The Process of Rediscovery Goes On and On

These recently recognized groups of victims face special pro- blems that require imaginative solutions. They eventually will receive the assistance and support they need as the rediscovery process continues to focus attention and resources on their plight:

■ Individuals who are deaf, blind, mentally retarded, mentally ill, or afflicted by other disabilities that attracted molesters, assailants, robbers, or other crim- inals who preyed upon them more often than other potential targets (Office for Victims of Crime, 2003; Barrow, 2008; and Harrell, 2014), particularly when they were young (Smith and Harrell, 2013; and Tabachnick, 2013).

■ People whose attackers cannot be arrested and prose- cuted because as members of foreign delegations they have been granted “diplomatic immunity” and are able to escape justice by returning home (Ashman and Trescott, 1987; Sieh, 1990; Lynch, 2003; and Grow, 2011)

■ Pedestrians and passengers killed by drivers who speed, run red lights, or ignore stop signs and may be guilty of criminally negligent homicide (Goodman, 2013; and Lerner, 2014).

■ Motorists and pedestrians slammed into during high-speed chases by fugitives seeking to avoid arrest or by squad cars in hot pursuit (Gray, 1993; Crew, Fridell, and Pursell, 1995; and Schultz, Budak, and Alpert, 2010)

■ Motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians injured or killed by hit-and-run drivers (Bisnar and Chase, 2011).

■ Native Americans living on the nation’s 310 Indian reservations who suffer much higher victimization rates for murder, rape, and other interpersonal crimes but receive less protection and redress from the criminal justice system than other U.S. citizens (Williams, 2012a, 2012b; and Erdrich, 2013).

■ Immigrants who feel they cannot come forward and ask the police for help without revealing that they are “illegal aliens” who lack the proper documents and are subject to deportation (Davis and Murray, 1995; Davis, Erez, and Avitabile, 2001; Chan, 2007; and Hoffmaster, Murphy, McFadden, and Griswold, 2010)

■ Homeless adults robbed, assaulted, and murdered on the streets and in shelters (Fitzpatrick, LaGory, and Ritchey, 1993; and Green, 2008)

■ Homeless runaway teens who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation and rape (Tyler, Whitbeck, Hoyt, and Cauce, 2005)

■ Hotel guests who suffer thefts and assaults because of lax security measures (Prestia, 1993; Owsley, 2005; and Ho, Zhao, and Brown, 2009)

■ Cruise ship passengers who suffer attacks and thefts from fellow voyagers and members of the crew (Anderle, 2013).

■ Tourists who blunder into dangerous situations avoided by streetwise locals and are easy prey because they let their guard down (Rohter, 1993; Glensor and Peak, 2004; Lee, 2005; and Murphy, 2006)

■ Delivery truck drivers who are targeted by robbers, hijackers, and highway snipers (Sexton, 1994; and Duret and Patrick, 2004)

■ Prostitutes soliciting complete strangers on the streets or over the Internet who face risks of being beaten, raped, and murdered that are many times higher than for other women in their age bracket (Boyer and James, 1983; Salfati, James, and Ferguson, 2008; and Mueller, 2014)

■ Unwanted newborns abandoned or killed by their distraught mothers (Yardley, 1999; and Buckley, 2007)

■ Suspects brutally beaten by police officers who used more force than the law allows (Amnesty International USA, 1999; and Davey and Einhorn, 2007)

■ Teachers attacked, injured, and even killed by their students (Fine, 2001; Parker, 2014; and Freie Universi- taet Berlin, 2014)

■ Underage students who experience statutory rape when they are seduced by their high school teachers (Zernike, 2014).

■ Youngsters sexually molested or physically abused through prohibited forms of corporal punishment by parents and teachers (Goodnough, 2003; and Larzelere and Baumrind, 2010)

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■ High school and college students subjected to abusive hazing and bullying by older students that results in injury or death (Salmivalli and Nieminen, 2002; Montague, Zohra, Love, McGee, and Tsamis, 2008; and Zernike and Schweber, 2014)

■ Terrified residents whose homes were invaded by armed robbers (Hurley, 1995; Copeland and Martin, 2006; and Thompson, 2011)

■ “Mail-order brides,” lured to the United States by unregulated international matchmaking services on the Internet, who fear deportation if they complain to the authorities about their husbands’ violence (Briscoe, 2005; Morash, Hoan, Yan, and Holtfreter, 2007; and Greenwood, 2008)

■ Teenage girls and young women kidnapped and held captive as “sex slaves” by vicious rapists (Hoffman, 2003; Jacobs, 2003; Maslin, 2011; Kaufman, 2012; and Williams, 2013)

■ Unsuspecting people, usually women, who feel symbol- ically violated sexually after being secretly videotaped during private moments by voyeurs using hidden spy cameras (Lovett, 2003; and Williams, 2005)

■ Female motorists sexually abused by highway patrol officers (Tyre, 2001)

■ People deceived by robbers and rapists impersonating uniformed officers as well as plainclothes detectives (Long, 2008; and Van Netta, 2011)

■ Persons arrested for drug law violations who are pres- sured by detectives to become confidential informants and end up wounded or murdered by dealers (Goodman, 2013)

■ Good Samaritans who try to break up crimes in progress and rescue the intended victims but wind up injured or killed themselves (Mawby, 1985; Time, Payne, and Gainey, 2010; and Cunningham et al., 2012)

■ Innocent bystanders wounded or killed by bullets intended for others, often when caught in crossfire between rival street gangs or drug dealers fighting over turf (Sherman, Steele, Laufersweiler, Hoffer, and Julian, 1989; and Williams, 2009)

■ People being blackmailed who are reluctant to turn to the authorities for help because that would lead to

exposure of their embarrassing secrets (see Katz, Fletcher and Altman, 1993; and Robinson, Cahill, and Bartels, 2010)

■ Recipients, some of them children, of crank phone calls laced with threats or obscenities, made by individuals who range from “heavy breathers” and bored teenagers to dangerous assailants (Savitz, 1986; Warner, 1988; Leander, Granhag, and Christianson, 2005; and Renshaw, 2008)

■ Residents injured by fires or burned out of their homes, unaware that they were harmed by acts of arson until fire marshals determine that the suspicious blazes were intentionally set (Sclafani, 2005)

■ Homeowners who wind up evicted because of swindles like mortgage fraud and foreclosure-rescue fraud (FBI, 2008b)

■ Consumers who lose money in Internet cyber swindles and “dotcons,” such as online pyramid investment (Ponzi) schemes, bogus auctions, fake escrow accounts, and other computer-based frauds (Lee, 2003b; and Stajano and Wilson, 2011)

■ “Missing persons” who have vanished and are presumed dead by their frantic relatives, but, since they were adults with a right to privacy, cannot be the objects of intense police manhunts unless there is evidence of foul play (McPhee, 1999; Gardiner, 2008; and NCMA, 2008). Sometimes their remains lie unidentified until “cyber- sleuths” and other amateur detectives poring over online coroners’ files and missing-persons databases are able to match a body to a disappearance and notify the local police department about solving one of their cold cases, thereby helping these deceased individuals get a proper burial, and maybe even securing “justice” for them if their killer is convicted (Halber, 2014; and Latson, 2014)

■ Unrelated individuals whose lives are snuffed out by vicious and demented serial killers (Holmes and DeBurger, 1988; Hickey, 1991; Egger and Egger, 2002; Pakhomou, 2004; Flegenheimer and Rosenberg, 2011; and AP, 2011c); and especially prostitutes, hitchhikers, and stranded motorists, whose bodies are dumped near highways by violence-prone long-haul truckers (Glover, 2009; and Dalesio, 2011)

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