Attributions and adjustment in victims of crime

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine whether attributions can effect adjustment in victims of crime. Subjects were one-hundred and thirteen crime victims from three cities in Scotland. Victims had experienced a crime such as assault, assault and robbery, breach of peace, vandalism, fireraising or theft. The interviews included recall of these incidents, completion of two questionnaires (The General Health Questionnaire-12 and The Life Orientation Test) as well as responses to open-ended questions and a forced-choice attribution question. The independent variables were selected from an attributional model which examined the external attribution, other-blame, which refers to blaming others for a negative event. The independent variables included situational variables [(i) the presence of another person at the event, (ii) the type of relationship between the victim and the offender (iii) and the perceived severity of the event] and a personal characteristic (optimism). The dependent variables were the other-blame and the adjustment measures. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that other-blame was not a significant predictor of adjustment and that the situational variables and optimism were not associated with an increase in other-blame. However, the severity of the crime and optimism were significant predictors of adjustment levels. Although this research shows minimal support for the other-blame attributional model, the results support other theories, as well as having implications for clinical intervention. Methodology limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.