Parents Of Victims Research Articles

Identification with the aggressor through figure drawings.

To test the hypothesis that identification with the “aggressor” would be more easily accomplished than would identification with the victim (“aggressed”) or his parent, heights of “self,” “murderer,” “victim,” and “victim's parent” drawings by 40 male and 40 female college students were compared. The resulting lack of difference between self and murderer drawings, and the significantly smaller (when compared to the self) victim and parent drawings, partially supported the hypothesis. In view of only males showing a predominance of same sex drawings of the murderer, caution was suggested in interpreting the results as conclusive evidence of support of the hypothesis.