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Working with Victims of Crime: A Manual Applying Research to Clinical Practice
7.0 Assessment Issues: What Should I Ask About?
7.1 Key Areas to Cover in an Initial Interview
One of the more important functions of a service delivery model is the identification of client needs and
linking the client to services. Based on the above research and theory, the following issues are highlighted as
major areas of inquiry in the first few meetings with a client. However, gathering this information should be
balanced with allowing the victim a chance to talk about her issues (Robinson, 2000). In other words, workers
would be well served by keeping the following issues in mind as they talk to a victim while allowing the victim
to tell her story in her own words. This list is not a checklist, but a guide for informed clinical judgement.
Victim characteristics: History
- Previous victimization (childhood physical/sexual/emotional abuse)
- Previous victimization (other)
- Personal psychiatric history
- Family psychiatric history
- Previous PTSD, including severity
- Coping skills used in the past
Victim characteristics: Current
Personality characteristics
- Rating of self-efficacy and resiliency
- Demographics
- Current coping strategies
- Use of alcohol/drugs
- Suicidality / Homicidality assessment
- Current mental status: Psychological disorders, coping, strengths, etc.
- Presence of dissociation
- Current support network
- Primary location in the Transtheoretical Model and identifying motivators
- Victim's perception of what she needs
Crime-related characteristics
- Specifics of the criminal event
- Severity of the crime
- Use of credible threat
- Use of weapon
- Single incident or chronic victimization
- Victim-perpetrator contact
- Known perpetrator
- Reaction of support system
- Reaction of professionals (secondary victimization)
- Extreme emotional or dissociative reaction to criminal event
As a victim shows increased distress and symptoms, he may need more intensive services. Thus, a victim who is
not having a severe reaction may not need to join a support group or receive individual therapy. However, he
might benefit from information sessions or written literature. Those clients having more severe reactions may need
more intensive therapy or even inpatient treatment. A "one-size-fits-all-service" does not work efficiently. It
is the matching of clients to a service within a continuum that will benefit the most clients.
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