Crime affects everyone in a different way. Notwithstanding such generalization, the devastating nature of victimization is always traumatic in physical, psycho-emotional, financial and social respects.
In particular, sexual violence assumes the acts of rape and molestation in either childhood or adulthood. Sexual abuse stands for a broader term of childhood sexual violence and usually involves someone known to the child (adult relatives, family friends, neighbors, caretakers etc). After the act of abuse, a victim undergoes a continuous period of overwhelming stress and depression. Studies reflect that many female adults became the victims of sexual abuse at the age of 6-7 by their biological fathers, stepfathers or uncles. Regardless of who is an actual abuser, a child receives an equal psychological trauma (Whitcomb, 1994). Later in adulthood, victims of child sexual abuse point out at greater sexual dissatisfaction, poorer social and interpersonal interactions, social maladjustment and other dysfunctions, as well as tendency to involve in risky sexual behaviors, physical violence, and re‐victimization through sexual assaults (Herman, 1992).
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"Victims of Rape, Sexual Violence, and Child Abuse".
Victimization effects generate psychiatric dysfunction, nervous breakdowns, depressions, and suicidal attempts, as well as functional disabilities, sleeping problems, somatic symptoms, and lifetime surgeries.
Emotional impacts of victimization
Primarily, victimization causes a great emotional effect expressed through victim’s disbelief, shock and overall denial of what had happened. On the primary after-victimization stages, most victims fail to believe to what has just happened to them. Such common reactions of disbelief may last for moments in adults and for months in children. Most victims are prone to a childlike state after victimization and require intensive care and attention from others. Many perceive the act of abuse as something that happened to them while they were sleeping (dreaming) and can never come true. After the initial emotional shock, victims give way to the following set of emotions including fear, anger, confusion, guilt, frustration, shame and grief. Mostly, victims get angry with the offender, with God, family members, friends, service providers, and themselves. Naturally, victims get angry, feel hatred, and anticipate revenge as they strive for getting even with their offenders. Overwhelmed with strong emotions victims of sexual abuse get outcast and disapprove of the rest of society.
As well as this, they feel fear and terror after a crime took place and ruined their patterns of safety, life, and interaction with others. Fear is a rather destructive feeling during the post-victimization stage as it assumes the flow of panic attacks each time they recall the scene of crime. Another hazardous feeling is frustration while most victims become helpless and powerless especially when they recall the scene of the crime and their inability to deter it in any possible way. In addition, victims are prone to confusion because of being unsure of what really happened while sexual crimes and child abuses are rather chaotic and often occur in a quick manner. Guilt is another emotive consequence while victims tend to blame themselves after victimization for having appeared in the wrong time and the wrong place. Another exposure of guilt comes when an offender remains unfound, and later on victims feel guilty for not being able to do more under the given circumstances. Humiliation and shame are rather particular to the victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. Victims of rape even feel dirty and cannot wash away the feeling. Self-hatred, grief and sorrow are due to intense sadness that eventually becomes the most intense long-term reaction to victimization (Herman, 1992).
Psychological impacts of victimization
From the psychological perspective, the prediction of a victim’s reaction to a crime is hardly possible. Victimization causes serious psychological injuries and even traumas that assume long-standing effects and are most difficult to cope with. Being a crime, sexual abuse of any type is a more complex and serious encounter compared to misfortunes and accidents, for example. Primary after-victimization reactions commonly involve fear, shock, guilt, anger, disbelief and overall helplessness. These initial reactions tend to re-occur on further stages every time a victim recalls the details of a crime scene. These psychological effects make a victim disorganized and prone to distressing thoughts about the abuse, depression, nightmares, loss of self-esteem and confidence. Overall, these reactions make life meaningless while a victim tends to seek possible solutions in alcohol, drugs, and other hazardous substances, fragments social relationships with others, avoids people and situations related to crime, and eventually gets socially withdrawn (McCann and Pearlman, 1990).
Social impacts of impacts of victimization
Social consequences involve the causes made by society after the crime, including discriminative treatment. Such secondary victimization assuming biased reactions and responses of people and institutions make a victim feel alienated and unimportant. The society is often harsh and unfair in failing to recognize victims experience as criminal victimization. Victims often have trouble in re-integrating with the society, even with their family members and friends. This means that psychologically the overwhelming majority of people is vulnerable to the acts of victimization and fails to properly accept their consequences and come up with proper reactions (Shalev, McFarlane, and Yehuda, 1999).
- Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.
- McCann, I., Pearlman, L. (1990). Psychological trauma and adult survivor: Theory, therapy, and transformation. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
- Shalev, A., McFarlane, A., Yehuda, R. (Eds.). (1999). International Handbook of Violence and Traumatic Stress. New York: Plenum.
