Psychological Effects of Victimization: Implications for the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

The purposes of this article are to review research on psychological reactions to criminal victimization, to consider how victims might be affected by participation in the criminal justice system, and to offer some recommendations for the treatment of victims and their families within the criminal justice system. Over the past ten years there have been a series of studies conducted to examine the long-term effects of rape victims. Recently a study was conducted to compare the reactions of robbery victims with rape victims and to compare female and male robbery victims. This article will review the findings from these longitudinal studies with particular attention to victim reactions that may affect or be affected by participation in criminal prosecution.