Over the past two decades, violent crime has become one of the most serious domestic problems in the United States. Approximately 13 million people (nearly 5% of the U.S. population) are victims of crime every year, and of that, approximately one and a half million are victims of violent crime. Ensuring quality of life for victims of crime is therefore a major challenge facing policy makers and mental health providers. Helping Victims of Violent Crime grounds victim assistance treatments in a victim-centered and strengths perspective. The book explores victim assistance through systems theory: the holistic notion of examining the client in his/her environment and a key theoretical underpinning of social work practice. The basic assumption of systems theoryis homeostasis. A crime event causes a change in homeostasis and often results in disequilibrium. The victim's focus at this point is to regain equilibrium. Under the systems metatheory, coping, crisis and attribution theories provide a good framework for victim-centered intervention. Stress and coping theories posit that three factors determine the state of balance: perception of the event, available situational support, and coping mechanisms. Crisis theory offers a framework to understand a victim's response to a crime. The basic assumption of crisis theory asserts that when a crisis occurs, people respond with a fairly predictable physical and emotional pattern. The intensity and manifestation of this pattern may vary from individual to individual. Finally, attribution theory asserts that individuals make cognitive appraisals of a stressful situation in both positive and negative ways. These appraisals are based on the individual's assertion that they can understand, predict, and control circumstances and result in the victim's assignment of responsibility for solving or helping with problems that have arisen from the crime event. In summary, these four theories can delineate a definitive model for approach to the victimization process. It is from this theoretical framework that Treating Victims of Violent Crime offers assessments and interventions with a fuller understanding of the victimization recovery process. The book includes analysis of victims of family violence (child abuse, elder abuse, partner violence) as well as stranger violence (sexual assault, homicide, and terrorism).

Topics covered include overview of victimology, victim services and witness assistance programs, missing and murdered children in America, crisis intervention with battered women and their children, police-based crisis teams, telephone hotline programs and services for family violence survivors.

This edition includes newly contributed and updated articles utilizing the latest research and studies in the areas of violence, abuse, and victims' rights from experts in the field. It has a stronger focus on emerging issues and policies in the field of victimology than other comparable texts. It utilizes the latest research and studies in the areas of violence, abuse, and victims, rights. It focuses on the emerging issues and policies in the fields of victim rights and crime prevention. New 3 Part organization with the more common victimizing crimes first, followed by responses to victimizations, and then newer issues and types of victimizations in Part 3. There is a new chapters on human trafficking and cyber crime. There is a major expansion of the human services response and school victimizations. It is updated throughout with new data and research.

Published in 2009, the first edition of Forensic Victimology introduced criminologists and criminal investigators to the idea of systematically gathering and examining victim information for the purposes of addressing investigative and forensic issues. The concepts presented within immediately proved vital to social scientists researching victims-offender relationships; investigators and forensic scientists seeking to reconstruct events and establish the elements of a crime; and criminal profilers seeking to link pattern crimes. This is because the principles and guidelines in Forensic Victimology were written to serve criminal investigation and anticipate courtroom testimony. As with the first, this second edition of Forensic Victimology is an applied presentation of a traditionally theoretical subject written by criminal justice practitioners with years of experience-both in the field and in the classroom. It distinguishes the investigative and forensic aspects of applied victim study as necessary adjuncts to what has often been considered a theoretical field. It then identifies the benefits of forensic victimology to casework, providing clearly defined methods and those standards of practice necessary for effectively serving the criminal justice system. 30% new content, with new chapters on Emergency Services, False Confessions, and Human Trafficking Use of up-to-date references and case examples to demonstrate the application of forensic victimology Provides context and scope for both the investigative and forensic aspects of case examination and evidence interpretation Approaches the study of victimology from a realistic standpoint, moving away from stereotypes and archetypes Useful for students and professionals working in relation to behavioral science, criminology, criminal justice, forensic science, and criminal investigation

"A major contribution to the literature on social problems, crime, and social deviance, and a fine example of what is currently the best-established theoretical approach to this material. It is laudably interdisciplinary, draws admirably from 'high' and 'low' culture, and over all asks some very challenging questions."—Philip Jenkins, Pennsylvania State University "Random Violence extends the growing scholarly literature on the social construction of social problems by showing us how currently trendy folk knowledge obscures the most perplexing problems in American society and how it serves to foster a climate of social distrust."—Donileen Loeske, University of South Florida

"Dr. Miller's Counseling Crime Victims is extremely effective...and it will occupy a central spot on my bookshelf...It is really a golden find." --Society for Police and Criminal Psychology "Here is the gold standard - the book for mental health clinicians helping crime victims sort through one of life's most difficult and traumatic experiences.--Richard L. Levenson, Jr., Psy.D., CTS Licensed Psychologist, New York State As more and more mental health professionals are becoming involved in the criminal justice system - as social service providers, victim advocates, court liaisons, expert witnesses, and clinical therapists - there has not been a commensurate improvement in the quality of text material to address this expanding and diverse field. Until now, students and practicing professionals have had to content themselves with either overly broad texts on criminology or trauma theory, or exceeding narrow tracts on one or another sub-area of victim services. Counseling Crime Victims provides a unique approach to helping victims of crime. By distilling and combining the best insights and lessons from the fields of criminology, victimology, trauma psychology, law enforcement, and psychotherapy, this book presents an integrated model of intervention for students and working mental health professionals in the criminal justice system. The book blends solid empirical research scholarship with practical, hit-the-ground-running recommendations that mental health professionals can begin using immediately in their daily work with victims. Counseling Crime Victims is a practical guide and reference book that working mental health clinicians will consult again and again in their daily practices. This book will also be of use to attorneys, judges, law enforcement officers, social service providers and others who work with crime victims in the criminal justice system. It can also serve as a college- and graduate-level text for courses in Psychology and Criminal Justice. Key Features of this Book: Victim assistance is becoming a full-fledged field for social workers and counselors A practical, hands-on guide which offers counselors techniques for dealing with victims of a wide variety of crimes Shows counselors how to guide their clients through the legal and judicial system

Victims of Violence: For the Record presents readers with an innovative and timely lens through which to examine contemporary acts of violent victimization. The book illuminates specific types of victimization and how they are portrayed in criminological literature and the press, most notably within The New York Times. Readers are challenged to examine how the victims The New York Times has chosen to cover may--or may not--represent the typical victim and victimization patterns that are reported in empirical research. The book is organized into three sections. The first section focuses on violent victimization that occurs during the criminal justice process. The second section looks at victims of violence who are injured or killed in routine settings as they move through their lives. The final section examines violence that is often directed against victims who are targeted by their attackers due to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, nationality, or immigration status. Presenting modern and thought-provoking research on the intersection of victimization and the media, Victims of Violence is ideal for courses in criminal justice and criminology, especially those with focus on victimization and mass media. For a look at the specific features and benefits of Victims of Violence, visit cognella.com/victims-of-violence-features-and-benefits.