Intervention With Victim/Survivors (From Handbook of Forensic Psychology, P 630-649, 1987, Irving B Weiner and Allen K Hess, eds. -- See NCJ-107500)

• NCJ Number: 107513
• Author(s): L E A Walker
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: John Wiley and Sons
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In recent years, more attention has been focused on the rights and needs of victims, particularly victims of interpersonal violence.

Abstract

The victims' rights movement has spawned voluntary organizations, self-help and support groups, victim/witness legislation and programs, and services and interventions to ameliorate the psychological effects of victimization during the immediate crisis phase and during the subsequent reorganization phase. Common psychological symptoms of victims include anxiety, depression, disruption in interpersonal relationships, sleep and eating disorders, phobic responses, dulling of affect, and somatic and cognitive disturbances. Such symptoms are frequently seen in child abuse victims and battered women. Intervention with the battered woman should focus on increasing her self-esteem and sense of safety and expressing her legitimate anger. In addition, tendencies toward denial, minimization, and dissociation should be dealt with. Support groups, individual therapy, and family systems therapy provide suitable intervention approaches. Changes in the criminal justice system response to victims have resulted in increased prosecution and mandated treatment of batterers. 57 references.