Narratives of (In)Justice
How victims 1 review their self-medication using alcohol and other drugs (AOD), whether licit or illicit, is a significant feature of theirâand ourâunderstanding of recovery. Victimology 2 is concerned with exploring the reflexive experience of the victim; and there is a growing body of work that is focused on how people who have experienced various types and incidents of victimisation develop strategies or remedies that may assist their progression from victimhood. In this regard, the relationship between AOD use and victimisation is a matter of longstanding criminological interest (Jacobsen et al. 2001; Logan et al. 2002). However, the role of self-medication in shaping or influencing reflexive responses to victimhood, victim recovery and the survivor narrative is ripe for investigation (Morrison et al. 2011). Much scholarly interest in this matter is focused on a simple binary approach that more or less assumes that self-medication is indicative of non-recovery, and therefore the less consumption, the more recovery. Thus, if victims are not improving themselves sufficiently or constructively, they are self-medicating and failing to build the necessary tools for recovery.
This book addresses this issue and adds new nuances to this discourse. The survey research carried out for this book shows that there is indeed an increase in AOD consumption after victimisation. However, this book also draws upon interviews with victims and two focus groups with counsellors to explore and link the victimâs reflexive engagement with active and passive recovery and validation in its many forms. As revealed through our analysis of these interviews and case studies, the binary does not reflect the reality of victims; the assumption that the use of AOD is delaying of or destructive to recovery is not universally correct.
In this book, we are distinguishing the victim narrative from a victim careers perspective. What do we mean by narrative? As explored in Chapter 6, everyone is involved in what Giddens (1991) describes as a âreflexive project of the self.â Every project is unique, comprised of a relation with significant events and the charting of a course that permits engagement with and/or a reappropriation of desires, interests and aspirations. As Giddens and others have pointed out, the way people engage in this reflexive work involves some standard tropes or formulaic storylines concerning how events are plotted and thematised or given meaning.
As is well-known, self-medication is often an adaptive measure taken by victim-survivors in temporary or indefinite support of onto-existential necessities. Giddens (1991, p. 180) notes that âtherapy is an expert system deeply implicated in the reflexive project of the self.â He adds that it is âa methodology of life planningâ that may either âpromote dependence or passivityâ or âpermit engagement and re-appropriationâ (p. 180). In turning to AOD use after trauma, individuals may qualify or amend the view of their own recovery narrative or way forward. Taking note of what Giddens (1986) maintains about active agentsâthat is, that people are situated actors who try to manipulate affordances, or structural ladders, in response to their situationâour approach is to provide a nuanced account of victim-survivor careers by way of the subjectâs reflection.
The tools and pace of recovery are those chosen by each individual. Self-medication may serve the purpose of dulling or displacing engagement, akin to taking time out from the work of recovery. It may be instrumental and a necessary antecedent or co-requisite of a unique recovery path, and thus ought not to be dismissed. That is to say, and as we shall see in Chapters 5 and 6, self-medication is a strategy deployed by victim-survivors that at turns engages and disengages them in their proactive efforts to integrate their daily habits on a pathway according to an affirmative belief. Unpacking their partaking of a recovery narrative is of particular importance for our understanding of their recovery. In sum, an assessment of the views of both victims and counsellors on AOD self-medication suggests the need for this more nuanced account. Narratives of survival emerge from the accounts captured in this research.
The Self-Medicating Victim
AOD use and misuse has been of longstanding interest to criminologists and policymakers because it is concurrent with crime, delinquent behaviour and âdisorderlyâ conduct (Goldstein 1985; Dingwall 2005; AIC 2006; Bennett and Holloway 2009; SAPOL 2010). AOD use may well be directly linked to thrill-seeking or other behaviours that are criminalised (Hovarth and Zuckerman 1993). In turn, early childhood trauma is related to thrill-seeking and this is related to AOD consumption. Early trauma predicts not only possible transit to the criminal justice system as an offender, but also future victimisation (Smith 2017).
There has been far less investigation of AOD consumption in victimology, but the picture emerges as follows. It is well known that self-medication, whether through alcohol, licit or illicit drugs, is linked to victimisation, especially unresolved trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Frieze et al. 1987; Ullman 2003; Morrison et al. 2011; Jordan 2013). A handful of empirical studies internationally have examined the experiences of victims in relation to their substance or alcohol use or abuse (Jacobsen et al. 2001; Logan et al. 2002; Grayson and Nolen-Hoeksema 2005; Schuck and Widom 2001; Ullman 2003; Ullman et al. 2007). There is a link between victimisation, mental health problems and AOD use (Dore et al. 2012; Kaysen et al. 2007; Morrison et al. 2011; Resnick et al. 2007). AOD use is associated with a range of concurrent risks related to the health, safety and security of victims (Morrison et al. 2011). For instance, victims of trauma will experience greater vulnerability to drug crime deprivations (Laslett et al. 2015; see also Kaysen et al. 2007; Morrison et al. 2011).
We are beginning to learn more about the use of AOD as a coping strategy. Including AOD use, victims of crime cope with PTSD by turning to a variety of mechanisms. As self-medication, AOD is explored as a means of disengagement (Flynn and Graham 2010; Guggisberg 2010; Morrison et al. 2011). To dull or defer engagement or in the modulation of vulnerabilities (Khantzian 2009), self-medication is adopted by traumatised individuals to manage their daily routines and goals. Through our fieldwork, we have collected data that suggests that AOD consumption following victimisation increases and is more frequent (de Lint et al. 2017).
It is known that, as with many social problems, the nature of the social support and specialised community support networks is crucial to victim assistance (Budde and Schene 2004; Latta and Goodman 2011; Liang et al. 2005; Lugton 1997). 3 There is a positive link between social support networks and violence and victimisation (see Budde and Schene 2004; Murray and Graybeal 2007). How formal and informal support networks function to reduce the prevalence of behaviour that leads to victimisation, revictimisation or future criminal behaviour (Latta and Goodman 2011; Murray and Graybeal 2007) is a matter of some importance on which current research hopes to shed light (de Lint et al. 2017). The...