After the second period ended on November 11, seven students from the Department of Human Psychology (Nakayama Seminar) and two third-year applicants gathered in front of Building No. 8 on the Yamate Campus to support victims at the Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters. and the Hyogo Victim Support Center.
In the spring semester, the Department of Psychology has already invited the director of the Victim Support Office (superintendent) as a lecturer to give a lecture on the current state of support for victims and the content of the support, using a period of judicial and criminal psychology in the spring semester.In other words, it is important to understand how deeply the victims and their families are traumatized by being involved in a crime, and how the victim support department of the police provides emotional recovery support and support to accompany the victims to hospitals and trials. In the lecture, I was told that I was doing counseling and that I was assisting with the cost of consulting with a lawyer.In response to this, I visited the support room this time, saw a counseling room that was actually used, and received a detailed explanation of the support content using a detailed leaflet.
In addition to the various psychological damage caused by the perpetrator, the victims and bereaved families of crimes are sometimes slandered and slandered by the mass media caused by crime reports.As a result, for example, women who have become victims of sexual crimes tend to feel remorse for walking alone in the dark at night in such flashy clothes. I was told that it is important to provide psychoeducation through counseling.Among them, I was able to know the procedure of deleting memories of crime victims by overwriting memories taught in cognitive psychology.In addition, specific standards for the goal of treatment for crime victims were clearly shown in the explanation.In addition, a counselor who is both a clinical psychologist and a certified psychologist told me that there are cases in which police officers who have heard about the circumstances of crime victims themselves become "injured by proxy" due to their tragedy, The trauma and stress experienced in the past can exacerbate the situation, so the support office works to provide support even in such situations.
Next, we visited the Hyogo Victim Support Center, a private organization.
The Hyogo Support Center is made up of 15 officers consisting of lawyers, doctors, and clinical psychologists, 3 secretariat staff, and 29 support staff.In addition to counseling by clinical psychologists, the support provided includes support for escorts to hospitals, police, and courts, and provision of information for free legal consultations by lawyers.Again, I was put into the counseling room and explained the details of the support.
[Student voice after the tour]
- I learned various measures and measures to recover from the emotional wounds caused by crime, as well as the consideration of the staff.When I learned that there are people who suffer from past incidents, I decided to consider not only recidivism prevention measures but also victim support when thinking about incidents.
- This time, the story that left an impression on me was about psychoeducation at a victim support counselor.It is difficult to forget the psychological support provided to the victims of the incident because the events at the time of the incident have flashbacks.However, when I heard that I would overwrite small memories and create a state where I could accept those experiences, and help them live a social life in a state as close as possible to what it was before the incident, it was very difficult and they worked while being close to the feelings of the victims. I felt that I was there.
- I learned that when interviewing victims, I should wear casual clothes to make them feel as friendly as possible, and I felt that I was able to help the victims more easily through that kind of clothing.I also learned that counselors at the Victim Support Center can take classes if they are 25 years old or older.
- I thought I had learned a lot about victim support in college.However, when I listened to the explanation of the support center, I had many questions, so I thought that there were many things I didn't know.The support provided by the police is mainly for immediate support after the victim, and the support provided by the public interest incorporated association is not only after the incident but also for trauma such as childhood. Learn the difference. I was able to.In providing support, I thought that consideration for supporting victims was not only for the victims, but also for the supporters of the victims.
Makoto Nakayama, Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology
⇒ Faculty of Psychology page
