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...
- In-Camera Testimony
- Evidence heard with the courtroom closed to the public and press, used for sexual offence trials and child witnesses to balance open...
- Institutional Betrayal
- Harm that occurs when an institution a person depends on for safety, such as a police force, a court, a school or...
- Primary Victimisation
- The direct physical, financial or psychological harm caused to a person by the criminal act itself.
- Re-Victimisation
- A new and separate offence committed against a person who has already been a crime victim, as opposed to harm generated by...
- Repeat Victimisation
- The empirical pattern in which a small proportion of people or locations experience a disproportionate share of violent incidents. Domestic violence shows...
- Tertiary Victimisation
- The diffuse harm a crime causes to a wider community or to society, including reduced trust in public safety, fear of crime,...
- Vicarious Trauma
- Psychological harm absorbed by people who are repeatedly exposed to another person's traumatic experience at close range, such as first responders, investigators,...
- Victim Allocution
- A narrower right than a victim impact statement: an opportunity for the victim to address the sentencing court directly, kept separate from...
- 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...
- Vulnerable Witness
- A witness classed as needing special measures because of age, disability, or the nature of the offence, most commonly a sexual assault...
- Witness Protection Programme
- A threat-graded scheme ranging from routine police advice to full relocation with a new identity, meant to stop intimidation from collapsing a...
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...
- Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Victimisation (UGC-NET Unit X)Further 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 Justice (UGC-NET Unit II)Harm the justice process itself adds on top of the offence, such as disbelief, repeated retelling, long delay, and cross-examination aimed at discrediting rath...
- 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...