This would allow her to avoid being incarcerated as this is likely to put her in a downward spiral within the justice system because of her vulnerabilities. The importance of getting the appropriate resources and support to help Kimmie deal with the trauma she has witnessed and experienced is critical in deterring her from reoffending, as she has never had the opportunity to heal. Entering an institutional facility would expose Kimmie to the trauma of experiencing further abuse and elude her from dealing with her untreated emotional pain (Simkins & Katz, 2002). An appropriate case plan to implement for Kimmie would begin through a Judge that was court-ordered because of her most recent Aggravated Assault convictions. Kimmie would be ordered to have a professionally completed assessment on her psychological and mental health through a medical personnel. Not only would this assessment help the Criminal Justice system with understanding why Kimmie is continuing her aggressive behaviours but also gives her evidence so that her family can begin understanding and supporting her instead of suppressing and marginalizing her. Although data is limited, there is a reality of the Criminal Justice System criminalizing abused girls without there being appropriate mediations and interventions to understand why these violent behaviours have occurred (Simkins & Katz, 2002). The Criminal Justice System tends to focus on young girls’ aggressive and violent behaviours as just a crime rather than focusing on the possible trauma that these young girls have experienced. The trauma experienced by these young girls often have a very strong connection to the crimes they are being convicted of (Simkins & Katz, 2002). The psychological and mental health assessment Kimmie will undergo will allow the professionals involved to address her risk factors more appropriately…
“Prominent studies of child abuse and maltreatment point to several unfortunate outcomes for victims as they grow up. Adolescents who were victims of sexual assault are three times more likely to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, be abused again be dependent on drugs and alcohol, or commit delinquent acts compared to adolescents who were not victimized, according to a nationally representative sample.…
Women who are victims of domestic violence often have multiple barriers to overcome before they choose to end the violent relationship. While in an abusive relationship, victims often don't go because they are threatened by the abuser (Ramsey, 2013). The women are often afraid of the perpetrator's retaliation if they report the abuse (Al-Natour, Qandil, & Gillespie, 2015). Women fear being killed by their abuser and harm coming to their children. Fear is the way through which abusers control their victims. Emotional control forces the victims to fear the harm that could happen to her and the people close to her. The victim will bear all the abuse to protect her children. The constant state of fear gives the victims a feeling of panic. Living in panic in the relationship often causes the victims to lose their confidence in themselves. When the victims lose their confidence, they begin to live their lives to make their abusers happy. The victims will start to neglect their needs and desires to ensure that the abuser is…
Women who suffer from domestic violence and substance abuse share or demonstrate these similar signs according to "Best Practices: Addressing Domestic Violence, " Isolation, shame, and guilt, behaviors that others describe as bizarre or dysfunctional, traumatization, Initial denial of the problem. Loss of support systems and fear of losing children as a result of admitting their problem, low ego strengths, magical thinking (a client 's belief that the problem will simply go away as if by magic), impairment of their ability to make logical decisions. Involvement in the criminal justice system, either as a victim or offender, often seeking services only when in crisis. Several returns to the substance, or to a relationship where battering continues, before making a lasting change.”…
Women who have experienced child sexual abuse, demonstrate a greater prevalence of risky sexual behaviors, and are more likely to be physically and sexually aggressive themselves (Finkelhor, 1979). With the above stated, previous research has found that cognitive distortions may impair their ability to trust others, which normally leads the victims in a state of ambivalence about interpersonal closeness and a heightened fear of abandonment.…
After being abused for a long time, a woman may develop Battered Woman Syndrome. “Battered woman syndrome…
Psychological trauma can have an everlasting effect on a person’s life. According to Armsworth and Holaday (1993), Psychological trauma occurs when an individual is exposed to an overwhelming event that renders him or her helpless in the face of intolerable danger, anxiety, and instinctual arousal (p. 49). Anyone no matter what age, can experience a traumatic event. However, children are the ones mostly affected by a traumatic event. Trauma regardless if it is sexual abuse, physical abuse, or psychological abuse, affects a person’s life. The abuse will alter the way a person thinks, feels, and their ability to cope with the abuse. The human body responds to trauma in different ways. The traumatic experience or experiences can…
“A child is abused or neglected every three hours in Washington, DC (Children’s Defense Fund)”. Risk taking behaviors, including delinquency can be the direct result of exposure to severe and cumulative stressors (Mc Barrett, Raine, Stouthamer-Loeber, Loeber, Kumar, Kumar, M., Lahey, B.B., 2010). Male and female delinquents report different types of trauma. “Wards 7 and 8 comprise over half of all substantiated cases of abuse in the district, with the number of 360 in ward 7 and 670 in ward 8 reporting abuse ( DC Action for Children)”. Girls in the juvenile justice system more often experience sexual abuse and rape then boys (Hennessy, Ford, Mahoney, Ko, Siegfried, 2004: Snyder, 2003). According to research, "girls in the California juvenile justice system, 92% report some form of emotional, physical or sexual abuse. (Acoca, Dedel, 1998) Females are usually victims of abuse before they commit their first crime. "Abuse is directly linked with subsequent violent behaviors, with one and four violent girls having been sexually abused compared with one and ten non-violent girls (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999). Female offenders experience higher rates of victimization, and "have more limited abilities to cope with such stressors, thereby magnifying their effect (Dornfield, Kruttschnitt,…
The British Crime Survey (BCS) provides evidence on victimisation experienced by men and women. They have identified that men are at greater risk of victimisation than women, according to victim surveys, in 2004/5 the BCS reported that women aged 16-24 had a 6.3% chance of becoming a victim of violence compared with a 14.6% chance for men of the same age (Jansson 2007 as cited by Newburn 2007). However, it has been found that ‘domestic violence’ is the only category of violence that women are at a 0.5% greater risk than men (Nicholas et al 2005 as cited by Newburn 2007). Although victims of ‘stranger violence’ were found to be 2.3% of males in comparison to 0.6% females, this range of statistics suggests that perhaps men and women fall victim to specific types of crimes based on the social stereotypes and…
The feminist criminological theory aims to understand minorities in race, gender socioeconomic status and many more and their intersection with one another and their relation to crime. In relation to interpersonal violence and gender, females are greatly underrepresented in studies- particularly regarding those who commit offences. As mentioned above this places a pressure on the legal system that does not know how to properly respond to these women. Feminist theories aim to bridge the gap between males and females in the criminal justice system and provide gender appropriate crime responses for all. Furthermore, breakthroughs discovered in feminist criminology regarding female crime and victimisation may assist in explaining male crime to some extent. Since feminist theory looks at all female crime and victimisation- including crimes involving males- reasons as to why males become victims of female assault and why they assault females are…
Probation officers role within the field of victim services has advanced over the past couple of decades. Previously underutilized within the criminal justice system, support and advocacy for victims is becoming a major part of the job for probation officers. The job of a probation officer has evolved from "court-oriented" to "victim-centric".…
One main problem that often come out of traumatic experiences is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is seen throughout society and is characterized as re-experiencing the traumatic event through dreams, thoughts, sensations, or flashbacks. It also involves emotional numbing, avoidance of trauma provoking thoughts or activities, and a heightened sense of alertness or arousal. PTSD is most commonly seen when the maltreatment was received as a child. Childhood maltreatment comprises of sexual, physical, and emotional neglect that negatively affects a child’s development and their psychological or psychological health throughout their entire lifetime (Ramo-Fernández et al.). When abused at such an important developmental age such as childhood development those children when adults have a higher probability of abusing their own children and becoming involved in abusive relationships, in which they would re-experience their victimization (Ramo-Fernández et al.). A study was done to prove that when one is abused as a child they are more likely to become abusive as well. In 135 parents with a history of childhood maltreatment 6.7% abused their child within the first 13 months. This may not seem like a large amount but compared to the control group of non-abused parents only 0.4% abused their offspring (Ramo-Fernández et…
The subsequent trauma experienced by girls who have been abused has far–reaching implications for juvenile justice providers, but the system has not adequately attempted to understand, address, or provide meaningful programming and support services for girls’ abuse issues, particularly sexual abuse. Abuse trauma can affect every aspect of girls’ lives. Most of the negative and/or unsafe behavior we see from girls in facilities is trauma related and comes from a culture of survival. ” according to Paula Schaefer from www.AmericanBar.org. The treatment between females and males in the juvenile justice system is completely different.…
Topitzes, who found a link between neglect trauma and delinquency, think that the delinquency can be caused by different factors, especially gender differences (2011). Like most research that has been done before, males and females tend to commit different crimes, where males commit more violent crimes, and females commit less-violent crimes. This is the main focus for Topitzes theory, he found that males who have had neglect trauma in their past were “significant predictors for delinquency”, and found the results for females to be non-significant…
Wolff, N., Shi, J., & Siegel, J. (2009). Patterns of victimization among male and female…