Crime Survivors
& Victims' Family
Recap

Crime Survivors' Resources

Tim Dyer moved from the apartment the day after he was beaten and robbed. He is also still haunted by nightmares of the event. "I'll wake up five to six times from the nightmares," he said. Dyer has turned to crime survivor's counseling for the psychological effects. "It is one day at a time," he said.
Excerpted from The Jackson Sun (TN) – 25 December 2006

A strange man, armed with a knife and a meat cleaver, broke into her apartment. She woke up to find him in her bedroom, where, he told her, he intended to rape and murder her. For two hours, he repeatedly raped, stabbed, and slashed her, cutting her throat, stabbing her in the head seven times, and severing two of her fingers. Yet, she mustered all her wits, strength and guts to outsmart him and save her life. She kept him engaged in conversation then tried playing dead. Finally, she escaped the apartment. ... For the last four years, fear has been her constant companion. "I felt that I was under attack 24 hours a day. I didn't want to sleep because the nightmares and flashbacks were so intense," she says. "Behind every corner, every tree, I see a psycho waiting to kill me."
Excerpted from The Edmonton Journal – 12 January 2008

Tommie Nell Hannaford says being a victim of an attempted carjacking has changed her life forever. "It was terrifying. I never experienced anything like it," Hannaford said. "I thought I knew fear, but I never really knew what fear was until I had that gun in my face." ... The road to recovery for victims of violence can last a lifetime. "There is no timetable for recovery from post traumatic stress," said Steven Hundersmarck, professor of psychology at Ohio Northern University. "Where someone who had something stolen for them might take a couple of days to recover; something like a rape or something that occurred at a person's home may take years. ... Hundersmarck said victims of crimes should seek professional counseling. "The more a person pushes their feelings down and ignores them, the more chances it could lead to health problems like ulcers, depression, heart disease, drug abuse or alcoholism."
Excerpted from The Jackson Clarion-Ledger (MS) – 19 March 2007

Crime Survivors' Memories

Particular memory related phenomenon in traumatic situations include:
1. During the actual incident there is usually a "sensory overload" combined with a "fixation" on some particular aspect of the critical incident, often to the exclusion of all else.
2. Immediately after the incident, "post-incident amnesia" will often result in a failure to remember the majority of the information observed in the incident.
3. After a healthy night's sleep there is usually a "memory recovery" which will result in remembering the majority of what occurred, and this memory is probably the most "pure."
4. Within 72 hours the final and most complete form of memory will occur, but it will be at least partially "reconstructed" (and therefore somewhat "contaminated") after the inevitable process of integrating available information from all other sources (media).
Excerpted from "Critical Incident Amnesia: The Physiological Basis and the Implications of Memory Loss During Extreme Survival Stress Situations" by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman & Bruce K. Siddle at www.Killology.com.

Victim's Family and Loved Ones

And/or use a Google, Bing, or Yahoo search. Type in "victim services (and your town or county)" to find a grief counselor.

There are also countless support groups worldwide. Of the several listed below, some are located in the US, some in the UK, and one in Australia. Wherever you’re located, contact any or all of them. They’ll be happy to help crime survivors or their loved ones from anywhere – and also refer you to a group near you for counseling. See:

• Victim Support at www.victimsupport.org.uk
• Parents of Murdered Children (POMC) at www.pomc.com.
• Survivors of Homicide www.survivorsofhomicide.com.
• Witness Justice at www.witnessjustice.org
• Michigan Victim Alliance at www.mivictims.org.
• Compassionate Friends at compassionatefriends.org.
• Enough Is Enough at www.enoughisenough.org.au.

"Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul" by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (HCI Publishing) might help crime survivors.

What do you do when you run out of tears?

Orthodox psychology has long emphasized the grim slog in store for those who must live without the people they cannot live without. But if you actually talk to the bereaved, you find this is not always true, says George A. Bonanno, author of “The Other Side Of Sadness.” ... A psychology professor at Columbia University, Dr. Bonanno interviewed hundreds of bereaved people, following some for years. His conclusion: the bereaved are far more resilient than anyone – including the bereaved themselves – would ever have imagined. ... Dr. Bonanno has not written a self-help book in the ordinary sense, but his message is as comforting as if he had. Don’t worry, he says. When the worst possible news breaks, you will almost certainly get through it. Almost everyone does. ... Over all, we are hard-wired to move on, helped by innate mechanisms that may seem maladaptive or abnormal but are actually quite common and effective. ... One of those tools may be the ability to smile through the worst of it. Humans are inherently drawn to comfort sad people, but can seldom tolerate more than a few minutes in the presence of the seriously depressed. The fact that the bereaved can shake it off periodically means that people will willingly stay with them, protecting them from a spiral of self-involved solitude. ... There are undoubtedly rebuttals to Dr. Bonanno’s appealing analysis, but it still offers a sensitive and sensible view of loss.
Excerpted from The New York Times – 29 December 2009 – Book Review by Abigail Zuger MD

"The Other Side Of Sadness" by Dr. George A. Bonanno (Basic Books) might help crime survivors.

Recap of this section:
• Crime Survivors - Overview of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and grieving the loss of a loved one to crime.
• Parents of Murdered Children help parents who’ve lost a child to murder.
• Survivors of Homicide and Witness Justice help the loved ones of murder victims.
• Michigan Victim Alliance help murder victims' loved ones try to heal.
• Compassionate Friends help murder victim's loved ones help each other.
• Recap of Crime Survivors (YOU’RE NOW ON THIS PAGE).
• Rape-Escape-Options - Survivors

Go to:
Crime Survivors - Overview
Crime-Safety-Security Home Page