Psychological support for the crime survivors with mental disorders in recording legal statements

Abstract

Korean society began to show overt concern for the crime survivors since the Victim Protection Act implemented in 2005. The essence of support for them is psychological in nature, because crime survivors mostly suffer psychologically compared to other ways. The experience of being a crime survivor adversely affects the psychological well-being of healthy people without mental disorders; it would worsen the vulnerability of people with mental illnesses. The crime survivors with mental disorders were vulnerable cognitively and emotionally before being a victim to a crime, and experiencing the crime made them more vulnerable. Psychological support should include help for their aggravated emotional and cognitive state evoked by the crime in order to prove that they are victims in their legal statement. This study explored the mental vulnerability caused by the experience of being a victim of crime, and the cognitive functioning including memory and emotion of crime survivors with mental disorders such as mental retardation, autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and recurrent depression and those who are children. Then, this study examined the current state of psychological support related to court procedures including overall support system for crime survivors and in the verification process. Additionally, the real examples of cases of people with mental disorders were discussed, problems of current legal perspectives were analyzed, and current problem of the system that does not consider the mental disorders in the interview with crime survivors for the statement was identified. Finally, future prospects of the support of crime survivors were suggested including strengthening the professional competence in psychopathology and forensic service, the development of specific protocols according to mental disorders, specific technique development for mental disorders using the example of autism spectrum disorders, providing supplementary tools for recording the statement of survivors of crime with mental disorders.