L. Carson et Md. Macleod, EXPLANATIONS ABOUT CRIME AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS IN ETHNIC-MINORITY AND WHITE VICTIMS OF CRIME - A QUALITATIVE EXPLORATION, Journal of community & applied social psychology, 7(5), 1997, pp. 361-375
This study reports the findings of a qualitative analysis of ethnic mi
nority crime victims' causal explanations of crime. The analysis indic
ated that usage of ascriptions involving 'race' or 'racism' appeared t
o be associated with relatively poor psychological adjustment. Usage o
f racial explanations did not, however, appear to be related to the ty
pe of incident, the seriousness of the incident, or satisfaction with
the police response. It is suggested that crime explanations embodying
immutable aspects of the self, such as ethnicity, might prevent adjus
tment, whereas those incorporating mutable features of the self or cir
cumstances might act as effective coping strategies by allowing victim
s to perceive the incident as random or temporary and therefore unlike
ly to recur. This interpretation was supported by an analysis of the t
ypes of explanation utilized by distressed and non-distressed White vi
ctims in a matched control group. These findings are discussed in rela
tion to models of attributional activity, coping and psychological sta
tus. Finally, their practical applications are considered. (C) 1997 Jo
hn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.