Dugard's Autobiography Summary And Analysis

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The consequences following victimisation can lead to a rise of negative impacts for the individuals. Apart from the physical harm, it includes emotional and psychological harms that is experienced by the individual in the aftermath of their victimisation (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). The impact of crime can be linked to the notion of trauma, which refers to something that happened that causes suffering of an individual (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). This brought us to the trauma narrative which focus on the understanding of emotional and psychological consequences faced by an individual due to the suffering experienced (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). In Dugard’s autobiography, there are a few epiphanies in her eighteen years of captivity that …show more content…

First she was repeatedly sexually abused by Phillip in her eighteen years and was impregnated twice (Dugars, 2011). Secondly, she was being conditioned to listening to Phillip that he was the one with all the power and dreadful consequences will happen if she were to resist (Dugard, 2011). These epiphanies were so prominent where it helped explain the traumatic experience faced by Dugard during her captivity. Dugard admit that at times when she recalls the incident, she would feel small and helpless back to when she was eleven years old (Dugard, 2011). As Dugard’s autobiography is more focused on her individual experience in relation to trauma and least on collective trauma, therefore, the historical, national, cultural trauma and spirit injury was …show more content…

Therefore, one unique feature of personal testimony is that the important life story or experiences is depicted personally by the first person which is then presented in the form of printed text (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). An example is used in this essay in the form of autobiography by Dugard. Another value is that this form of testimony is non-fictional and it illustrate the first-hand accounts harmful occurrence that are critical, emotional and genuine to engage and form a connection with the public audience (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). This can be seen in Dugard’s case as explained in through cultural victimology where she wants to empower others who experience similar plight as her to speak up to prevent more victimisation without asserting a hierarchical status. The third value is that it is different from the conventional pre-occupation of objective methods in the criminology sphere where subjective and emotional experience are utilized as a reliable source of analysis to be used in victimological imagination (McGarry and Walklate, 2015). This is different from Dugard’s case in explaining her victimisation as it is explained in a positivist perspective on why she is more prone to being victimised (Dugard, 2011). However, her subjective experience on how

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