Emotional Impacts of Victimization
Victims can experience a number of emotional effects. Emotional effects can lead to increased time to heal, changes in behavior that may make daily life more difficult, and higher potential to experience additional victimization.
Fear of Crime
Fear after victimization is a normal reaction. A significant body of research points to the fact that witnessing or experiencing violent crime can increase the fear of crime. Jackson and Gouseti (2016) found that both primary (you were the victim)
and secondary (you heard about an event or know someone who was a victim) victimization increased worry about being a victim and that being a victim increased the concern about being a victim again. Not only is there a direct effect for victims, there are also indirect effects for people living in neighborhoods with high levels of crime.
Being the victim of a crime has psychological as well as physical impacts on victims. Image: Victims of crime. Authored by: Lode Van de Velde. Source: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php? image=68872&picture=crime-scene. License: CC-0