Criminologist: Victims should not be ‘pressured to forgive’

THE “resilience” of the victim must be recognised as a key to overcoming the trauma of crime, and victims should not be pressurised into feeling they needed to forgive, a leading Dutch criminologist has said.

Dr Jan Van Dijk, a professor and former president of the World Society of Victimology, told the annual conference of the Federation for Victim Assistance that resilience or “the bounce-back factor” has for too long been overlooked.

“In the old days we were far too involved in looking after trauma. We should help to empower people,” he said. People have a natural resilience and allied with this, a “post-traumatic altruism” where victims want to reach out to help other victims. This aspect has not been harnessed sufficiently, added Dr Van Dijk.