Homicide, Bereavement, and the Criminal Justice System in Texas, 2000

This study assessed the influence of the criminal justice system on the bereavement process of individuals who have lost loved ones to homicide. The primary question motivating this research was: Can the criminal justice system help to heal the harm of the bereaved's loss? The three main goals of this study were to examine: (1) bereaveds' perceptions of and experiences with the criminal justice system and its professionals, (2) the ways criminal justice professionals perceive and manage the bereaved, and (3) the nature of the association between the criminal justice system and bereaveds' psychological well-being. Data were obtained from in-depth interviews conducted in June through December 2000 with two different groups of people. The first group represented individuals who had lost loved ones to murder between 1994 and 1998 in one county in Texas (Parts 1-33). The second group (Parts 34-55) was comprised county criminal justice professionals (murder detectives, prosecutors, criminal court judges, victim's service counselors, and victim's rights advocates). For Parts 1-33, interviewees were asked a series of open-ended questions about the criminal justice system, including how they learned about the death and the current disposition of the murder case. They also were asked what they would change about the criminal justice system's treatment of them. The bereaved were further asked about their sex, age, race, education, marital status, employment status, income, and number of children. Additional questions were asked regarding the deceased's age at the time of the murder, race, relationship to interviewee, and the deceased's relationship to the murderer, if known. For Parts 34-55, respondents were asked about their job titles, years in those positions, number of murder cases handled in the past year, number of murder cases handled over the course of their career, and whether they thought the criminal justice system could help to heal the harm of people who had lost loved ones to murder. All interviews (Parts 1-55) were tape-recorded and later transcribed by the interviewer, who replaced actual names of individuals, neighborhoods, cities, counties, or any other identifiable names with pseudonyms.

本研究旨在评估刑事司法系统对因凶杀案失去至亲者的丧亲过程的影响。本研究的核心驱动问题为：刑事司法系统能否帮助抚平丧亲者因失去至亲所遭受的创伤？本研究的三大核心目标为考察以下三方面内容：(1) 丧亲者对刑事司法系统及其从业人员的认知与体验；(2) 刑事司法从业人员对丧亲者的认知与应对方式；(3) 刑事司法系统与丧亲者心理健康状况之间关联的本质。研究数据取自2000年6月至12月期间针对两组不同人群开展的深度访谈。第一组为1994年至1998年间在美国得克萨斯州某县失去至亲遭谋杀的个体（访谈内容对应第1-33部分）；第二组（第34-55部分）为该县的刑事司法从业人员，包括凶杀案侦探、检察官、刑事法庭法官、受害者服务专员以及受害者权益倡导者。针对第1-33部分的受访者，研究人员提出了一系列关于刑事司法系统的开放式问题，包括其获悉至亲死讯的方式、当前谋杀案的处理进展，以及他们希望如何改进刑事司法系统对自身的处置方式。此外，研究人员还询问了受访者的性别、年龄、种族、受教育程度、婚姻状况、就业情况、收入水平以及子女数量。进一步的问题涉及逝者在遇害时的年龄、种族、与受访者的关系，以及若已知的话，逝者与凶手的关系。针对第34-55部分的受访者，研究人员询问了其职位头衔、担任该职位的时长、过去一年经手的凶杀案数量、职业生涯中经手的凶杀案总数，以及他们是否认为刑事司法系统能够帮助抚平因失去至亲遭谋杀的人群所遭受的创伤。所有访谈（第1-55部分）均进行了录音，后续由访谈者进行转录，转录过程中以化名替换了所有真实的个人、社区、城市、县名及其他可识别信息。