Chapter 12 Homicide

Abstract

Death by homicide--the act of one individual willfully killing another--profoundly affects the mental and physical well being of family members and friends of the murdered victim. Its impact, however, quickly expands to include agents of the criminal and juvenile justice systems, allied professionals, victim service providers and caregivers, and the public--at large. This chapter will discuss homicide in the context of the relationship that develops between the murder victim, the victims' family members, and the murderer upon notification of the death to family members, addressing the manner in which they are informed and the types of trauma that can be anticipated. It will consider the specific ways in which homicide is perceived by society, adjudicated by the criminal and juvenile justice systems, and treated by the media; and it will explore research and clinical findings regarding homicide and bereavement. Finally, the chapter will offer promising practices for treatment and support of those most directly affected by homicide.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this chapter, students will understand the following concepts:

• The scope and circumstances of homicide, along with elements unique to the homicides of loved ones that negatively impact co-victims.



• The dynamics of death and spirituality.



• The impact of homicide upon co-victims and their response to it.



• Common problems of co-victims.



• The victim service providers' responses to homicide co-victims and promising practices for the treatment and support of homicide co-victims.

Statistical Overview

• In 1998, the estimated number of persons murdered in the United States was 16,914. The 1998 figure was down 7% from 1997, and 28% from 1994 (FBI 17 October 1999, 14.)



• Down 7% from 1997, the national murder rate in 1998 was six per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest since 1967. Five- and ten-year trends show the 1998 murder rate was 30% lower than in 1994, and 28% below the 1989 rate (Ibid.).



• Sixty-one enforcement officers were feloniously slain in the line of duty during 1998 (Ibid., 291).



• In 1998, 48% of murder victims were black, 50% were white, and the remaining 2% were other races. Seventy-six percent of murder victims were male and 44% were between the ages of 20 and 34 (Ibid., 14).



• Firearms were used in 55% of all murders committed in 1998. Knives were used in 13% of the cases; blunt objects in 5%; and personal weapons in 8% of all murders (Ibid., 282).



• A total of 16,019 murder offenders were also reported in 1998, of which 89% of those for whom sex and age were reported were male. Of those offenders for whom race was known, 49% were black and 49% were white (Ibid., 14-17).



• Data indicate that murder is most often intraracial among victims and offenders. In 1997, data based on incidents involving one victim and one offender show that 94% of the African-American murder victims were slain by African-American offenders, and 85% of white murder victims were killed by white offenders (FBI 1998).



• Males were most often slain by males (88% in single victim/single offender situations). These same data show, however, that nine out of ten female victims were murdered by males (Ibid.).



• Males are over nine times more likely than females to commit murder, and male and female offenders are more likely to target males as victims (BJS January 1999).



• Of all persons murdered in 1997, 11%, or 2,100, were under the age of eighteen. Of these, 33% were under the age of six, 50% were ages fifteen through seventeen, 30% were female, 47% were black, 56% were killed with a firearm, 40% were killed by family members, 45% by acquaintances, and 15% by strangers (NCJJ September 1999, 17).



• In 1997, juvenile homicide rates were the lowest in the decade but still 21% above the average of the 1980s. In 27% of homicides by juveniles, the victim was also a juvenile (Ibid., 53 and 54).



• A firearm killed 70% of victims murdered by juveniles. Of all victims killed by juveniles, 14% were family members, 55% were acquaintances, and 31% were strangers (Ibid., 54).



• In 1997, an estimated 2,300 murders (approximately 12% of all murders) in the United States involved at least one juvenile offender. In 31% of homicides involving juvenile offenders, an adult offender was also involved (Ibid.).



• About 25% of homicide offenders reported that they were severely intoxicated at the time of the offense. Estimates of their blood alcohol content were 0.22 for probationers, 0.26 for jail inmates, and 0.28 for state prisoners (BJS 1998).

The Scope of Homicide

The toll murder takes in the United States is enormous. The magnitude of sorrow is incalculable.

-- Mary White

Homicide is an outrage. It includes all deaths caused by willful murder and nonnegligent manslaughter. It stuns, terrifies, angers, pains, frustrates, and mystifies society, which is repelled by its cruel indignity yet drawn to it as a never-ending source of voyeuristic entertainment. Homicide universally embraces our strongest emotions, our sense of justice, and our concept of death. Most singularly, homicide devastates and unhinges the lives of family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances of the murdered victim.

We have come to recognize that family members and individuals who had special ties of kinship with murdered victims experience a complex and complicated range of reactions to the deplorable act of homicide. While the term survivor describes the circumstances that family and friends enter following the homicidal death of a loved one, the term generally used to describe the level and intensity of their reactions is "co-victims" of homicide.

The term "co-victim" will be used to emphasize the depth of the homicide infliction. In the aftermath of the murder it is the co-victim who deals with the medical examiner, the criminal or juvenile justice system, and the media. The term co-victim may be expanded to any group or community that is touched by the murder: a classroom, a dormitory, a school, an office, or a neighborhood. Most of the individuals who make up these communities are wounded emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically by a murder, some more deeply than others.

A number of studies conducted on bereavement experienced after homicidal death indicate that co-victims of homicide experience vicarious trauma associated with the murder. On the psychological and mental levels, trauma refers to the wounding of one's emotions, spirit, will to live, beliefs about self and the world, dignity, and sense of security (Matsakis 1996). Co-victims find that their normal ways of coping and handling stress in the past are no longer effective. Co-victims of homicide are initially confronted by the helplessness and finality of the unexpected, unwarranted, and undeserved death of a loved one. The ensuing collection of perceived or actual insensitivities, indignities, and intrusions imposed by police, prosecutors, media, family, and friends constitute an additional wounding. Secondary wounding also occurs when the people, institutions, caregivers, and others to whom the trauma co-victims turn for emotional, legal, financial, medical, or other assistance respond by discounting, denying, and disbelieving (Matsakis 1996).

No one is exempt from the complexities associated with homicide. For law enforcement, homicide presents the dual challenge of regard for and attention to the investigation of the murder events while, at the same time, recognizing and addressing the overriding needs of co-victims of homicide. Law enforcement must become more attentive to the needs of co-victims and more collaborative with victim service providers. To be more effective, victim service providers must be knowledgeable about reactions and needs of victims as well as the investigative and judicial processes involved in homicide cases.

Studies show that great numbers of people in America have experienced the death of an immediate family member, relative, or close friend to criminal homicide, including violent deaths caused by drunk driving. This does not include the multitudes of people traumatized by exposure to reports of killings in the press. Most people in the United States have experienced, in a vicarious or secondhand way, hundreds, perhaps thousands of violent or traumatic deaths. As each murder is served up in the mediafor information, evaluation, or sometimes just entertainment, there remains a population of grieving and often forgotten co-victims of homicide who may be consumed by rage and saddled with pain.

The Homicide Differential: Elements Unique to the Homicide of a Loved One That Negatively Impact Co-victims

In order to understand the breadth and depth of homicide, it is necessary to recognize that

(1) death by homicide differs from other types of death due to a number of specific reasons and (2) cultural attitudes toward death and spirituality influence societal perceptions of homicide. Just as there are unique physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial components to every sudden death, there are spiritual ramifications as well. Those who have never thought much about God before will often do so after a loved one has died under traumatic circumstances. Persons of faith who assume that what happens to them is God's will are forced to reshape their faith positions to incorporate the fact that bad things do indeed happen to good people (Lord 1996).

We have been conditioned throughout the ages to accept that each life is destined for the inevitability of death, which is as natural and predictable as birth. The normal repetitive circumstances of death are disease and old age. When death is due to the unnatural circumstance of homicide, it is sudden and without forewarning. It is now widely accepted that there are specific elements associated with homicidal deaths that distinguish the impact upon the surviving family members from other forms of dying. They include:

• The intent to harm. One of the most distinguishing factors between homicidal death and other forms of dying is the intent of the murderer to harm the victim. Co-victims must deal with the anger, rage, and violence that has been inflicted upon someone they love.
• Stigmatization. Because society sometimes places blame on murdered victims for their own death which translates into blame on the victim's family when it is believed that they should have controlled the behavior that led to the death, "co-victims of homicide often feel abandoned, ashamed, powerless, and vulnerable" (Redmond 1989).
• Media and public view. Regardless of public sympathies surrounding homicidal deaths, they almost never remain private. Co-victims are quickly thrust into public view and become fair game for public consumption. While some journalists exercise consideration and objectivity in their reporting of homicidal events, the degree of intrusion into the lives of co-victims of homicide constitutes a major homicide differential.
• Criminal or juvenile justice system. Unlike family members of individuals who die of natural deaths, co-victims of homicide are the most likely population of victims to be thrust into a complex system of legal players and jargon. Co-victims must quickly become acquainted with a world of crime scenes, evidence, and autopsies. Co-victims of homicide have much to learn about the investigative, prosecutorial, and judiciary branches of the criminal justice system in a very short time. They are often expected to quickly comprehend a system that may in some instances be insensitive and specifically designed to protect the rights of the accused (with little regard for the victim). In addition, co-victims may encounter many cognitive and environmental stimuli that remind them of the crime such as contact with the defendant and/or reviewing the traumatic details of the crime in the courtroom. This experience often results in the kind of avoidance behavior that leads co-victims to cancel or not show up for appointments with criminal justice system officers or victim advocates.
• Bereavement. As early as 1983, E. K. Rynearson, M.D., determined that bereavement after homicide is so prevalent that it deserved clinical attention. His clinical studies involving the family members of murder victims revealed that all of his subjects had previously experienced bereavement following the natural death of a relative; and the psychological processing of homicide was accompanied by cognitive reactions that differed from previously experienced forms of bereavement. Rynearson's research forms the basis for the shift from viewing the co-victims' grief issues separate and apart from the impact of trauma associated with the death of a family member. Traumatic grief over homicidal death distinctly differs from other forms of grief.

The Homicide Circumstance

Homicide begins as an act. It is committed under individual conditions, within certain parameters, and eventually classified into general categories. Each case has its own circumstances that vary as greatly as each single act. Victim service providers working with co-victims should be knowledgeable about some of the general types of homicides.

SPOUSAL HOMICIDE

The killing of a spouse, life partner, or other significant individual of the same or opposite sex with whom one has lived for some time and formed a stable relationship.

The FBI reported in 1997 that twenty-six percent of female homicide victims are slain by husbands or boyfriends, and three percent of male victims are slain by wives or girlfriends. Among legally married persons, regardless of geographic region in the U.S., African-American females were at greatest risk of being killed by African-American spouses or partners. Specifically: in the West, African-American males were eleven times more likely to be victims of spousal homicide than white males, almost seven times more likely than white females, and 1.4 times more likely than African-American females. (Segall and Wilson 1993).

In a study by Christine Rasche (1993) of 155 "mate" homicides in Jacksonville, Florida, between 1980 and 1986, the most salient motive for spouse murder was possessiveness (48.9%) that included the inability of the offender to accept the termination of the relationship and/or the sanctity or security of therelationship (jealousy, infidelity, and rivalry). Feelings arising out of arguments (20.7%) and self-defense (15.5%) were second and third principal motives respectively.

CHILD HOMICIDE

The killing of a person under the age of eighteen.

Sixty percent of child murders in 1994 were at the hands of family members (22%) or acquaintances (38%). During this year, 11 percent of all murder victims were under the age of eighteen (Greenfield 1996).

Based on forty-five states reporting in 1996, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (1997) states that 996 children were known to have died as a result of abuse or neglect. The majority of these deaths were children three years of age or younger.

Pediatric deaths as a result of handgun violence have also risen as an issue of significant concern during the last few years. Between 1980 and 1994, pediatric (age zero to nineteen) firearm deaths in Chicago more than doubled from 116 to 247 (Chicago Department of Public Health 1995). The greatest increases were between 1987 and 1994. In 1994, 306 teens between the ages of fifteen and nineteen died in Chicago from all causes. Of these, 70.5 percent (216) were caused by firearms. African-Americans predominated the Chicago firearm deaths, both as perpetrators and victims. Of the 216 firearm deaths in this age group, 195 of the victims were African-American. Other large cities with gang problems report similar increases in pediatric firearm deaths.

SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME

The violent shaking of a young child that causes permanent brain injury or death.

Because shaken baby syndrome is still a relatively new classification of death or injury, it is difficult to say for certain how many children are victims of it each year. However, one source reports that 10 to 12 percent of all deaths due to abuse and neglect are attributable to the syndrome (National Information Support and Referral Service 1998). Perpetrators of shaken baby syndrome are about 80 percent male-37 percent biological fathers and 20.5 percent boyfriends. The remaining 17.3 percent were female babysitters, and 12.6 percent biological mothers. Sixty percent of the victims are male. Between 1,000 and 3,000 children are diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome every year, and about 100 to 120 of them die. Outcomes for victims who live include cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, seizures, learning disabilities, and vegetative states (Shaken Baby Alliance 1998).

PARRICIDE

The killing of one's parent.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports in the study Murder in Families (Dawson and Langan 1994) that 1.97 percent of murder victims were killed by their children. This translates to about 300 cases per year. Relatively rare when compared to other forms of homicide, parricide has begun to attract the attention of family violence researchers.

In a review of ten studies that examined adolescents who had killed their parents, Kathleen Heide (1993) discusses three types of parricide offenders: the severely abused child, the severely mentally ill child, and the dangerously anti-social child. She points out that ascertaining the driving force behind a parricide is complex but factors in the family that often contribute to the homicides include a pattern of violence, easy access to guns, and alcoholism or heavy drinking. Adolescent offenders expressed helplessness in coping with stress in the home and feelings of isolation and suicidal ideation. They had failed in their attempts to get help with little (if any) adult intervention, and had failed in their efforts to escape, with a history of running away.

Heide (1993) acknowledges that adolescent parricide offenders do include the severely mentally ill and dangerously antisocial, but in smaller frequencies compared to severely abused children. Components of child maltreatment pervasive in some families that also may lead to parricide are physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal abuse, and physical, medical and emotional neglect.

Weisman and Sharma (1996) found in their more recent review that of sixty-eight parricide cases, 69 percent of the offenders had a prior inpatient psychiatric hospitalization with diagnoses of psychosis (usually schizophrenia or schizo affective disorder); 74 percent had known criminal convictions; and 64 percent had been convicted of a violent crime.

STRANGER HOMICIDE

The killing of a person or persons by an individual unknown to the victim.

In 1993, for the first time in history, Americans were more likely to be killed by a stranger or unknown killer (53% of cases) than by a family member of friend. By 1996, the trend had reversed slightly with 49 percent of homicide victims killed by strangers (FBI 1998).

MASS MURDERS

The murder of several victims within a few moments or hours of each other.

Currently in the United States, there is approximately one mass murder per week, including public homicidal events in shopping malls, government offices, schools and random street shootings as well as families annihilated by a troubled parent or sibling. Although researchers have only begun to collect data on mass murders, certain commonalties have begun to emerge (Hickey 1991). The offenders are primarily white, male, and span a wide age range; they use semiautomatic guns and rifles to kill swiftly; and their victims are often but not always intentionally selected by the killer.

Those who commit multiple homicides appear to do so in an irrational effort to regain, even for a brief moment, a degree of control over their lives. To the observer, the severe mental imbalance behind these horrible acts is clear. To the killer, however, his or her thoughts and actions may make perfect sense, given his or her psychological disorientation. Feelings of rejection, failure, and loss of autonomy create frustrations that inevitably become overwhelming, and the murderer cultivates a psycho-pathological need to strike back.

SERIAL KILLING

An offender who kills over time. They usually have at least three to four victims, and their killing is characterized by a pattern in the type of the victims selected or the method or motives used in the killings.

Serial killers include those who, on a repeated basis, kill within the confines of their own home, such as a woman who poisons several husbands, children, or elderly people in order to collect insurance. They may operate within the confines of a city or a state, or even travel through several states as they seek out victims. Some murderers select their victims because of their status within their immediate surroundings such as vagrants, prostitutes, migrant workers, homosexuals, missing children, and single and often elderly women.

Some argue that anyone who kills, especially serial killers, must be mentally ill. However, the vast majority of serial killers are not only judged sane by legal standards, but are indistinguishable from non-offenders as they move about and within our communities.

The Death Dynamic

To better understand the homicide differential, the phenomenon of death in society should be examined. Definitions, descriptions, and interpretations of death have been around since the beginning of recorded time. There is no absolute explanation for death as each culture offers its own interpretation. Nevertheless, death is ingrained in an individual's beliefs, values, and thinking and determines how he or she experiences life. One's spiritual values of life are shaped by one's attitudes about death. Different views of death, as in different religions, influence the lives of those who hold those views. Attitudes about death are complex because death is so integral to human life that its finality without spirituality is difficult to accept.

Co-victims of homicide often express that they feel disconnected from the universe, explaining that all previous means of coping are no longer effective in light of the unfair death of a family member. Co-victims often relate instances of extreme anger and betrayal by God. For them, death due to homicide defies all that is meaningful in society. Responding to the special needs created by the death experience requires careful attention from caregivers.

The Impact of Homicide

There are always two parties to a death; the person who dies and the survivors who are bereaved . . .

-- Arnold Toynbee

In order to explore the impact of homicide on the lives of co-victims, the trauma, grief, bereavement, and their resultant impact on co-victims must be explored. Grief is a normal response to loss. The word "grief" signifies one's reaction, both internally and externally, to the impact of the loss. The termarises from the grave or heavy weight that presses on bereaved co-victims (Simpson and Weiner 1989). One's response to loss is not merely a matter of feelings, but a highly complex and deep-seated human response.

Grief can manifest itself in numerous ways (Worden 1991):

• Feelings: sadness, anger, guilt, self-reproach, numbness, and fatigue.



• Physical Sensations: hollowness in the stomach, tightness in the throat or chest, oversensitivity to noise, shortness of breath.



• Cognitions: disbelief, confusion, preoccupation, a sense of presence of the deceased.



• Behaviors: sleep or appetite disturbances, absentmindedness, social withdrawal, dreams of the deceased, crying, loss of interest in activities that previously were a source of satisfaction.



• Spiritual: searching for a sense of meaning, hostility toward God.

For those experiencing grief in the aftermath of criminal homicide (including deaths caused by drunk driving), the grief reactions are intensified because of the wounding or trauma inflicted by the death. Historically, the focus of caregivers has been on the co-victim's grief issues, often without considering the impact of trauma issues that may also be present. Without recognition of the traumatic components of the experience, co-victims have been provided with services and treatment that primarily emanate from the grief model. This often causes co-victims to feel uncomfortable and anxious because their type of grief is not addressed by current models of treatment (Spungen 1998). Spungen suggests that treatment and support to co-victims of homicide must be an amalgam developed from the fields of both trauma and grief. She notes "the co-victim's grief is different--not just complicated but different: a traumatic grief."

E. K. Rynearson, M.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Washington, conducted important and consistent work in recognizing that bereavement patterns experienced by individuals after having lost a loved one to homicide differed from those patterns experienced where the death was not sudden, violent, or transgressive. His observations have been consistent with some of the earlier work conducted by A. Adler and V. Frankl relative to bereavement and horrific death. His findings are also consistent with other current researchers such as Kilpatrick, Amick, and Resnick who identify the link between trauma and the experiences of the co-victim. Rynearson and Favell developed a clinical battery for screening patients for treatment based on separation and loss, which can be used by support group leaders in working with co-victims of homicide. They observed that separation distress is associated with the loss of the relationship because of the finality of the death while trauma distress is associated with the unnatural manner of dying. Additionally, along the way, Rynearson discovered the following:

Any one whose family member has been killed by a homicide will be changed. Homicide is a "change" that is, to some extent, dialectic rather than homeostatic. The internalized trauma and reenactment imagery will diminish with time but it will not go away. It will change from a horrific and private chronicle into a bearable narrative that can be shared and revised--but it will always be. The family member may reprocess the homicide and try to connect this homicidal narrative with the narrative of the family member before they were killed and their own ongoing narrative as well. The task of somehow weaving this thread of homicide into a coherent and balanced pattern is as impossible as it is inevitable. When something within or without resonates or pulls at that homicidal thread it will kindle an inner awareness of being torn or uneven. The subjective and internalized flaw is private. It is difficult to express through a standardized measure--perhaps impossible. However, this inner confound remains and can have long term effects. Relationships, values, life purpose, hope, and confidence in the future, spiritual stability--all these idiosyncratic supports may be reassessed and challenged by the homicidal experience (Rynearson and McCreery 1993).

Victim service providers must be aware of the aspects of traumatic grief (the emotional experiences, cultural and gender influences, and mental health issues) resulting in new strategies for treating the co-victim of homicide (Spungen 1998). To overlook or discount the importance of bereavement following homicide is to fail to understand the major impact of the murder upon family members and friends. Victim service providers need to be aware of this tremendous impact and take precautions in providing appropriate services that will not be harmful or destructive to co-victims.

Reactions of Homicide Co-Victims

Although many emotional responses are shared by family members when a loved one is murdered, each surviving family member will experience distinct emotional responses. In addition to the sudden, violent death of a loved one, co-victims may experience additional stress if the deceased was subjected to acts of torture, sexual assault, or other intrusive, heinous acts. They may have a constant need to be reassured that the death was quick and painless and that suffering was minimal. If the death was one of torture or of long duration, they may become emotionally fixated on what the victim must have felt and the terror experienced. They may fixate on the race of the offender to try to understand the motive behind the murder, and may develop a biased view of a certain race or culture based on the actions of the offender. If the offender was a family member or friend, co-victims may experience additional interfamilial discord as family members choose sides for support.

PLACEMENT IN THE FAMILY

Murder of a child. In the natural order of things, parents precede their child(ren) in death. The death of one's child is one of the least expected experiences in life. Parents serve as protectors for their child(ren). This sense of protectiveness often promotes parental guilt and self-blame. The feelings even occur when the deceased child is an adult.

The killing of a child is particularly complex when there are other small children in the family whose needs must be met as well. It is not uncommon for a parent (or parents) to idealize the deceased child, attributing qualities that are idealistic, not real. This can cause siblings to conclude that the "wrong child died."

Fathers often deal with their emotions by retreating into silence and denying the presence of intense emotions. This may be their way of remaining strong for the mother, and this motive may be misunderstood or interpreted as a lack of caring or concern. If the family structure incorporates stepparents, the roles and display of appropriate emotions may be even further complicated. Thebiological parent may feel that the stepparent could not possibly understand the type of pain he or she is feeling. This may lead to alienation of the stepparent in the grieving process.

Murder of a sibling. Younger brothers and sisters of murdered children are often unintentionally overlooked by parents who try to protect them from painful information and experiences. In addition to losing a sibling, they may also have lost their best friend. Parents simply do not have enough energy to deal with them. Initial community and extended family support usually focuses on helping the grieving parent, what they are feeling or what they need.

Siblings may worry about their own safety and possible death. They may become overly fearful of losing a parent or other sibling in the same manner. Many younger siblings have an extremely difficult time when they reach the age at which their sibling was murdered.

Adult siblings may worry that the stress of their sibling's murder may hasten their parents' deaths. They may also resent their parents' pre-occupation with the victim and their idealization of the deceased.

Murder of a spouse. The feelings and emotional needs of a surviving spouse will depend on the nature of the marital relationship. If there was discord or dissension, co-victims may suffer intense guilt feelings. If it was a loving partnership, the feelings of loss may be overwhelming. The age of the spousal co-victim will also play an important factor in the emotions of the co-victim. Elderly co-victims and younger co-victims may not do as well as the middle-aged co-victim (Steele 1992). Steele's study of sixty widows and widowers found that spouses between ages twenty and thirty-five faced significant financial stress and became exhausted with working, rearing grieving children, and attending to maintenance of the home and family. This anger is then followed by guilt. Murder of a young spouse also may leave the surviving spouse choosing never again to remarry because of the fear it will happen again. They may feel they have lost their future. Those sixty-six to eighty-five in the Steele study also experienced more stress than the middled-aged group. They may be displaced from their home because they are not able to care for themselves. They may have lost partners of many years and, with their lives so intertwined, feel that they are no longer needed or important.

Murder of a parent. Young surviving children naturally worry about who will care for them. Smaller children tend to experience the death as desertion since they have little ability to understand what has happened or to conceptualize death. They are angry because the parent was not the "superhuman" they envisioned. They wonder why the parent did not fight harder or run faster, and may blame the victim for his or her own death.

Traumatic death in the family is especially hurtful to children and youth. Bradach (1995) studied 181 young people aged seventeen to twenty-eight and found that those who had experienced a traumatic death in the family when they were children had greater depression, more global psychological stress, and lower individuation and separation from the family than those who had experienced more common losses. They also had more difficulty forming intimate relationships (Bradach and Jordan 1995).

For older or adult children, anger levels may increase because they feel their parent's death was not the dignified one that they deserved or expected. If the family was experiencing discord, children may feel intensely guilty there was not enough time to rectify the familial problems.

Common Problems Faced by Co-Victims

Co-victims themselves provide the most accurate information regarding their experiences during this period. They become experts in explaining their problems and needs. In addition to personal trauma, Parents of Murdered Children, Inc. (1989) lists eight additional problem areas co-victims must endure.

1. Financial considerations. Expenses related to funeral, burial, medical treatment, psychiatric care for family members, and other costs are all part of the aftermath experienced by co-victims. These considerations are grave and contribute in a major way to the continuing distress experienced.

2. The criminal or juvenile justice system. Co-victims of homicide have a vested interest in participating in the criminal or juvenile justice system and understanding the complex issues of a cumbersome legal system.

   When members of a homicide support group (Fairfax Peer Survivors Group) in Fairfax, Virginia, were polled about their needs during the legal process, the single most important issue for them was their ability to obtain information from the prosecutors, detectives, and other professionals. They--

   • Wanted to know exactly how, when, and why their loved one was murdered and who committed the murder.
   
   
   
   • Wanted to know if their loved one suffered.
   
   
   
   • Wanted to know the truth about the events of the death and elements needed to support the charge.
   
   
   
   • Expected to feel better if the case was successfully prosecuted.

   Discounting the family's contribution to a case discounts the pain of their victimization. Co-victims feel devalued when they are not allowed input into plea decisions and when they are barred from criminal or juvenile justice proceedings. They are distraught when the imposition of a technical rule, e.g., a "gag order" which prevents them from attending the trial, may in turn eliminate their last opportunity to do something for their loved one (Sobieski 1994).

3. Employment. A co-victim's ability to function and perform on the job is diminished. Motivation is sometimes altered. They experience emotional bursts of crying or losing their tempers. They are impatient with trivia. Having to explain or apologize can create additional stress. Some co-victims use work as an escape to avoid working through their grief. They resist dealing directly with their pain by placing it on hold while at work.
4. Marriages. It is common for marital partners to have difficulty relating, and they may even separate after a death due to homicide. (Divorces, however, are not as common as once believed.) Each partner may grieve differently. They may blame each other for the loss, particularly in the case of the death of a child. They may each wish to turn away from the memories that the other partner evokes. They are sometimes unable to help each other because they cannot help themselves.
5. Children. Parents often fail to communicate with their children by either ignoring them when they are preoccupied with their own issues or hoping to protect them from unnecessary trauma. The children, in turn, fear adding to their parents' pain and simply withdraw. Children who witness the killing of someone they love experience profound emotional trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder, and may not readily receive adequate intervention.

   Furthermore, young people who report having to perform tasks associated with the fatal injury, such as telephoning for police or emergency medical services, or responding to the immediate needs of the injured person or the perpetrator, are often traumatized. When the issue of blame or accountability for the death is not resolved through police investigation, children may re-examine their behavior, believing that if they had done something differently, they could have prevented the death. Without support and an opportunity to explore the feasibility of such alternatives, children often continue to unnecessarily blame themselves.

6. Religious faith. Questions for, anger at, and challenges to God surface regarding the reason for the death. How could a loving God allow it to happen? Where is the loved one? Some conclude, at least for a while, that "if there were a God, then God would not have let this happen. Since it happened, there must not be a God." Faithful co-victims seeking to understand sometimes look for answers from unorthodox sources. Over-simplistic comments and "answers" by clergy and church members sometimes create problems for co-victims who take their spiritual pilgrimage seriously.
7. The media. Many homicide co-victims are subjected to the intrusion of what they perceive to be an insensitive media. The competitive quest for sensational, fast-breaking news items may overridethe need for privacy of anguishing families who may be experiencing prolonged scrutiny, inaccurate reporting, and gruesome reminders of the violence associated with the death.



8. Professionals who do not understand. Co-victims report that too many professionals (police, court personnel, hospital personnel, funeral directors, clergy, school personnel, psychologists, and psychiatrists) demonstrate by their comments and actions that they do not fully understand the impact of death by homicide upon the remaining family members.