Victim and crime factors associated with the development of crime-related post-traumatic stress disorder

This study examined the relationships between the development of Crime-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CR-PTSD) and selected victim and crime characteristics. The sample consisted of 391 adult female residents of Charleston County, South Carolina, of whom 294 were crime victims assessed for CR-PTSD. Comparisons of CR-PTSD positive (n=82) and CR-PTSD negative (n=212) groups found significant differences on the variables of current age, years since most recent crime, experiencing a completed rape, perceiving a life threat during a crime, and sustaining physical injury during a crime. No differences existed on other assessed victim or crime variables. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis found that life threat, physical injury, and completed rape each made significant individual contributions to explaining CR-PTSD. Hierarchical discriminant function analysis correctly classified 80.6% of the respondents. Rape, life threat, and physical injury had a synergistic effect on CR-PTSD in that victims whose crime history included all three elements were 8.5 times more likely to have developed CR-PTSD than those with none of the three elements. Rape was associated with CR-PTSD after controlling for the effects of violence and dangerousness, suggesting that rape has other elements important to the development of CR-PTSD.