When someone discharges a firearm in an act of violence, this affects the lives of multiple people within a community. One successful model for addressing the impacts of crimes on a community—and specifically those related to firearms crime—is deployed in Washington state by the nonprofit organization Victim Support Services. The agency works in partnership with local law enforcement and other service agencies to provide services to a geographic zone surrounding Seattle, Washington, and other counties to the north and west. The mission is to support victims of crime through advocacy, education, and awareness.

Victim Support Services provides successful programs to the community, and the foundations for this success are lessons learned from experience, applied to partnerships, trauma-informed care, and community restoration. Police agencies are aware of the increasing need to focus on the issue of gun violence. A congressional survey, commissioned in 2015, found that, in the United States over a 15-year period, there were 317 mass shootings, killing 1,554 victims and wounding another 441 victims.¹ Notably, the congressional report did not consider the myriad firearms incidents that affect communities every day.

Forming Partnerships in Advance of a Crisis

The professional relationships that law enforcement develops with victim service providers before a crisis are critical to the rapid recovery of a community that experiences firearms violence. When law enforcement responds to a firearms crime, the usual policing actions follow with investigation and referral for prosecution. The unfortunate reality is that the criminal justice system continually comes up short in this area.² There is always something for police agencies to focus on next, another call or another investigation. Violence impacts communities in ways that have ripple effects across years and in ways that police resources cannot attempt to influence. However, strong partnerships with victim services agencies can help manage the complexity of these situations.

An effective victim services agency provides targeted support devoted to buffering many of the negative effects of victimization in a connected fashion that goes beyond the traditional model of victim services interactions.³ Victim services experts explain that crime and victimization typically have a profound impact on those affected, and—while developments within their cases, such as an arrest, prosecution, or conviction, can assist in rebuilding a sense of control—victims report feeling like “outsiders” in the criminal justice system and process.⁴

Many police agencies and prosecutors’ offices have dedicated crime victim advocates, but they are predominately assigned to sexual and domestic violence cases. Further, the volume of cases presented to these resources overwhelms the agencies’ ability to provide personalized service at the level desired by victims.⁵ The work that victim advocates do helps to span the organizational boundaries of criminal justice agencies. Victim services attend to the needs of those who are often left frustrated, harmed, and at a disadvantage in understanding how the justice system works.⁶

As seen in Figure 3, research has found that “victim workers are well situated to buffer, filter, translate, diffuse, and mediate between two potentially conflicting domains.”⁷ Additionally, the study’s authors report that the nature of the relationship that a victim support provider has with the victim, combined with the lack of associated decision-making authority by the support provider, permits a stronger empathetic bond. This bond allows the advocate to focus on hearing the concerns of the victim, providing and clarifying information, and assisting victims in feeling empowered within the criminal justice system. The model presented in Figure 3 most closely represents how Victim Support Services has aligned strategy to work with law enforcement agencies and provide benefits to victims of crime. Depending on the jurisdiction, Figure 2 provides a window into how some police agencies still desire to work, but, as noted by academics, this structure might not be in the best interest of victims.

There is a critical need to have strong partnerships in advance of firearms violence. Through the development of strong relationships among advocates, mental health providers, law enforcement, other criminal justice agencies, the media, and schools, communities can create a more resilient future in the face of one-on-one gun violence and other traumatic events.⁸

Trauma-Informed Therapy for Communities

It takes years for a community to recover from firearms violence. In that time, law enforcement and criminal justice agencies have generally moved along to the next investigation or the next case. Victims and witnesses who experience or are affected by firearms crimes need to have an outlet to process and explore their emotions. Individually, those who suffer firearms crime experience trauma with symptoms such as difficulties with emotional control, emotional numbness, dissociation, depression, struggling with a sense of self or the world, and substance abuse.⁹ By using a trauma-informed approach, victim services agencies and criminal justice partners can begin to understand the physical, social, and emotional impacts that victims experience and how to encourage proper self-care for advocates and staff who handle victims’ needs. The Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center, hosted by the Office of Justice Programs, calls for a focus on victim-centered practices incorporating three approaches:

1. 1. realizing the prevalence of trauma,
   2. identifying how trauma impacts those involved, and
   3. applying the acquired knowledge into strategies to be carried out.¹⁰

Skill training and peer support are among the key strategies used to help deal with the challenges faced by victims.¹¹ In cases involving firearms, victim advocacy skill training can consist of office-based therapeutic services and peer support can take the form of a therapeutic retelling support group for loved ones of homicide victims. School shootings, mass shootings, and one-on-one firearms violence can all lead to the direct and indirect exposure of trauma for witnesses and survivors, with effects that often go ignored.¹²

The leading treatment for victims who survive firearm violence employs
trauma-informed therapy, broken into five key disciplines and led by the overarching goal of creating safety for victims.

The five disciplines of trauma-informed therapy are cognitive restructuring, skills training, psychoeducation, peer support, and contained exposure. Roger D. Fallot, PhD, of the Yale School of Medicine, and Maxine Harris, PhD, adjunct professor at Dartmouth Medical School, define safety as victim advocacy that is culturally, emotionally, and physically safe while facilitating a sense of self-awareness for where the victim falls on this scale. Other critical factors to trauma-informed approaches include promoting transparency and trustworthiness, allowing victims to make choices that respect their dignity, providing for healing that is supported by a sense of collaboration, and empowering victims to recognize their strengths.¹³

Many aspects of trauma-informed care focus on human trafficking and sexual assault victims.¹⁴ The experience of Victim Support Services has shown that this approach is also successful in addressing the needs of victims of firearms crime, including victims of mass violence incidents.

At a mass violence symposium held in Washington in 2017, attendees heard from Michelle Pauley, a therapist who worked for Victim Support Services at the time. She assisted in efforts to respond to firearms violence after an October 2014 incident at Marysville-Pilchuck High School; a triple homicide in Mukilteo, Washington, in 2015; and the immediate aftermath of a mall shooter in Burlington, Washington, in September 2016. Pauley spoke about the benefits of a trauma-informed approach to therapy, pointing out that successful interventions include trauma-informed care. Pauley explained that firearm violence in a school setting creates a specific type of trauma in victims that builds and draws upon earlier trauma. Experience in responding to mass shootings at schools and with school-age children outside of the school has demonstrated a critical need to serve both those students directly affected and those who will be attending the school in the coming years. In addition, even when violence occurs outside the confines of the school, the victims’ fellow students are affected. Underlying mental health issues can be exacerbated by this violence, leading to additional physical violence in a school and suicidal ideation, that, if not adequately dealt with, can lead to further tragedy within a community. Therapists who specialize in victim services tell us that grappling with the “why” is especially tricky for victims when the perpetrator is no longer there, although it also remains difficult even if the perpetrator survives and is held accountable through the criminal justice system.¹⁵

Some organizations have adopted successful approaches specific to schools and students. One such initiative is the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) program, based out of California. The CBITS website describes the organization as originating from a team of clinician-researchers from the RAND Corporation, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Unified School District. The CBITS program focuses specifically on school-based involvement and interventions. The program is designed to “reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and behavioral problems, and to improve functioning, grades and attendance, peer and parent support, and coping skills.”¹⁶

Providing a Path to Recovery with an Eye on Prevention

The goal of community collaboration and partnerships within the victim services and criminal justice fields of work is to help a community restore feelings of safety in the wake of firearms violence. Law enforcement is well served to prioritize investigation of the incident, followed closely by the focus on meeting victims’ needs, to promote community healing. Experience of victim services agencies has shown that, after acts of gun violence in schools, advocacy efforts should focus on identifying potential signs of suicidal ideation and other emotional difficulties by the students.¹⁷ On the positive side, as many affected communities have found, students often have a built-in natural resilience that helps them recover from traumatic events.

Training first responders to contact appropriate mental health and victim advocacy resources in the wake of gun violence incidents provides immediate benefits to children or teens who have witnessed or survived violence. Needs of the victims may include crisis intervention, psychiatric support services, and case management.¹⁸ Additionally, police chiefs should recognize that these types of incidents can also impact staff and advocates who serve the victims in these scenarios. Self-care is critical for the staff of organizations supporting the community’s recovery and restoring safety.

Conclusion

Victims and witnesses to firearms crimes may need services such as therapy, emergency financial aid, assistance navigating the legal system, support groups, and more as they navigate the emotional aftermath of victimization. In 2018, Victim Support Services assisted more than 7,000 people through individual advocacy, courtroom support, crime victim compensation, media intervention, and more. Of the 7,000 people the agency provided direct services to, more than 3,500 were victims or those affected by firearms crimes. Working as allies with victim advocates has enabled law enforcement to provide more comprehensive services and enhanced referral options to individuals who might need it the most. Forging strong partnerships with victim services agencies has served to strengthen the ability of police to better understand and meet some of the more complex needs of crime victims. By establishing partnerships, providing trauma-informed care, and fostering community restoration, law enforcement and victim services agencies can work together to restore their communities in the wake of firearms violence.d

Notes:

¹ William J. Krouse and Daniel J. Richardson, Mass Murder with Firearms: Incidents and Victims, 1999–2013 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2015).

² Louise Ellison and Vanessa E. Munro, “Taking Trauma Seriously: Critical Reflections on the Criminal Justice Process,” The International Journal of Evidence & Proof 21, no. 3 (July 2017): 183–208.

³ Julie L. Globokar, Edna Erez, and Carol R. Gregory, “Beyond Advocacy: Mapping the Contours of Victim Work,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 34, no 6. (March 2019): 1198–1223.

⁴ Stephanos Bibas, “Transparency and Participation in Criminal Procedure,” New York University Law Review 81, no 3. (June 2006): 911–966; Stephanos Bibas, The Machinery of Criminal Justice (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012); Edna Erez, Julie L. Globokar, and Peter R. Ibarra, “Outsiders Inside: Victim Management in an Era of Participatory Reforms,” International Review of Victimology 20, no 1. (January 2014): 169–188.

⁵ Jacquelyn W. White, Holly C. Sienkiewicz, and Paige Hall Smith, “Envisioning Future Directions: Conversations with Leaders in Domestic and Sexual Assault Advocacy, Policy, Service, and Research,” Violence Against Women 25, no. 1 (January 2019): 105–127.

⁶ Globokar, Erez, and Gregory, “Beyond Advocacy.”

⁷ Globokar, Erez, and Gregory, “Beyond Advocacy.”

⁸ Michelle Pauley, “Mass Violence: Lessons from the Field” (symposium, Victim Support Services, Everett, WA, March 2017).

⁹ Roger D. Fallot and Maxine Harris, “The Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM): Conceptual and Practical Issues in a Group Intervention for Women,” Community Mental Health Journal 38, no 6. (December 2002): 475–485.

¹⁰ Office for Victims of Crime Training and Technical Assistance Center (OVC TTAC), “Using a Trauma-Informed Approach.”

¹¹ Fallot and Harris, “The Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM).”

¹² Lydia Furman, “Firearm Violence: Silent Victims,” Pediatrics 142, no. 4 (October 2018): e20182060.

¹³ Fallot and Harris, “The Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (TREM).”

¹⁴ OVC TTAC, “Using a Trauma-Informed Approach.”

¹⁵ Pauley, “Mass Violence.”

¹⁶ The Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools website.

¹⁷ Pauley, “Mass Violence.”

¹⁸ Furman, “Firearm Violence.”