Helping families of homicide victims: A multidimensional approach

✍ Scribed by Rosemary Masters; Lucy N. Friedman; George Getzel

• Book ID: 102925666
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 970 KB
• Volume: 1
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.2490010108

✦ Synopsis

Homicide inflicts massive injury upon the intrapsychic and interpersonal realities of thesurviving 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 con frontations 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 beiief system. Effective help to survivors requires interventions that respond to all aspects of the survivors' losses.