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74 Fed. Probation 36 (2010)
Traumatized by Association: The Risk of Working Sex Crimes

handle is hein.journals/fedpro74 and id is 94 raw text is: Traumatized by Association: The Risk of Working Sex Crimes Shiloh A. Catanese, PsyD. Clinical Coordinator, Sharper Future PROFESSIONALS WORKING WITH the victims or offenders of crimes that result in trauma have the potential to be deeply affected by the stories and the images they are exposed to during their work. Vicarious, or second- ary trauma occurs in someone who is not the primary person experiencing the trauma. A trauma is described as an experienced or wit- nessed event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. This event causes the person to respond with intense fear, helpless- ness, or horror. Vicarious trauma occurs when a secondary person is exposed to the original victim or offender, likely in the course of their profession. In this case the person now referred to as the vicarious trauma victim can experience symptoms and feelings of trauma just by being exposed to the victim's pain or the offender's history of offending. By familiarizing themselves with the situations that cause vicarious trauma and the symp- toms that may occur, professionals regularly exposed to victims or offenders of crimes may prevent vicarious trauma development. The Who As we know, there are many people involved in the investigation, prosecution, and reha- bilitation of crimes with vulnerable victims, specifically sexual offenses. There are first responders, such as police officers, fire fight- ers, and emergency medical personnel, who encounter the victim when the crime is still fresh. They are on the scene to comfort the child who is developing a swollen black eye or the woman who is unable to describe her attacker because she is ashamed and sobbing. Victim advocates and forensic nurses are called out of bed in the middle of the night to go over the crime in detail with the victim and witness the physical damage inflicted. Investigators and forensic technicians collect the hundreds of images of child pornography from suspects' computers and book the evi- dence in necessary detail. Judges and attorneys who specialize in sexual assault cases also go over the narratives and images to make the best decision possible during the adjudication process. After the offender is convicted and pays his debt to society, he or she is released back into the community, where a supervi- sion officer monitors the offender's behavior. This officer often specializes in sex offender supervision and is tasked with reading all of the accounts of the sex offense. Ideally, the offender is referred to sex offender specific treatment and a mental health professional spends one to four hours per week with the offender digging deeper into the sexual offense as well as past offenses and traumas. At a minimum, six people are professionally exposed to one sexual offender's crime. This example does not include dispatchers, polyg- raphers, halfway house managers, professional trainees, jury members, social workers, or support staff of the above-listed players. Professionals who work with sex offenders or victims begin their careers with their own sets of issues, personalities, and past experi- ences. As all humans do, they have their own baseline of emotional stability. Some may be able to handle stress abnormally well and oth- ers may cry over spilled milk. If a person has been the primary victim of a trauma in his or her past, symptoms may resurface when faced with an offender or victim's traumatic situation. Often we do not recognize that we have experienced a trauma in our lives and it therefore goes unresolved. Similar situations or feelings of vulnerability may trigger trau- matic symptoms; however, the past traumas do not have to be similar in nature to evoke similar emotions. For example, a man who experienced abuse as a child and then served in a combat zone in war can start experienc- ing traumatic symptoms by witnessing a car accident years later. If none of his previous traumas were resolved, they may have been bubbling below the surface, waiting for one more traumatic event to occur before the symptoms exploded. We know that with pri- mary trauma, such as the above-mentioned Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) exam- ple, multiple traumas can build up and surface at any time. Resilience is an important factor in how a person will handle the exposure to a traumatic event. It is an innate buffer that allows people to compartmentalize work from the rest of life and, more specifically, the unpleasant situa- tions of work from the rewarding experiences. People who are particularly resilient have the ability to emotionally detach for a short amount of time while they perform their job duties. However, at some point they need to cope with the resulting negative feelings in a healthy manner. For example, a federal agent and former local police officer reported several primary and vicarious traumatic expe- riences (including the death of a partner) in which he was able to perform his duties correctly, go home after his shift, and sleep a full eight hours. Occasionally, he reported taking a few days off to process the events, but he always felt 100 percent when he returned to work. He never felt the need to cope with alcohol or risky behavior (as many people do) 36 FEDERAL PROBATION Volume 74 Number 2

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