Secondary Victimisation
Definition
Additional harm caused to a victim through the process of reporting and investigation, such as disbelief, insensitive questioning, or retraumatisation. Fear of secondary victimisation is a documented reason victims of sexual offences and domestic violence choose not to report, directly shaping the composition of official statistics.
- Cause
- Handling by investigators, officials, or the process itself
- Examples
- Disbelief, insensitive questioning, retraumatisation
- Effect on data
- Suppresses reporting rates for certain offence types
- Most documented in
- Sexual offence and domestic violence cases
Common questions
How does secondary victimisation distort official crime statistics?+
Victims who fear disbelief or insensitive treatment during reporting and investigation are less likely to come forward, so offences like sexual assault are systematically under-represented in official statistics compared to victimisation surveys that capture unreported incidents.
What practices are used to reduce secondary victimisation during interviews?+
Trauma-informed interviewing, specially trained officers, single points of contact, and private interview settings are common measures. Some jurisdictions also use pre-recorded video testimony to reduce the number of times a victim must recount the event.
Is secondary victimisation limited to police contact?+
No, it can occur at any stage of the process, including medical examination, court proceedings, cross-examination, and media coverage, wherever the victim experiences the response to their victimisation as harmful in itself.
Related terms
- Victim Impact Statement
- A written or oral account submitted by a victim (or victim's family) describing the physical, psychological, financial, and social effects of the...
- Repeat Victimisation
- The empirical pattern in which a small proportion of people or locations experience a disproportionate share of violent incidents. Domestic violence shows...
- Victimology
- The sub-field of criminology that studies crime victims: their characteristics, the victim-offender relationship, the impacts of victimisation, and the adequacy of legal...
- Attrition
- The progressive loss of cases as they move through the criminal justice system: from crime committed, to reported, to recorded, to prosecuted,...
- Counting Rules
- Administrative instructions that specify how agencies should convert incidents into statistical records: how to count multiple victims of one incident, how to...
- Cyber Victimology
- The study of victimisation that occurs through networked computers and digital platforms, including its distinct causes and consequences.
- Cyberstalking
- A persistent pattern of unwanted online contact, monitoring or threats directed at a specific person, carried out through email, social media, messaging...
- Disaster Victimology
- The branch of victimology concerned with identifying, supporting and compensating people harmed by natural, industrial or transport disasters.
- Image-Based Sexual Abuse
- The non-consensual creation, taking or distribution of intimate images, a term proposed in the 2010s to replace the misleading label revenge pornography.
- In-Camera Testimony
- Evidence heard with the public and press excluded from the courtroom, used to protect a witness's identity or reduce distress.
- Institutional Betrayal
- Harm that occurs when an institution a person depends on for safety, such as a police force, a court, a school or...
- Mass Victimisation
- Harm produced simultaneously in a large number of people by a single cause, such as a disaster, an act of war or...
Explained in these topics
- Foundations of VictimologyThe additional harm caused to victims by insensitive treatment from criminal justice agencies, the media, or social networks after the original offence. It can...
- Mass Victimisation and Cyber VictimologyAdditional harm caused not by the original offender but by the response of institutions, such as a platform, a police force or the media, to a victim's report...
- Official Crime Statistics
- Primary, Secondary and Tertiary VictimisationFurther harm caused not by the offender but by the subsequent response of institutions, such as the police, courts, media or health services, or by unsupportiv...
- Victim and Witness Participation in Criminal ProceedingsAdditional harm caused to a victim by the criminal justice process itself, for example through hostile cross-examination or repeated retelling of the offence.
- Victim Rights, Support, and the Impact of CrimeAdditional harm caused to victims by the institutional and social responses that follow the original crime. Sources include insensitive police questioning, adv...