Families Of Homicide Victims Research Articles

Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims' Family Members

An epidemic of murders in Oakland, California, has claimed hundreds of lives in the past decade, and the victims’ families often face discriminatory treatment by police, devastating financial burdens, and psychological trauma, with inadequate government support. “Living with Impunity: Unsolved Murders in Oakland and the Human Rights Impact on Victims’ Family Members” presents work by Berkeley Law International Human Rights Law Clinic Co-Director Roxanna Altholz and other researchers who found that surviving family members often were victimized a second time as law enforcement and other agencies treated them with indifference — and even hostility. The impact of this “impunity” falls most heavily on African Americans in low-income neighborhoods, the study found. Oakland has been one of the most violent cities in the country since the 1990s. Over the last decade, approximately 76% of the city’s homicide victims were black. During that time, Oakland police made arrests in just 40% of murder cases when the victim was black, compared to 80% when the victim was white. As a result of high rates of violence yet low arrest rates, the Oakland Police Department has over 2,000 cold homicide cases on its books. For families in Oakland, the report describes a troubling reality in the aftermath of murder: “lackluster police responsiveness and often disrespectful and discriminatory treatment, checkered availability of crime-victim services and restrictions on who can take advantage of them, and stigma and safety concerns that not only often go unaddressed but are exacerbated by the criminal justice system’s cramped approach to justice.” The report uses the concept of “impunity” — the idea, commonly used in the field of international law, that the failure to bring perpetrators of a violent crime to justice creates continuing trauma for survivors — to expose underexamined impacts of these unsolved murders on the families of homicide victims. The “Living with Impunity” report calls on federal, state, and local authorities to invest in the well-being of family members and ensure better treatment and improved communication by the police during the criminal investigation. The report urges officials to provide all family members, including individuals who are on probation, access to wraparound services and long-term care to specifically address the complex needs of family members of homicide victims.

Identity Management of the Dead: Contests in the Construction of Murdered Children

Presenting data gathered from fieldwork and ethnographic interviews with families of homicide victims, this study explores “postmortem identity‐contests” faced by families who have experienced the homicide of a child or other family member. Interview data from families on their interaction with police, funeral home directors, and other institutional officials suggest that the construction of postmortem identities is commonly a process of contestation filled with competing identity‐claims. The findings reveal that as families resist “oppressive othering” by the state and other institutional actors, they develop various accounts and strategies in “selfing” and sanctifying the identity of the dead.

Families of homicide victims: psychiatric responses and help-seeking.

The number of homicides in the UK is increasing: 850 homicides were recorded in England and Wales last year, but little is known about their impact on surviving family members. This study describes their psychological and social effects. Relatives seeking help from Victim Support were surveyed about their experiences, responses and help-seeking and asked to complete a number of psychological measures. Victim Support workers provided additional information. High levels of post-traumatic stress symptomatology and generalized distress were identified, as well as an increase in prescribed psychotropic medication. Other effects included increases in anger and irritability, cigarette consumption and loss of employment. However, few family members had been referred for professional treatment.

Comment on Umbreit and Vos

Should states be encouraged to develop programs that bring together families of homicide victims with killers of their loved ones who have been sentenced to death? After all, Professors M.S. Umbreit and B. Vos have presented data from two such encounters that indicate the participants, both killer and family member alike, derive benefits from such meetings. The data presented by Umbreit and Vos conversations before an execution do not fit the model of restorative justice in at least three important ways. First, restorative justice requires from both offender and victim not only a willingness or desire to communicate and perhaps meet, but also a willingness and ability to change attitudes and understandings as a result of their communication. Capital punishment and restorative justice are contradictory on this point; nothing can be restored after meetings in the last days of a prisoner's life, as the inmate is soon dead, and dead because of a retributive punishment that is increasingly administered hi the name of the victim's relatives. Second, restorative justice emphasizes recompense by the offender, actively taking steps to atone for the harm and injury he or she has caused. Success is measured partially in terms of the amount of harm repaired or prevented. Hence, any punishment process that does not help to repair injuries but simply creates new ones is incompatible with the restorative justice model. Third, restorative justice seeks to reduce the state's role in the justice process and to revitalize the ancient model in which victims, offenders, and communities all were actively involved in responding to crime and restoring peaceful relationships. Rather than minimizing the role of the state, the death penalty maximizes it.

Group Work with Families of Homicide Victims

This paper describes two types of groups for families of homicide victims. Structured, time-limited groups that are professionally led emphasize education about the grieving process and the criminal justice system as well as emotional support among members aimed to decrease isolation and to regain control and mastery. Group participants then went on to develop an ongoing self-help group that provides emotional support as well as advocacy around education, outreach, and legislative change.

Helping families of homicide victims: A multidimensional approach

AbstractHomicide inflicts massive injury upon the intrapsychic and interpersonal realities of the surviving kin of murder victims. A New York City pilot program of outreach and counselling to 1182 families of Brooklyn homicide victims suggests that surviving kin undergo the symptoms of traumatic stress disorder. Recovery is prolonged by knowledge that the perpetrator is usually alive and in some cases unpunished, by repetitive confrontations with the criminal justice system and by the multiple losses endured: loss of a family member, loss of illusions of safety and invulnerability, loss of a sense of trust in the surrounding community, and loss of a belief system. Effective help to survivors requires interventions that respond to all aspects of the survivors' losses.

Helping families of homicide victims: A multidimensional approach

Helping families of homicide victims: A multidimensional approach

A Group for Families of Homicide Victims: An Evaluation

A Group for Families of Homicide Victims: An Evaluation

Family reaction to homicide.

This pilot study identifies a two-phased syndrome experienced by families of homicide victims. The crisis phase consists of an acute grief process, including immediate reactions to the homicide, the funeral details, and police investigations. The long-term reorganization phase includes the psychological issues of bereavement and the socio-legal issues of the criminal justice process.