Secondary Victimization Research Articles

"I have never worked with victims so victimized": Political trauma and the challenges of psychosocial interventions in Ecuador

This contribution aims at investigating critically how and to what extent psychosocial interventions are key elements of comprehensive subjective recovery from political trauma. The paper is based on the analysed data collected during a research project in Ecuador from eighteen in-depth interviews with clinical and social psychologists who had direct and indirect work experience with political trauma survivors, and thirty-seven survivors who were invited to participate in focus groups sessions based on a voluntary basis. The analysis questions which elements psychotherapy and other forms of reparative processes should take into account to address victims of political trauma in an effective and sensitive practice. The study´s main conclusions are that trauma survivors are affected by secondary victimization and their comprehensive recovery is drastically diminished because of: (1) lack of awareness of the need of political trauma approaches; (2) psychosocial reductionisms on the interconnection between the subjective and the political; and (3) psychologisation of political issues.

Under Victimization by an Outgroup: Belief in a Just World, National Identification, and Ingroup Blame.

Using representative probabilistic samples of Portuguese citizens and framed by an intergroup perspective, we carried out two studies aiming to address how national identification and belief in a just world (BJW) jointly predict secondary victimization of an ingroup as a whole (specifically ingroup blame). We conducted Study 1 (N = 779) in 2014, at the height of the European austerity policies imposed on Portugal by an institutional outgroup, specifically the Troika (the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund). Study 2 (N = 1140) was conducted after the Troika intervention. An environment of ongoing ingroup suffering caused by an outgroup is more threatening for the BJW of individuals who are more identified with the ingroup. We therefore predicted and found that BJW was positively associated with ingroup blame in participants higher in national identification when the victimization provoked by an institutional outgroup was higher (Study 1). However, when the suffering caused by the outgroup decreased, the association between BJW and secondary victimization was not moderated by individuals’ national identification (Study 2). Indeed, a three-way interaction was found between BJW, national identification, and social context (high vs. low victimization). These results are an important contribution for the literature about justice motivation in terms of intergroup relations, because they show that secondary victimization produced by a threat to BJW has a group-based identity function.

A Study on States of Secondary Victimization of and Measures against Dating VIOLENCE

The thesis recognizes and proposes an effective measures to prevent the recently occurring dating violence and their following secondary...

"She Is NOT a Genuine Client": Exploring Health Practitioner's Mistrust of Rape Survivors in Nairobi, Kenya.

Sexual violence is one of the most common forms of violence against women in Kenya. Recognizing this, the Kenyan government introduced health care sector guidelines for survivors of sexual violence. This study explores the care of rape survivors from the perspective of health-care practitioners and identifies a number of recommendations for improving the quality of care. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 28 health practitioners from eight post-rape care facilities located in Nairobi, Kenya. Data were analyzed using the Colaizzi's 1978 analytical model. The study uncovered a troubling tendency of health practitioners questioning the authenticity of a woman's claim, deeming some not to be genuine rape survivors. Doubts about the veracity of the client's story led to additional emotional drain on health practitioners. This judgment negatively impacted the quality of care for rape survivors and in some cases, leading practitioners to deny services and exposing survivors to secondary victimization.

Stories as property:Narrative ownershipas a key concept in victims’ experiences with criminal justice

This article offers a novel approach to the difficulties experienced by victims in relation to their social surroundings in general, and to justice processes in particular, by expanding on an emerging paradigm of narrative victimology. For victims, ownership of their narrative is a key element of their experience, but this ownership is contested. The article brings together a body of victimological literature drawn from social and personality psychology, criminology and sociology to illuminate mechanisms underlying possible tensions between victims’ narratives and other perspectives on their ordeal. These tensions are relevant to understanding secondary victimisation in the criminal justice processes, as well as to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of restorative justice as a possible avenue for meeting victims’ needs.

Dogs in the criminal justice system: Consideration of facility and therapy dogs

It is known that the criminal justice process is most often perceived as a negative experience by victims, witnesses, as well as defendants. Whilst measures have been put into place across the globe to improve their experiences, there is still much more which needs to be done, especially as the process can involve secondary victimisation of those participating in it and prolonged trauma. The current opinion piece centres on the use of trained dogs to help the experiences of criminal justice system users during active cases. Whilst this practice is mostly used in North America, hints at bringing varying types of dogs into the criminal justice system are visible elsewhere, too. With the criminal justice users in mind, it is key to establish, from the offset, the positives of such service, but also be very aware of its limitations and challenges, in order for the service delivering what it aims without causing a disruption to the criminal justice process or its users. This piece provides a theoretical and practical analysis of topicssurrounding the use of specially trained dogs to support criminal justice system users with the view of highlighting our lack of knowledge on the topic and practical challenges of this service.

Family Mediation in Child Custody Cases and the Concealment of Domestic Violence

While mediation is commonly used in custody negotiation, there is no consensus regarding its applicability in domestic violence cases. The aim of this qualitative study in Italy was to explore the role of family mediation in the management of child custody in cases involving domestic violence. Semistructured interviews were conducted with lawyers ( N = 5), social workers ( N = 15), and abused women who had separated from their children’s fathers ( N = 13). Legal documents were also analyzed. The results showed that violence against women and children had often been concealed during mediation, as the professionals involved had failed to detect domestic violence or had labeled it as conflicts. Moreover, the “parental couple” had been dissociated from the “marital couple,” and the responsibility for the abuse had been attributed to both parents. As a result, women and children had been blamed and had experienced secondary victimization, while the perpetrators’ patterns of power and control had continued. The results also revealed that those professionals had not known about and had not applied the Istanbul Convention, which provides guidelines to ensure women’s and children’s safety. Recommendations highlight the need to account for the complexity of domestic violence cases, to hold perpetrators responsible for the abuse, and to support the victims.

Post-War Stigma, Violence and ‘Kony Children’: The Responsibility to Protect Children Born in Lord’s Resistance Army Captivity in Northern Uganda

The R2P framework underscores the responsibility to protect populations caught up in the maelstrom of war and armed conflict, and as such, holds relevance for children born of conflict-related sexual violence. This paper explores the role and framework of R2P in relation to children born of conflict-related sexual violence in northern Uganda, a population largely overlooked in the post-war period. Drawing upon the direct experiences and perspectives of a sample of 60 children born in Lord’s Resistance Army (lra) captivity, the paper highlights the significant stigma and violence that these children continue to face in the post-war context. The post-war lives of these children not only demonstrate the multiple hardships they face as a result of the fallout of war, but also highlight the situation of these children as secondary and intergenerational victims of war that would benefit from the protection of the R2P framework and subsequent support.

How shocking: compensating secondary victims for psychiatric injury

SUMMARYWhen those whom the law terms ‘secondary victims’ – i.e. the passive and unwilling witnesses of injury, or of the threat of it, to others – seek compensation through the courts for the psychiatric injuries that they have suffered (traditionally but confusingly referred to as ‘nervous shock’ claims), there would in theory be the potential for a virtually limitless number of claims. For this reason, the courts have developed and apply a number of, to a large extent, arbitrary ‘control mechanisms’ as floodgates. This article describes these control mechanisms and other relevant law using recent illustrative cases and with particular reference to the assistance that the courts can expect of psychiatrists as to diagnosis and causation.LEARNING OBJECTIVES•Understand the law relating to the compensation of secondary victims for psychiatric injury•Appreciate the arbitrariness of the application of the law, as demonstrated in particular by recent cases of such claims by secondary victims•Understand the proper role of (and limits of) expert psychiatric evidence in secondary victim cases, and therefore how best to assist the courts in relation to themDECLARATION OF INTERESTNone.

The Determinants of Investigation Behaviors (Justice Practice and Secondary Victimization) of Police Officers Who Work for the Sexual-Assault Victims : Prejudices against Sexual-Assault and Perception of Mission

The Determinants of Investigation Behaviors (Justice Practice and Secondary Victimization) of Police Officers Who Work for the Sexual-Assault Victims : Prejudices against Sexual-Assault and Perception of Mission

Victims with mild intellectual disabilities in the criminal justice system

Summary People with mild intellectual disabilities are more vulnerable to become victims of crime. Victims with intellectual disabilities can face attitudinal, procedural and practical barriers within the justice system. This exploratory study looked at obstacles encountered by victims of crime with mild intellectual disabilities in effectuating their rights, their vulnerability to secondary victimization and ways to support them. In 2014, 35 respondents from across the Dutch justice system and 10 respondents with mild intellectual disabilities-expertise were interviewed. Inductive and deductive content analysis was carried out. Resonance of findings was checked in an expert meeting. Findings Three major problems were identified: (1) victims’ incomprehension about the process and the proceedings; (2) victims’ difficulty meeting system requirements and expectations; and (3) impact of prejudices concerning mild intellectual disabilities. A system adequately set up to deal with victims with mild intellectual disabilities could ease these difficulties. However, additional problems were identified, namely: (1) limited recognition of mild intellectual disabilities; (2) insufficient knowledge and understanding of consequences of mild intellectual disabilities; (3) issues related to accessing and accepting support; (4) communication unsuited for victims’ reading and comprehension-level. These problems influence the ability of victims with mild intellectual disabilities to effectuate their rights and increases risk of secondary victimization. Applications Besides the importance of these findings for policymakers, results are of importance for all those working with victims or with people with mild intellectual disabilities. Individually tailored forms of support are required to overcome the identified problems. Awareness of the barriers that victims with mild intellectual disabilities may encounter will aid providing adequate support for victims with mild intellectual disabilities to exercise their rights and protect against secondary victimization.

Trust liable for hypoxic birth injury and psychiatric injury caused to mother and grandmother: RE v Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust [2017] EWHC 824 (QB) (High Court, 12 April 2017 – Goss J)

In this case concerning a hypoxic birth injury, the High Court awarded damages for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to two “secondary victims” (the mother and grandmother) caused by the events in questions. This is one of only very few reported clinical negligence cases where such claims have succeeded.

Systematization of the pilot implementation of a Gesell dome in a Family Court

Children and adolescents who are victims of sexual abuse or severe mistreatment are exposed to secondary victimization -understood as the revictimization resulting from the cons tant memory of the mistreatment or the abuse suffered when they are subject of multiple questions about what happened- when they have contact with the justice system. In 2012, the Chilean State implemented a pilot Gesell dome in order to reduce this risk and move towards a single interview process, with probative value in the context of the judicial process. To systematize the implementation process of a Gessel Dome in a chilean Family Court. Qualita tive, non-experimental, exploratory and descriptive study. Ten representatives of institutions of the inter-institutional network of the Family Court at the city of Melipilla were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used for the selection of participants, which seeks to obtain a representative discour se of the participants. The Semi-structured Individual Interview was used, based on seven research dimensions: 1) knowledge of the Gesell dome; 2) knowledge of the right of the child to be heard; 3) knowledge regarding severe mistreatment and sexual abuse; 4) knowledge about secondary victi mization; 5) organization and operation of the institutional network; 6) training; and 7) general eva luation of the Gesell dome of the Melipilla Family Court. There are differences in knowledge and information management among the institutions associated with the project. Coordination diffi culties of the local network that affect the objectives of the project are identified. There are problems of coordination and networking in the implementation and use of the Gesell dome. In order to achieve the objective of reducing secondary victimization, in addition to the investment in physical facilities and specialized training, a strong investment in local network management and coordination is required. The results facilitate the development of plans to avoid such difficulties in the future implementation of Gesell domes as public policy.

Los Menores Víctimas de Abuso Sexual en el Proceso Judicial: el Control de la Victimización Secundaria y las Garantías Jurídicas de los Acusados

Child sexual abuse happens quite frequently and has serious consequences for child development. Disclosure of sexual abuse is often delayed; children often avoid telling because they are either afraid of a negative reaction from their relatives or of being harmed by the abuser. Child sexual abuse is often committed in private so there are rarely eyewitnesses and there is no external corroborating evidence. Therefore, in every case of child sexual abuse that goes to trial, it is often the child’s testimony that is the only one or the most crucial part of the prosecution’s case. In this paper several recommendations are proposed to deal with sexual abuse cases in order to improve the quality of children’s testimony, when minors are able to testify in court, and to protect vulnerable children from secondary victimization. At the same time protecting children in the Criminal Justice System must be compatible with the presumption of innocence of the accused. Some suggestions are raised to balance the rights of the accused and of the victim.

Awareness among Doctors of a Medical College in southern India of Guidelines and Protocols for Medico-Legal Care for survivors/Victims of sexual Violence

Sexual assault is a heinous crime. An early and detailed medical examination is of vital importance for the purpose of investigation. Often, due to lack of documentation, maintenance of records and a lack of awareness of medico-legal law among health care professionals, there is secondary victimization of women, compounding the psycho-social impact of the event. Sexual violence is a major cause of psychological and physical harm for children and women. New guidelines for treating rape victims/survivors was drawn up by the Union health ministry, according to which, every hospital has to set up a separate room for the forensic and medical examination of survivors. The Department of Health Research (DHR) with the Indian council of Medical Research (IcMR) and other experts, introduced a set of national guidelines and protocols for sexual assault cases. The present study aim was to find out the awareness about these guideline and protocol and also to identify the gaps which was introduced to overcome the loopholes. The study was questionnaire based. The target population was medical practitioners in different departments. With 23.47% of respondents being partly aware and 36.73% being unaware, it is obvious that there is a training need. As per the guidelines of the MoHFW, GoI, any medical practitioner can examine and treat sexual assault cases. Hence, the suggested training module can be implemented during under graduation training or during internship.

Distributed Denial of Service Attack Detection, Prevention and Mitigation Service on Cloud Environment

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are becoming more frequent and the size of these attacks is increasing rapidly on every year. This increases the load on the networks of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and many Cloud computing providers. Cloud computing is an emerging technology and adopted by many Cloud providers. But, there are many issues and one of them is Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is the most prominent attacks in this area of computing. DDoS is the single largest threat to internet and internet of things. The frequency and sophistication of Distributed Denial of Service attacks (DDoS) on the Internet are rapidly increasing. In this paper, it is conducted an up-to-date review of essential Cloud Network threats and present a methodology for evaluation of existing security proposals. Based on this, introduced a comprehensive and up-to-date survey of proposals intended to make the Network Infrastructure highly secure and introducing new methods for detection and mitigation of routing instabilities and these generic countermeasure model can be used to prevent secondary victims and to prevent DDoS attacks. These taxonomies define varies similarities and different patterns in Dos and DDoS attacks, configuration, functional tools, to assist in further improvement on Network Infrastructure security and proposed a solution to countering DDoS attacks.

Gender-Based Violence Against Female Students in European University Settings

AbstractDue to their age and lifestyle, female students in general are at an increased risk of various forms of sexual violence. Particular sociocultural contexts also form the background of gender-based violence in professional and academic structures. Yet despite institutional and legal efforts to protect (potential) survivors of sexual violence from primary (and secondary) victimization, persistent assaults demonstrate the reluctance of organizations and individuals to fully accept women’s experiences as being physically and psychologically harmful. Based on quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the context of the European research project “Gender-Based Violence, Stalking and Fear of Crime”,1 this article presents a comparative analysis of the prevalence of sexual violence, feelings of safety (or a lack thereof) and the reasons for (non-)disclosure for five European countries. A dataset of about 21,000 responses from German, British, Italian, Spanish and Polish students indicates that sexualized violence is a major problem at universities and that it has yet to be recognized as such. This – added to the fact that it is generally suppressed or concealed by universities – makes it society’s problem as well. The article discusses widespread social myths about victims and perpetrators, the role of the new media in victimization, and the issues of universities’ responsibility for their students (through institutional policy and specific responses to incidents of gender-based violence). The results presented here demonstrate the contradictory perceptions that students have in regard to their experiences and the nature of sexualized violence in an academic environment.

Lingual injury

This qualitative, phenomenological study conducted in Israel consisted of interviews with 14 close relatives of murder victims whose cases generated media interest. The research offers a comprehensive view of the endeavors of the participants to be heard in both the criminal justice system and the media. The findings indicate that despite the growing recognition of co-victims’ rights and media attention to their narratives, both the justice system and the media disappoint these victims and largely fail to respond to their need to convey their messages. The participants experienced ‘lingual injury:’ the repudiation and muting of their own language in favor of professional jargon. Lingual injury is an innovative concept that describes particular aspects of secondary victimization; it contributes to the existing literature by enabling a detailed mapping of co-victims’ simultaneous difficulties in the interplay between the criminal justice system and the media. It highlights the need for developing professional tools, both legal and victimological, to alleviate this situation.

Etiology and Manifestations of Iatrogenesis in Pediatrics.

There is general agreement in the literature of what ought to occur following iatrogenic harm. Senior members of the team should disclose what occurred and how the problem will be remedied. Those involved should express heartfelt regrets and apologize sincerely. But in the pediatric setting, parents, as surrogates, can sometimes place clinicians on the horns of a dilemma: respect parental autonomy, which may involve continuing nonadvised therapy, or uphold the patient's best interests, which may indicate another course of care. In other cases, clinicians themselves may initiate or continue care without real benefit. The young patients who may be harmed as a result often cannot understand an explanation, an apology, or, when warranted, receive reparation; what duties are owed them? In this paper, we first discuss iatrogenesis writ large and then propose the formulation of this concept in this latter context, where harm occurs as a result of counterpoise between two or more ethical obligations, which we term counterpoise iatrogenesis. We then articulate its etiology and manifestation through two true cases. We conclude with a re-examination of the meaning and function of autonomy in pediatrics and the designation of secondary victims.

Rape within heterosexual intimate relationships in Iran: legal frameworks, cultural and structural violence

Rape and sexual assault are widespread but significantly under-reported worldwide. This is more so in countries where the legal system and the cultural context provide impunity for the perpetrators of sexual violence, and which sometimes blame victims for provoking the assault. Secondary victimisation of rape and sexual assault victims through the responses of individuals and institutions are prevalent globally. However, this silence might be enforced further by the patriarchal legal system and long-established traditional cultures. This article aims to theorise rape within the Iranian context employing the concepts of cultural and structural violence from a feminist perspective. Such conceptualisation will facilitate a demonstration of the interplay between victims, perpetrators, the culture and the state.