ABSTRACT
This study began because I am both a psychotherapist and a crime victim. In 1975, I was mugged 1 for the first time and, though I was then in therapy, the emotional effects were handled as part of ongoing treatment and not given any particular focused attention. In 1980, a second occurrence was, in many ways, a more powerful and life-changing event. This time, I wanted crime-specific therapeutic services, and—I wanted to talk with other crime victims. It was hard for me to believe that I was the only victim struggling with the emotional issues of rage, guilt, and helplessness, and I wanted to know how other people were dealing with the traumas that beset them. I was later to learn that these feelings comprised the cluster of symptoms known to victimologists as Victim Trauma Syndrome (VTS), a generic subset of what the American Psychiatric Association terms “post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic or delayed” (PTSD). 2
