Psychological Distress, Formal Help-Seeking Behavior, and the Role of Victim Services Among Violent Crime Victims

Youstin, Tasha J.; Siddique, Julie Ahmad

doi:10.1080/15564886.2018.1547235

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is precisely what was found in our models: participants will seek help from the police if they perceive that IPV situations are reportable; otherwise, they will not. In this case, better knowledge of IPV legislation among women increases the likelihood that IPV will be reported to the police ( Kim & Ferraresso, 2021 ; see also Wachter et al, 2021 ) and enables the activation of a system of legal assistance and protection for victims ( Youstin & Siddique, 2019 ). It is therefore plausible that the lack of legal knowledge directly affects the definition of IPV as indictable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a recent study has shown, better knowledge of IPV legislation among women is related to an increased likelihood that IPV victimization will be reported to the police ( Kim & Ferraresso, 2021 ; see also Wachter et al, 2021 ). In addition, previous contact with formal protection systems predicts a higher likelihood of formal help-seeking within the protection system ( Youstin & Siddique, 2019 ). These results suggest that early contact with the justice system can help women (re)define indictable behaviors more accurately and promote help-seeking from police officers, even in low-severity cases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Perceived Reportability of Intimate Partner Violence against Women to the Police and Help-seeking: A National Survey

Juarros-Basterretxea,

Fernández-Álvarez,

Torres-Vallejos

et al. 2024

Psychosocial Intervention

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The literature has consistently found that victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women are reluctant to make their situation visible and report it to the police. Whether victims perceive and define IPV behaviors as reportable is key to understanding in which cases the police are seen as potential providers of help or whether other potential sources of help (family, friends, professionals, etc.) are preferred. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the influence of perceived reportability of IPV on women’s selection of the police as a source of help compared to not seeking help or selecting other sources of help. Structural equation modeling was applied to data from 479 female participants drawn from a nationally representative sample of 1,112 male and female Chilean adolescents and young adults conducted by the National Youth Institute of Chile. The results showed that perceived reportability was a significant predictor of choosing the police as a source of help compared to other informal sources of help, such as family and friends. However, perceived reportability did not affect help-seeking choices between the police and other formal help sources (psychologists, public services). Participants’ IPV victimization and attitudes toward IPV also played a specific role in selecting the police as a source of help. These findings highlight the complexity of the visibility of women’s IPV victimization to the police and the need to examine its explanatory mechanisms.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived Reportability of Intimate Partner Violence against Women to the Police and Help-seeking: A National Survey

Juarros-Basterretxea,

Fernández-Álvarez,

Torres-Vallejos

et al. 2024

Psychosocial Intervention

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…HVIPs recruit survivors from trauma centers and address basic, social, and psychological needs to facilitate recovery. HVIPs connect with survivors who are impacted by trauma and ACEs to provide needed social supports [ 48 – 50 ]. Research has found that connecting survivors of interpersonal violence to social and economic services can increase formal help-seeking [ 50 ], and can moderate the association between ACEs and health outcomes [ 51 – 53 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms among Young Survivors of Urban Violence

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Our study examines the association between Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among survivors of violence. In this cross-sectional study, an ACE questionnaire and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) were completed by 147 participants ≤ 3 months after presenting to a Philadelphia, PA emergency department between 2014 and 2019 with a violent injury. This study treated ACEs, both separate and cumulative, as exposures and PTSD symptom severity as the outcome. Most participants (63.3%) met criteria for provisional PTSD, 90% reported experiencing ≥ 1 ACE, and 39% reported experiencing ≥ 6 ACEs. Specific ACEs were associated with increasing PCL-5 scores and increased risk for provisional PTSD. Additionally, as participants’ cumulative ACE scores increased, their PCL-5 scores worsened (b = 0.16; p < 0.05), and incremental ACE score increases predicted increased odds for a positive provisional PTSD screen. Results provide further evidence that ACEs exacerbate the development of PTSD in young survivors of violence. Future research should explore targeted interventions to treat PTSD among survivors of interpersonal violence.

show abstract

“…Women have been consistently found to report at higher rates than men—likely as a function of stereotypes about masculinity and needing help (Zavala, 2010). Married victims may have more social support and more positive responses to informal disclosure that facilitates reporting to police (e.g., Mackenzie et al, 2006; Youstin & Siddique, 2019) and employed victims may be more likely to report as they need to take time off work to deal with the crime (e.g., Sherbourne et al, 2001), may be more likely to have insurance through which they can file a claim (particularly for robbery), or health insurance to go to the doctor for injuries. Moreover, incidents occurring in public or urban locations were associated with decreased reporting while incidents involving a weapon, sustained injury, or multiple offenders were associated with increased reporting.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime Discounting of Violent Victimization: The Role of Crime Type and Incident-Level Correlates

Muniz

Powers

Bleeker

2022

Crime & Delinquency

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many crime victims do not report their victimization and rates of reporting are disparate across crime types. While research has established victims are least likely to report sexual assault, less known is whether the crime discounting process affects reporting rates and whether this process differs by crime type. This paper thus examines reporting for robbery, sexual assault, and physical assault incidents, particularly exploring victims who indicated their incident was “not a crime.” Using the National Crime Victimization Survey (n = 15,012) and a series of logistic regressions, this study found that, holding a number of incident-level correlates constant, crime type was the most salient predictor of reporting to police and nonreporting because the incident was “not a crime.”

show abstract

Psychological Distress, Formal Help-Seeking Behavior, and the Role of Victim Services Among Violent Crime Victims

Cited by 11 publications

References 40 publications

Perceived Reportability of Intimate Partner Violence against Women to the Police and Help-seeking: A National Survey

Perceived Reportability of Intimate Partner Violence against Women to the Police and Help-seeking: A National Survey

Examining Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms among Young Survivors of Urban Violence

Crime Discounting of Violent Victimization: The Role of Crime Type and Incident-Level Correlates

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About