Turmoil and Numbness
Survivors report suffering an initial phase of shock and confusion. The shock at receiving the information of the murder is experienced both mentally and physically. Typically, the survivor feels unable to accept the news of the death and even less able to comprehend the murder. After a rush of sensory reactions which accompany the adrenaline response to the news, many survivors collapse into a state of stunned affect and physical exhaustion.
But that paints too predictable a picture. In fact, the feelings aroused by the devastating news, and the way these show themselves in the survivor's behavior, vary considerably from one person to another, so that there is a wide range of normal responses in thinking, feeling, and behavior. All of the following are typical survivor reactions during the acute stages of crises: preoccupation with the survivor's personal loss; horror about the suffering that the murder victim may have suffered; a need to know every detail of the victim's death; attacks of panic; a fixation on maintaining a day-to-day routine; though this may be shattered at times by outbursts of intense emotion; restlessness and insomnia; an inability to concentrate; flashbacks to the memory of receiving the death notification or the memory of, or an imagined picture of, the crime itself; rage at the assailant; fear for one's own life or that of other loved ones; self-blame about something the survivor did or did not do to prevent the murder; hostility towards everyone who cannot bring the victim back to life; and utter hopelessness and helplessness.
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A Unique Stressor: The Criminal Justice System
In the case of murder, the survivor becomes involved with the criminal justice system. Most survivors turn to the criminal justice system for a special kind of emotional support, as well as practical support in their passion to see the assailant apprehended, prosecuted, convicted, and punished.
It is particularly from the impassioned survivors that the justice officials hear not from those who are numbed or depressed. The initial reactions of the vocal survivors may often seem fueled by feelings of revenge that may not be the noblest of human emotions, but it is certainly an understandable, even legitimate feeling in the wake of murder. A problem arises, however, when outsiders like the criminal justice professionals are able to perceive only vengefulness in the survivors, and miss the other feelings at work, feelings of wanting to restore a just order to the world, an order that has been so badly violated by the murder, and feelings that it is important to do something about the crime as a way to combat their sense of helplessness.
Those who see only the survivors' anger are often put off ("frightened" may be more accurate) by its intensity. That may help to explain why the criminal justice system is often unresponsive to homicide victims' survivors. That unresponsiveness is sensed far less often in law enforcement officers, according to many survivors, than in the prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, and the others, at least in that majority of cases that result in an arrest and prosecution.
