The Impact Of Secondary Victimisation On The Victims Of Crime

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This paper will explain what is meant by the term secondary victimisation, how it occurs and why it happens. Also, how victim blaming and retraumatising the victims of crime impact the criminal justice system. The paper will also explore what reforms could be put in place to reduce the impact of the criminal justice system on the victims of crime. Taking the victim of a traumatic crime and making the whole criminal justice system process from a more positive process, where the victim is treated as the victim, not as part of the crime. Where the victim is given support and services to assist in the healing and coping mechanisms to assist them deal with the criminal justice.
What is secondary victimisation? Wemmers (2013), describes secondary victimisation as intensifying the victims distress, by demonstrating an insensitive reaction, by blaming the victim for inviting the incident. White and Perrone (2015), states the secondary victimisation is the act of blaming the victim of a crime, as opposed to blaming the perpetrator of the said crime. This is especially true when it comes to rape cases, when the victim is said to be asking for it by how the victim was dressed or the victim was known to the perpetrator, or the victim was drunk and cannot remember. Laxminaryan (2013), took the explanation further by saying, secondary victimisation or …show more content…

These personnel have been found to have had accused the victim of inciting assault and after lie about the event of assault (Campbell & Raja, 1999). Campbell and Raja (1999), went on further to state that some of the victims had been inform directly by those that they were not believed. With the police in a position of authority the negative treatment the victim receives from them causes psychological harm (Laxminaryan,

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