victims of crime Flashcards
(42 cards)
DPS Victim Services
-Implemented in 1997
-Provide state mandated victim assistance to primary/secondary victims and the victim’s family
-16 Behavioral Health Professionals
-Initiates crisis intervention during, or shortly after a crime has occurred
-Available after hours for urgent assistance
the goal of victims of crime
To reduce the impact of crime and trauma on the citizens of Texas by timely crisis counseling, education, advocacy, referral, and other assistance as needed
TRAUMA
a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury
The crisis reaction
The normal human response to trauma follows a similar pattern called the crisis reaction.
Physical response
The physical response to trauma is based on our animal instincts. It includes physicalshock, disorientation, and numbness: “frozen fright.”
Fight-or-flight” reaction
*Adrenaline begins to pump through body.
*Body may relieve itself of excess materials, like ingested food.
*Physical senses, one or more, may become very acute while others “shut down.”
*Heart rate increases.
*Hyperventilation, sweating, etc.
Exhaustion
Physical arousal associated with fight or flight cannot be prolonged indefinitely. Eventually, it will result in exhaustion.
Psychological response
*Stage one: Shock, Disbelief, and Denial
-Denial in this sense means truly believing something did not happen, or that it wasnot as bad as it actually was. This is a psychological defense mechanism that kicks into protect a person from the full impact of what has happened.
*Stage two: Cataclysm of emotions
-Anger/rage, fear/terror, grief/sorrow, confusion/ frustration, guilt/self-blame,violation/vulnerability, and shame/humiliation.
*Stage three: Reconstruction of equilibrium
- Emotional roller coaster that eventually becomes balanced.
Additional Psychological Responses
*Slowed thinking
*Fearful thoughts
*Memory problems
*Distressing dreams
*Blaming
*Illogical thinking
*Flashbacks of a previous trauma
*Intrusive thoughts
*Poor judgment
*Difficulty making decisions
Behavioral Response
*Crying spells
*Extreme hyperactivity
*Change in activity level
*Withdrawal
*Increase/decrease in appetite, sleep, or sex drive
*Increased smoking, drug, and/or alcohol use
*Startle easily
*Conflicts with others
*Change in hygiene and/or self-care
*Change in social patterns and/or communication
*Significant increase or decrease in productivity
*Avoiding reminders of event
*Inability to stop focusing on what occurred
*Getting immersed in recovery-related tasks
The Range of the Crisis Reaction:
*Shock
*Depression and loneliness
*Panic
*Hostility and resentment
*Hope
*Emotion
*Physical symptoms of distress
*Guilt
*Inability to resume normal activities
*Affirming reality
Trauma is accompanied by a multitude of losses
*Control over one’s life
*Sense of fairness or justice
*A sense of immortality and invulnerability
*Trust in God or in other people
*Personally significant property, self, or loved ones
*Future
Because of the losses, trauma responses involve grief and bereavement.
Trauma and regression:
*Trauma can be so overwhelming that it causes a person to revert or regress tochildhood, mentally and physically.
Individuals may feel very childlike, for example:
*Feeling very “little”
*Wanting “mommy” or “daddy” to come and take care of you
*Feeling very “weak”
*Feeling like you did when you were a child, and something went terribly wrong
Individuals may do things that seem very childish later, for example:
*Singing nursery rhymes
*Assuming a fetal position or crawling instead of walking
*Calling a law enforcement officer or other authority figure “mommy” or “daddy”
Recovery from immediate trauma
Many people live through a trauma and can reconstruct their lives without outside help. This assumes, however, that they get a lot of informal support and assistance from friends, co-workers, peers, etc. in talking about what happened, in re-experiencing the emotions it triggered, and in trying to make sense of what happened. Most people find some type of benign outside intervention useful in dealing with trauma.
Recovery from immediate trauma is often affected by:
*Severity of crisis reaction
*Ability to understand in retrospect what happened.
*Stability of victim/survivor equilibrium after event
*Supportive environment
*Validation of experience (e.g., it was terrible; the feelings/thoughts someone is having are natural and understandable given what they have been through, etc.)
Recovery issues for survivors include:
*Getting control of event in victim/survivor’s mind.
*Working out an understanding of event and, as needed, a redefinition of values.
*Re-establishing a new equilibrium/life.
*Re-establishing trust.
*Re-establishing a future.
*Re-establishing meaning.
Long-term crisis reactions:
*Not all victim/survivors suffer from long-term stress reactions. Many victims may continue to re-experience crisis reactions over long periods of time. Such crisis reactions are normally in response to “trigger events” that remind the victim of the trauma.
“Trigger events” will vary with different victims, but may include:
*Identification of the assailant.
*Sensing (seeing, hearing touching, smelling, tasting) something similar to something thatone was acutely aware of during the trauma.
*“Anniversaries” of the event
*The proximity of holidays or significant “life events”
*Hearings, trials, appeals or other critical phases of the criminal justice proceeding.
*Media articles about a similar event.
Criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:
*The patient has experienced or witnessed or was confronted with an unusually traumatic event that has both elements:
- The event involved actual or threatened death or serious physical injury to the patient or to others.
- The patient felt intense fear, horror, or helplessness.
The patient repeatedly re-lives the event in at least one of these ways:
- Intrusive, distressing recollections (thoughts, images).
- Repeated, distressing dreams.
- Through flashbacks, hallucinations, or illusions, feeling or acting as if the event were recurring (includes experiences that occur when intoxicated or awakening).
- Marked mental distress in reaction to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble some part of the event.
- Physiological reactions (such as rapid heartbeat, elevated blood pressure) in response to these cues.
*The patient repeatedly avoids trauma-related stimuli and has numbing of general responsiveness (absent before the traumatic event), as shown by three or more of these:
- Tries to avoid feelings, thoughts, or conversations concerned with the event.
- Tries to avoid activities, people, or places that recall the event.
- Cannot recall an important feature of the event.
- Experiences marked loss of interest or participation in activities important to the patient.
- Feels detached or isolated from other people.
- Experiences restriction in ability to love or feel other strong emotions.
- Feels life will be brief or unfulfilled (lack of marriage, job, children).
The patient has at least two of the following symptoms or hyper-arousal that were not present before the traumatic event:
- Insomnia (initial or interval)
- Angry outbursts or irritability
- Poor concentration
- Excessive vigilance
- Increased startle response
- The symptoms above have lasted longer than one month.
These symptoms cause clinically important distress or impair work, social, or personal functioning.
