WOMEN IN CRIMIE

Women In Crime



Abstract

The author used national data to examine the help-seeking strategies of female crime victims. The research has two objectives. First, to determine whether help seeking exists as isolated choices or whether there is a discernable set of help-seeking strategies used by victims. Second, the author examined the effects of race and the victim offender relationship on these help-seeking decisions. Findings identify three help seeking strategies: (a) minimal or no help seeking, (b) family and friend help seeking, and (c) substantial help seeking (includes help from family, friends, psychiatrists, social service providers, and police). The author found that White women and victims of intimate partner violence are more likely to engage in increasing levels of help seeking. She also found that White women victimized by an intimate partner or other known offender are more likely (as compared to other victims) to seek increasing levels of help and social support.

Women In Crime

INTRODUCTION

Violent victimization is often a traumatizing and life-altering event with short- and long-term implications for the victim's quality of life. An understanding of the coping strategies used by women dealing with the consequences of violent crime may provide insight intowomen's reactions to other life-traumatizing events. Although criminologists have continued to explore the factors associated with police reporting, a more thorough examination of victim decision making would include an examination of police reporting and alternative help-seeking behavior (see Kaukinen, 2002b, for a discussion). Although the majority of female victims do not report their victimizations to the police (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994), many women seek help from family, friends, doctors, mental health providers, and social service agencies (Cantin&Rinfret-Raynor, 1993; Dunbar&Jeannechild, 1996; Kaukinen, 2002b; Lempert, 1997). Help seeking offers social support, coping strategies, and positive mental health outcomes (Schonert-Reichl & Muller, 1996), can provide pathways to more formal types of assistance (Snowden, 1998), and reflects the embeddedness of social problems and their solutions within a person's immediate social network (Pescosolido, 1992). Most important, decisions to seek help vary along a number of social dimensions, including gender, race, and the victim-offender relationship.

THE VICTIMIZATION OF WOMEN, HELP-SEEKING DECISIONS, AND THE VICTIM-OFFENDER RELATIONSHIP

Although social support may offer a number of benefits to all victims, women are more likely than men to seek social support from family and friends (Kaukinen, 2002b). Family and friends form a social network opportunity structure that is important to women's help seeking (Pescosolido, 1992), providing emotional and material support. Women often have more opportunities than men and take more time to interact with family and friends (Cahill & Sias, 1997). This interaction includes face-to-face conversations and contact maintained through geographic distances.Women, who are more likely to be in contact with family and friends in other social contexts, will rely heavily on these informal networks in dealing with the aftermath of violent victimization. The users of social and mental health services and selfhelp groups are also most oftenwomen (Mechanic, 1976; Schonert-Reichl& Muller, 1996; Snowden, 1999). Gender differences in social service and mental health utilization reflect a greater willingness among ...