Psychological distress following crime victimization: An exploratory study from an agency perspective

Deficits in recognition of suffering play a significant role in the etiology of psychological distress in crime victims. However, given the preliminary status of the literature, it seems necessary to take other factors into account as well. Starting from an agency perspective, this study explored three such factors: negative self-attributions, peritraumatic distress, and early posttraumatic emotions. More specifically, this study explored whether the association between recognition deficits and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms observed in other studies could be replicated and, if so, whether this association was mediated by negative self-attributions and would decrease in strength when taking into account the adverse roles of peritraumatic distress and early posttraumatic emotions. To address these questions, we used prospective data from 201 victims who had reported a crime to the Dutch police. Recognition deficits, negative self-attributions, peritraumatic distress, and early posttraumatic emotions were assessed within 1 month after the crime report and PTSD symptoms 1 month later. Results indicated that the association between recognition deficits and PTSD symptoms was partly mediated by negative self-attributions and that the strength of this association decreased when controlling for peritraumatic distress and early posttraumatic emotions.