Introduction

These crimes are seen as violations of self, that is, as events in which the individuals "self" is violated, and/or robbed of personally controlled. The violation increases in severity as the threat to self becomes more direct, culminating in the ultimate violation of homicide- the destruction of self.

Burglary

A burglary is an example of a crisis- inducing violation of the self. People usually regard their homes or apartments as representatives of themselves. In an important symbolic sense, their homes are extensions of themselves. Home is, in the most primitive sense, both nest and castle. Particularly in a densely populated, highly complex environment, it is the place that offers security. When the nest is befouled by a burglary, often it is not so much the fact that money or possessions have been taken that causes the distress. It is more that a part of the self has been intruded upon or violated.

Robbery

In robbery, a more complex violation of self takes place. While in burglary the victim is not directly involved, in robbery the violation of self occures in a more intimate encounter between the victim and the criminal. In this crime, not only is an extension of the self taken from the victim (property, money, etc) but she or he is also coercively deprived of independence and autonomy, the ability to determine one's own fate. Under threat of violence, the victim surrenders autonomy and control, and his or her fate rests unpredictably in the hands of a threatening other. This situation must have a profound ego impact.

Robbery with Physical Assault

Now let us go a step further on the scale of violation of self to assault and robbery. Here there is a double threat: the loss of control, the loss of independence, the removal of something one sees symbolically as part of the self- but now with a new ingredient. An injury is inflicted on the body, the envelope of the self. The external part of the self as well. This physical evidence reminds victims that they are forced to surrender their autonomy and also that they have been made to feel less than adequate. The physical injury is the visible reminder of their helplessness to protect and defend themselves.

Rape and Sexual Assault

In the crime of rape, the victim is not only deprived of autonomy and control and experiences manipulation and often injury to the envelop of the self, but also suffers intrusion of inner space, the most sacred orifice is breached; symbolically, they are much the same. Victims of sexual assault experience the assault as asexual. The threat to self is so direct and so extreme that survival alone is uppermost.

Homicide

This crime is unquestionably the ultimate violation of self. The self is destroyed and ceases to exist. For the survivors of the homicide victim, the victim's death is extremely stressful. Cross-cultural research indicates that the death of a family member or of a close friend is a stress of the greatest magnitude. The sudden and unpredictable loss of an important person often has profound effects on the survivor. Crisis intervention techniques not only benefit the survivor personally, but also lessen the degree of dysfunction.