experience of victimization. For example, as a result of
abuse by a parent, a child believes that all relationships
are potentially hurtful. The child then enters into all
subsequent relationships with a sense of mistrust and
an expectation that rejection and harm will soon fol-
low. The microenvironment that the child has created,
in turn, may lead to these expectations being fulfilled.
Thus, at the heart of the victimization experience is
the damage done to the victim’s sense of trust and his
or her ability to create a safe, attached relationship.
The betrayal of victimization is considered to be one
of the most difficult processes for humans to incorpo-
rate into their expectation of the world as being a
benign or benevolent place. Particularly, when victim-
ization is repetitive and ongoing, there is no opportu-
nity for the development of a secure base in any
attached relationship.
This damage to the attachment’s schema occurs
along with changes in other cognitive schemas. The
way in which the world is experienced and interpreted
is transformed by victimization exposure. Cognitive
schemas, particularly with the perception of relation-
ships, are transformed in negative ways. Roland
Summit was among the first to explain these changes
in cognitive schemas through his description of the
accommodation syndrome, wherein the experience of
victimization fixes and makes rigid subsequent inter-
pretations of reality.
The core cognitive schemas of relationship are all
profoundly influenced by the experience of victimiza-
tion. Finkelhor has summarized for a developmental
approach, in particular, how this damage is mediated
through four core conditions: (1) repetitive and ongoing
victimization occurs, (2) the victim’s core relationships
are altered, (3) victimization is added to other stressors,
and (4) victimization occurs during a critical develop-
mental stage. That is, if victimization is repetitive, if the
nature of the victim’s relationship with core attachment
relationships is damaged by the victimization, is added
on to other stressors, and occurs at a critical period,
then these serve as moderators that contribute to the
power of the victimization experience through the pow-
erful degradation of development processes.
In terms of critical developmental tasks that can be
affected by victimization, perhaps the most core cogni-
tive schema affected is that of the self. Early child devel-
opment requires the development of a sense of self. One
of the core functions of this self is the ability to manage
one’s emotions, physiological arousal, basic daily living
tasks, as well as managing and regulating affect. In par-
ticular, affect regulation is perhaps the most critical taskfor all humans. The experience of victimization may
have a particularly critical influence on children’s abil-
ity to regulate their emotional responding to the world.
Victimization occurring during adulthood has the effect
of undermining acquired competencies and forcing a
kind of psychological regression. A very typical experi-
ence in adult victimization is for the victim to lose sig-
nificant psychological developmental accomplishments
and regress to previous levels of dependence. There may
be a corresponding failure to be emotionally autonomous
and self-regulating. There is considerable research that
demonstrates that these experiences, moreover, have the
power to foreclose the future accomplishment of a
developmental task by the consequence of victims being
burdened by psychological symptoms and/or accommo-
dating to the victimization by a disengagement from
the social world and a lack of confidence in their own
self-efficacy.
As described by Finkelhor and Angela Browne, the
damage to the self also may include feelings of
stigmatization and powerlessness. The person may
feel responsible and to blame for what happened. For
example, the physically abused child and battered
wife may feel deserving of the abuse. Furthermore,
given the nature of the interpersonal relationship, the
victim may feel too ashamed to report the experience.
For example, an elderly person abused by an adult
child may feel too ashamed to report the experience.
Victimization also may be accompanied by a feeling
of powerlessness. The stalking victim, for example,
may feel a loss of control over his or her life.
As was previously noted, victimization is not usu-
ally an isolated event, and this is important in under-
standing the consequences of victimization. Finkelhor
suggests that there is an additive effect when victimiza-
tion occurs in the context of other stressors. He also
notes that if victimization occurs during a critical
period of development, it can interrupt successful task
resolution of a developmental stage. Finkelhor’s model,
defining the moderating effects of damaging context, is
a useful attempt at bringing understanding of the psy-
chological processes to the specific understanding of
the victimization effects. There is now an increasing
body of literature that does confirm most of Finkelhor’s
suggestions, particularly those having to do with multi-
ple victimizations and the cumulative effect of victim-
ization co-occurring with other stressors.
In summary, victimization is a frequent event with
profound consequences on human adjustment. To have
a more nuanced psychological understanding of vic-
timization, the interpersonal context of the experience836 ———VictimizationV-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:44 PM Page 836