Crime Victims and their Social Network: A Field Study on the Cognitive Effects of Victimisation,Attributional Responses and the Victim-Blaming Model

Abstract

A field study is reported focusing on the cognitive effects of criminal victimisation, on the types of responses victims encounter in their social network, and on the validity of the ‘victim blaming model’. Data reveal that victimisations have a negative impact on the perceived benevolence of the world. Perceptions of self control and control over outcomes are reduced, and victims consider themselves less as persons having luck in life. These cognitive effects appear to stretch out beyond those directly involved. Results generally do not support the theoretically dominant position in the victimological literature on ‘blaming the victim’. Empathical responses and external attributions from the social network are much more common than internal responses to victimisation. Moreover, internal attributions from the social network appear to work more positively on the wellbeing of victims than external attributions. These outcomes - which are in line with the Janoff-Bulman model - are clearly in contrast to the ‘victim blaming model’. Some implications for future studies are discussed.