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Summary of Dissertation Results
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would, first of all, like to thank Dr. Patricia Petretic-Jackson for chairing this project. I am very grateful that she could set aside time out of her busy schedule to provide advice and, most of all, support. Without her guidance, I don’t think I could have made it through this project.
I would also like to thank Dr. Daniel W. Smith for all of his direction and assistance with the crime survey questionnaire. He went above and beyond the call of duty and deserves recognition for playing a key role in getting this project underway. Special thanks to Dr. Tom Jackson for joining the project after it was underway and taking time to provide input and guidance. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Ken Witte for his help in generating ideas, providing feedback, and being flexible during the process of completing this project.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank the Howell’s Committee, whose financial support made the completion of this research possible. In particular, I am grateful to Cece Hilliard for assisting me in obtaining the materials necessary to assemble and mail participant packets. She made the process much easier for me by serving as a liaison while I was away from University resources on internship.
I am very grateful for all of the victim crisis centers, courthouses, and other organizations across the country who assisted me with locating information and interested participants. In particular, I would like to thank:
Victims and Citizens Against Crime New Orleans, LA |
Karolyn Kalinowski Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center, Woodland, CA |
Sergeant Christy M. Williams 6th District New Orleans Police Department |
Carol Dahlum Tulane University Crime Prevention and Victim Resources Program |
Karen Swails Victim Services and the Healing Through Action Program |
Sylvia Robinson, MSW |
Barry Pruitt |
Ginger Bankston Bailey, Deputy Director Outreach Division of the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office |
Sergeant Michael Weaver 5th District New Orleans Police Department |
Nancy A. Heilner, BCSW Program Coordinator, YWCA Rape Crisis Center New Orleans, LA |
Dr. Stephen P. Tuuri Primary Care Physician New Orleans, LA |
Becky Dahl Courthouse, Lebanon, MO |
Elisa J. Ziglar Athens County Victim Assistance Program Athens, OH |
Barbara Schell, Program Director Victim Witness Assistance Center Las Vegas, NV |
The STTAR CENTER Columbia, MD |
Beverly Siemssen Victim Advocate New Orleans, LA |
Lt. Marlon DeFillo New Orleans Police Department New Orleans, LA |
Gary Patterson Social Work Intern New Orleans, LA |
Janet Chaney Office of the District Attorney Rayville, LA |
Portia A. Davis, Executive Director The Ross County Network for Children |
Jayne Ryland Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners |
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their love and support and my friends for listening to me when things were not going as smoothly as I would have liked. A very special thanks goes out to my husband, Mike, for finding every victim he could to participate and seeing me through the completion of my degree. I know that I was not always easy to live with during this project and I thank him for putting up with me.
To these and others I have missed--Thanks.
Victimization:
Trauma Symptoms and the Role of the Criminal Justice System
Abstract of dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
By
STACEY L. WILLIS-CENTER, B.S., M.A.
Southwest Missouri State University, 1992
University of Arkansas, 1996
August 1999
University of Arkansas
This abstract is approved by Patricia Petretic-Jackson, Ph.D. Dissertation Director
The current study was designed to examine responses related to personal exposure to violence, focusing on trauma symptoms and accompanying attitudinal changes experienced by victims of violence, particularly those that result from involvement in the criminal justice system.
It was hypothesized that individuals who chose to report a victimization experience but were somehow prevented from going to trial, would experience lowered levels of trauma symptoms when compared to individuals who chose not to report their experience and those who reported and went to trial. Additionally, secondary hypothesis were made that severity of symptoms would decrease over time and females would experience more symptoms overall than males. The 123 participants were recruited through various means (i.e., flyers, ads, internet documents, victim service organizations, etc.) and completed a detailed crime-event questionnaire, the Violence Attitudes Scale (Jackson et al., 1994), and the Trauma Symptom Inventory (Briere, 1995). In general, males and females reported different crime experiences, with most males having been the victim of assault (60%) and most females having been the victim of rape (33%) or domestic violence (23%). Contrary to the main hypothesis of the study, no significant differences were found between individuals who did not report, reported but were prevented from going to trial, and those that went on to trial. Secondary hypothesis were supported (i.e. symptom decrease over time and female reporting more distress in general than males). Additionally, males tended to blame ethnicity more and to disagree less that victims were to blame than females did. Those who reported the crime but did not go to trial reported less preference for strict consequences for crime than their counterparts who did go to trial. Participants who placed more blame on the victim experienced slightly fewer symptoms of anxiety, whereas those that blamed the perpetrator more had more symptoms in general. Other significant relationships obtained suggest that as more preference is expressed for harsh sentencing and consequences for perpetrators, victims experience more severe symptoms of anxiety, anger, intrusive memories or flashbacks, avoidance behaviors, feelings of unreality, concerns over sexual thoughts/behaviors, identity confusion, tension reduction behaviors, and overall distress.
A complete copy of the dissertation is available through Dissertation Abstracts. Ordering instructions are available through the author.