NCJ Number
123951
Date Published
1989
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This chapter contends that witnesses to homicides include a sizable population of adolescents who are themselves at high risk for developing significant symptomatology and yet are responsive to psychiatric intervention.
Abstract
Although some juveniles cope well with the experience of witnessing a homicide, most do not; they develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD refers to that cluster of symptoms that appears after an extremely disturbing life event outside the range of usual human experience. Symptoms include re-experiencing the event; the numbing of responsiveness to stimuli; and symptoms of increased arousal indicated by sleep disturbance, irritability, hypervigilance, and exaggerated autonomic reactions. PTSD characteristics common in children include increased misperception of the duration and sequencing of time and events, retrospective presifting or premonition formation, and the re-enactment of acts similar to the traumatic occurrence. Therapists should assist clients with PTSD in a systematic reappraisal of the traumatic event. This chapter discusses treatment and legal issues pertinent to helping juvenile witnesses of homicide through their ordeal. 47 references.