Previous research has greatly ignored the unique stressors that homicide
survivors experience following the murder of their loved one, indicating a general lack
of understanding of the experiences and reactions they are subjected to or the coping
mechanisms that they utilize. What little research that had been conducted has largely
been made up of anecdotal insight of psychological practitioners who had worked with
clients. A need exists to speak with the survivors themselves to chronicle their
experiences in as much detail as possible to help researchers and practitioners wrap their
mind around the totality of the loss as well as ground future research.
The participants in the study consisted of twelve persons who had immediate
family members who had been murdered. Participants were interviewed utilizing
Lincoln & Guba?s Naturalistic Inquiry paradigm. They were initially interviewed and
encouraged to discuss their loss in narrative and then were asked a series of specific
questions that may or may not have been discussed during the narrative. The collected data was analyzed utilizing the constant comparison methodology.
Results indicate that many homicide survivors feel overwhelmed by the changes that
occur in the short and long term. None of the participants reported positive experiences
interacting with mental health practitioners but virtually everyone endorsed peer-group
support. There was also evidence that participants whose loved one was murdered by a
person of an ethnicity that differed from their own resulted in racist feelings towards the
other ethnicity. Further, there was no evidence that the process of interviewing homicide
survivors was in and of itself negatively perceived or harmful; rather some participants
reported feeling relieved that they were able to discuss their loss in totality without
having to edit themselves.
Results suggest that homicide survivors may spend an unusual amount of time
reflecting on the person that their loved one may have become had they not been
murdered. Suggestions also include how to best notify and support homicide survivors
and how practitioners may best relate with their clients.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-426 |
| Date | 2009 May 1900 |
| Creators | Quisenberry, Clinton Edward |
| Contributors | Castillo, Linda |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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