Victim Services and Trauma-Informed Practice Flashcards

A trauma-informed approach to working with crime victims primarily means:

Answer: Designing services to avoid inadvertently retraumatizing clients through organizational practices

Trauma-informed practice focuses on organizational and individual behaviours that prevent re-traumatization. It does not mandate a specific service sequence, but it does require that every interaction—including intake, documentation, and referral—be conducted with an awareness of trauma's effects.

Under BC's Victims of Crime Act, victim service workers are required to provide victims with information about:

Answer: Their rights under the legislation, including the right to information about the justice process

The Victims of Crime Act requires that victims be informed of their rights—including the right to receive information about the status and progress of their case. Sharing accused criminal histories or predicted sentences goes beyond the victim services mandate and may breach privacy legislation.

Which of the following best describes 'secondary victimization'?

Answer: The additional harm a victim experiences through insensitive or inadequate responses from systems or individuals

Secondary victimization refers to harm caused not by the crime itself but by subsequent interactions with justice, health, or social systems that are dismissive, disbelieving, or procedurally burdensome. It is a core concept in victim services training.

When a domestic violence victim recants their statement, a victim services worker should FIRST:

Answer: Explore the victim's safety concerns and reasons for recanting without judgement

Victim-centred practice requires exploring the reasons behind a recantation—which often include safety fears, financial dependency, or coercion—before any other action. Pressuring a victim or making legal threats undermines trust and can increase danger.

The 'activation' phase of trauma response, sometimes called 'fight-flight-freeze', is most accurately described as:

Answer: An automatic physiological response triggered by perceived threat

The fight-flight-freeze response is an involuntary neurobiological reaction mediated by the autonomic nervous system. Understanding this helps victim services workers avoid misinterpreting non-linear or seemingly inconsistent victim behaviour as dishonesty.

A victim services worker receives a disclosure of child abuse from an adult client describing their own childhood experience. In BC, this triggers:

Answer: An obligation to discuss reporting options with the client without a mandatory report, unless a child is currently at risk

BC's Child, Family and Community Service Act mandates reporting of a child currently in need of protection. Historical abuse disclosed by an adult who is no longer a child does not trigger the same mandatory reporting obligation—though workers should discuss options and assess whether any children are currently at risk.