered a traumatic event. If that is the case, you may experience a recurrence of previous symptoms. If you have not suffered from a traumatic event, you may experience sadness, anger, anxiety, and, at times, may not feel like facing the material discussed here because it is highly emotionally charged or just plainly too graphic at times. If that is the case, we remind you that the people you will be helping are not able to put the trauma aside as you will when you put your books away and take a break from dealing with the course.
This brings us to the second behavior we want to model. It is self-care. You must take some steps to make sure that you allow yourself to process the material in this course and have time to regroup and do other activities that will replenish your energy. Some suggestions are as follows:
Make sure you have someone to talk to if you feel that the material you are reading is emotionally difficult. A friend, a classmate, or your therapist (if you have one) can be good sounding boards when things get tough.
Take some time in each module to do something fun, even if for a short period of time. We would suggest that you take a few minutes each day to do something fun or something that will replenish your energy.
Try not to read this material before going to bed at night. It can be difficult to unwind after reading some of the material.
Keep a journal of your reactions to the material presented. You are welcome to share your comments with your peers, but you are not required to do so.
This is a very interesting and rewarding course, but it can be emotionally taxing. Take care of yourself.
Module 1 Overview
In Module 1, you will study the definitions of victims and victimology and have the opportunity to read about the study of psychological trauma.
Based upon one of the crime television shows or movies you have seen, as well as previous coursework, reflect upon your beliefs about victims. You will be asked to complete an exercise that will help you analyze your perception of victims and will encourage an honest exchange of views with your classmates. Remember that we all draw from different backgrounds and formative experiences and that there are no correct answers when we conduct this self-analysis. Be respectful of others in your exchanges on the discussion board.
At this time in the course, you will examine the first group of victims—family and/or interpersonal victimization, especially the categories of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, stalking, elder abuse, hate crimes, and school violence.
Stopbullying.gov. (n.d.) defines cyberbullying as "bullying that takes place using electronic technology. Examples of cyberbullying include mean text messages or emails, rumors sent by email or posted on social networking sites, and embarrassing pictures, videos, websites, or fake profiles."
https://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/index.html <-- Click here to see a listing of state policies and laws pertaining to cyberbullying.
Currently, there are no federal laws that directly address bullying or cyberbullying. In some cases, bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment, which is covered under federal civil rights laws enforced by the US Department of Education (ED) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
To review some examples of school violence and bullying, refer to the Bullyingcategory in the Webliography.
Reference:
Stopbullying.gov. (n.d.). Cyberbullying [Web log message]. Retrieved from
http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/
Describe theoretical and empirical knowledge about psychological trauma and the impact of victimization.
An Example of Child Abuse
To review an example of child abuse, refer to the Webliography. This article talks about the Massachusetts high-profile case of Haleigh Poutre.
Haleigh was hospitalized on September 11, 2005, with severe brain injuries after she was allegedly beaten into coma by Jason and Holli Strickland. Jason was her stepfather, and Holli was her maternal aunt and adoptive mother. The Department of Social Services (DSS) was severely criticized for failing to recognize that Haleigh had been in danger. Her adoptive parents had said that Haleigh had self-inflicted injuries. After physicians declared Haleigh was in a persistent vegetative state, the DSS went to court seeking to terminate life support by medical equipment. Mr. Strickland sued to prevent termination of life support. Some people think he was seeking this to avoid murder charges.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that life-support equipment, including a mechanical respirator, could be withdrawn, but one day after that decision, it was found Haleigh could breathe on her own and follow simple commands. On November 27, 2008, a Hampden Superior Court jury found Jason Strickland guilty of permitting a serious brain injury to be caused to his stepdaughter. His codefendant, Holli Strickland, died soon after she was arrested on abuse charges.
In this module, you will also read an article written by a rape victim, Alice Sebold, and write a reflection about it. You will continue working on the course project by developing an annotated bibliography of at least eight references.
Defining Victims and Victimology
The textbook provides a good outline of the history of the concept of victimology.
In the United States, a crime victim is typically defined as any person, group, or entity that has suffered injury or loss due to illegal activities. The harm can be physical, psychological, economic, or some combination of the three. The legal definition of what constitutes a crime victim varies from state to state. Whether family members of crime victims are considered victims themselves is an unsettled matter.
The general public often exhibit behavior indicating that they hold stereotypes that tend to "blame the victim" for the crime. This behavior includes a lack of empathy for victims of crimes extending even to an outright animosity toward some victims. This may be an attempt of the public to make sense out of a senseless crime and feel safe in their own collective skin by assigning blame to the victims of crimes. For example, there are common myths around rape victims that infer that the victims somehow incite the act of rape by being dressed provocatively or being loose sexually. Other stereotypes may be that crime victims are generally poor or less educated. These may be based in part on increased risk of being victimized based on socioeconomic status, but people of all social strata most certainly fall victim to crime.
Please view Victimization Theories
Conclusion
In this module, you learned about some general parameters as to what a crime victim is, the history of victimology, the myths and misperceptions about crime victims, and the consequences of victimization.
You will build upon this foundation in the upcoming modules.