Crime Scene Investigation

Survivors, their Friends, Family Members, and other Supporters

The direct impact of the crime is of course most strongly felt by the survivor, who is usually in shock after the crime has been committed and is in need of immediate psychological support and mental health assistance. To experience a traumatic incident is to have one's reality shattered. According to the National Victim Assistance Academy, some of the emotional and psychological symptoms experienced by survivors of crime include shock; terror; feelings of unreality, numbness, confusion, helplessness, fear, anger and rage; grief; and heightening of particular senses (e.g., hearing, smell, sight). In the period following the incident, the survivor may experience anxiety disorders, difficulty trusting others, depression, panic symptoms, inability to concentrate, guilt and self-blame, shame, preoccupation with the crime, concerns about personal safety, social withdrawal, negative changes in the belief systems, avoidance, suicide ideation, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other symptoms. The friends or family members are secondary survivors: By listening and reliving the horrific crime vicariously, they themselves become victims of compassion fatigue or secondary traumatic stress, thus infecting them with emotional and psychological reactions similar to those of the survivor.

First Responders: Police, Firefighters, Ambulance Personnel

Emergency services are the usual first responders at a crime scene with the medical response attending to the victim and the fire department dealing with any fire and safety issues. The police maintain control and secure the crime scene area, interviewing the survivor and gathering evidence with which to identify and prosecute the guilty party. Emergency service responders may experience similar emotional reactions, as mentioned above, affecting the victims and friends of the victims. They deal with extreme ranges of emotional responses, from the quiet patrol to a violent shooting incident. The worst of the worst is thrown at them daily, and their ability to cope and deal with the trauma they are exposed to is directly related to their mental well-being. Each emergency responder will take in the totality of the crime scene and absorb the emotional impact of the violent act of one person toward another. [Page 160]Such repeated exposure to death and violence can cause responders to become overloaded by feelings of stress, vicarious traumatization, and emotional burnout. Critical incident stress and traumatic stress are destructive factors that can impair a productive police or emergency service person's ability to perform and can undermine the very capacity to think other than negatively.

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