The concept of having resilience is complex and it has many uses. Among them, it is important to highlight victimology. This scientific branch examines people who have suffered harm due to a crime. In other words, victims.
Once we have experienced a traumatic experience, such as a criminal act, it is best to find a way to live a normal life again. But it is not always easy.
Researchers have studied various methods or processes that help people overcome trauma. In other words, they have studied the victim’s resilience.
What is victimology?
Professionals disagree on where this discipline fits in. Some believe it should be part of criminology. Criminology is a broader field that studies crime, perpetrators and victims. It also examines the interplay between the above parties and the context in which all this takes place.
I am personally a supporter of this mindset. However, there are other professionals who prefer to treat it as an independent branch.
If we disregard this debate, it is really important that this subject area meets the need to recognize the victim. The victim is often forgotten in the world of crime.
Studying this topic can prevent future criminal acts as well as help victims.
The topic first came up in 1973 during the first international symposium on victimology in Jerusalem, Israel. This event affirmed victimology as a scientific discipline.
One of the directions within the subject is “the process of sacrifice.” This is basically the change that leads to someone becoming or perceiving themselves as a victim.
This phenomenon involves many factors and causes that have an impact on the victim’s response. For the perception of a traumatic event will always be an individual process.
Therefore, the process will never be the same for everyone. It will depend on personal, social and cultural reasons, etc.
The process of throwing the victim role
Given its importance, resilience is a concept that has not been adequately researched. It is based on two basic ideas: to resist the incident and to restore oneself.
Some researchers, such as Janoff-Bulman, created a scale of topics to determine whether a person was resilient or not. The topics were a series of sentences or expressions used for an analysis of self-esteem and confrontational ability.
The subjects rate each sentence on a scale of 1 to 5 based on how much the subject agrees or disagrees with the sentence. The researchers then obtain a result that they consider to be related to the subject’s resilience.
Victims’ resilience is about their ability to overcome traumatic events. It is their ability not to let these events negatively affect their daily lives.
Different professionals have bid with different definitions or views on the subject. There are basically two different schools of thought:
- French professionals relate the concept to post-traumatic growth. This concept analyzes the possibility of learning from and growing from negative experiences.
It could be summed up as “you learn as long as you live.” This proverb is a positive view of negative events. Basically, you take something negative and use it for your own benefit.
- Professionals from the USA relate more to the concept of coping. They define it more as the person’s return to their past life.
Victims can develop resilience. It is an ability that comes out of a dynamic process. Researchers have studied its “origin” and the possible factors that promote resilience.
Some personality traits promote the development of becoming resilient, just as our surroundings can. But the most important factor is our perception of ourselves. The more positive the perception, the higher the ability to become resilient.
This certainly does not mean that only resilient people can overcome traumatic events. But it helps to be that. Therefore, it is important to continue research in this particular area.
We need to know what factors help develop resilience. That way, we can find ways to promote resilience and help victims of traumatic events overcome them with as little suffering as possible.