Title: NVAA Learning Activity: Chapter 12: Homicide
Series: Training Manual
Author: Office for Victims of Crime and National Victim Assistance Academy
Published: June 2002
Subject: organizational leadership
5 pages
7,400 bytes

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NVAA Learning Activity

Chapter 12: Homicide

INSTRUCTOR GUIDELINES

Key Concepts/Objectives to Emphasize in Instruction and Learning Activities:

1. Impact of homicide and traumatic grief. (12-9 to 12-12)
2. Core components of a sensitive and effective death notification. (12-15 to
12-18)
3. Practical approaches to assist surviving family members of homicide victims.
(12-19 to 12-21)

Objectives:

1. Identify the range of problems that co-victims of homicide might experience.
2. Practice responding to homicide co-victims's needs through role plays,
focusing on words that are most helpful.

Description of Activity and Faculty Guidelines:

Parents of Murdered Children identifies eight key problems that co-victims
might experience (with a "ninth problem" defined by Dr. Ted Rynearson). Each
of these "problems" is listed on the "Selecting Topic for Group Division"
worksheet. The instructor will cut these into strips, which students will pull from
a hat.

Students are divided into pairs of two. For each "problem," the instructor asks
students to role play their "problem," with their partner responding with words
and actions they feel are sensitive and helpful. For example:

News media: "I can't believe I heard about my brother's death over the radio
while driving home--I nearly crashed my car. Now, I have journalists camped
on my front lawn begging for an interview. They're the last people I want to talk
to now."

Then the role plays are reversed, with the student who acted the role of the
victim now acting the role of a helping professional.

Students should be instructed to write down words or comments that were
helpful, and not so helpful, on the student worksheet, and to share their
responses with their partner. The instructor can process worksheet responses in
the full group if time permits.

Can Be Utilized As:

__X__ Individual Activity
__X__ Small Group Activity
__X__ Large Group Activity

Anticipated Amount of Time Required: 15 Minutes

o 10 minutes for two five-minute role plays and student processing.
o 05 minutes to process student responses in the full groups.

RESOURCES NEEDED  (Please check all that apply:)

__X__ Tear sheets and felt pens
_____ VCR/monitor
_____ Overhead projector and screen/LCD and laptop
_____ Blank overhead transparencies and overhead pens
_____ Masking tape
_____ Index cards
__X__ Individual or group worksheets
__X__ Timer
_____ Other (please describe):

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SELECTING TOPIC FOR GROUP ACTIVITY

Make copies of these pages, and cut each "problem area" into strips. Each
student group will pull one strip from a hat. Please ensure that there are enough
strips to accommodate all groups.


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

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

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Employment. Co-victims' ability to function and perform on the job is
diminished. Motivation is sometimes altered. They can experience emotional
outbursts 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 experiencing their grief. They resist dealing
directly with their pain by placing it on hold while at work.

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Marriages. It is common for marital partners to grieve differently, and they may
even separate after a death due to homicide. (Divorces, however, are not as
common as once believed.) 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.

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Children. Parents often fail to communicate with their children either by ignoring
them when they are preoccupied with their own issues or by hoping to protect
them from unnecessary trauma. The children, in turn, are afraid of 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 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.

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Religious faith. Questions of, anger at, and challenges to faith 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." Co-victims seeking to understand sometimes look for answers from
unorthodox sources. Over-simplistic comments and "answers" by some clergy
and church members can create problems for co-victims who take their spiritual
pilgrimage seriously.

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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 override the need for privacy of anguishing
families who may experience prolonged scrutiny, inaccurate reporting, and
gruesome reminders of the violence associated with the death.

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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.

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Substance Abuse. Working with co-victims through the Separation and Loss
Services, Dr. Ted Rynearson estimated that 30 percent of his clients had
substance abuse problems (Rynearson and McCreery 1993).

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STUDENT WORKSHEET

RESPONDING TO CO-VICTIMS OF HOMICIDE

WORDS AND RESPONSES THAT WERE HELPFUL

WORDS AND RESPONSES THAT WERE NOT HELPFUL