The intersection of psychology and criminal justice is synergistic for our understanding of behavior. A topic drawing more attention is the behavior of the alleged victims of inappropriate conduct. The behavior of the survivors sometimes baffles those attempting to understand what has occurred. The expectations that law enforcement or counselors may have that abuse victims will appear emotional if they have been traumatized and wanting a perpetrator pursued is not always the case.
The doctrine of innocent until proven guilty may result in the type of questioning of survivors that may be intrusive or harmful to an individual in a state of shock. Although legally these behaviors are called counterintuitive, intuition has very little to do with the biases we have about how victims should present themselves. We often want to see the stereotypical damsel in distress who is ready to be rescued by those who are sworn to that responsibility. Thus, it is important for us to recognize that different individuals respond differently to trauma. Some individuals become tearful and distraught, others withdrawn and distant, and others may be angry, some may refuse to participate in an investigation depending on how they were approached. When the victim doesn’t meet the damsel in distress stereotype and if their story changes they may find themselves placed under the bright light and on the hot seat. They feel they are now being seen a suspect when they are the ones who been violated.
Let’s remember these three points:
[To the the full article written by Glenn Lipson, PhD, Professor, California School of Professional Psychology, please follow https://www.alliant.edu/blog/m...ress-partner-trauma/]
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