Crime victimization and child well-being

This chapter reviews findings regarding the effects of crime on the well-being of victimized children and identifies what helps them on the road to recovery in the aftermath of their victimization. The chapter places these findings within the theoretical framework of a needs-rights model for child victims developed by the author elsewhere (Gal 2011). The model incorporates an empirical layer, based on the findings from the psychosocial literature described here, and a normative layer, based on relevant provisions from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Constructed of four needs-rights clusters of protection, best interests, control, and procedural justice, the model highlights diverse and multifaceted insights regarding the ways in which the well-being of children is affected by crime as well as by the legal processes that follow it. Such insights are relevant in shaping child-inclusive policies for processes that follow the victimization of children. The negative impacts of crime on children are surprisingly wide-ranging both in terms of the types of offenses that scar children and in the ways children are affected. The central strength-based findings reviewed in this chapter relate to control as a coping mechanism for children in stressful situations; children’s wishes to participate in legal processes even when “sensitive” issues are discussed; children’s high regard for fairness, respectful listening, and representation in formal processes; the importance of apology and forgiveness for the well-being of children and youths; and the central role of support networks for children coping with stress and victimization.