The Ripple Effect of Crime

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If you follow the news at all—on TV, newspapers, social media—you are aware of crimes perpetrated both at home and in faraway places. You might read them, feel a pang of grief for the victim or a flare of rage at the villain. But our fast-moving media often gives us only a glimpse of the crime itself and then the news cycle is on to the next crime.

Most of the time, the aftereffects of crime aren’t acknowledged. It’s not because those reporting the news are bad people. There’s just so much crime and only so many minutes in the day. Part of it may also be our own viewing habits. In these days of instant connection with a single click, I think our attention spans have become shorter. We read a news story and then we’re on to the next.

But every crime has aftereffects. Some are more widespread than others. I call these “ripples.” A pebble tossed into a pond makes a small ripple. A larger rock makes a bigger ripple. But there’s always a reaction. It can be psychological, physical, or financial. It can affect only the victim or it can touch their family and friends. The news rarely focuses on these aftereffects, but for me—both as a writer and as someone who’s been touched by these ripples—it can be life changing.

Acknowledging these life-changing ripples gives depth to the characters of a story. And in real life, it can help survivors deal with their trauma.

In a basic example, a father is murdered in a random shooting on his way home from work. His family and community mourn. There will be a funeral and speeches. There might be flowers or teddy bears left at the scene. But when the speeches are over, when the flowers have died and the teddy bears cleared away, the victim’s family is left to pick up the pieces. The victim was the primary breadwinner for the family. Now there is no income. If the family was at the poverty line prior to the murder, they might not even be able to afford a funeral.

A family who’d been getting by paycheck to paycheck might find themselves homeless. Even a middle-class family might have to sell their home and move somewhere smaller and probably a lot less nice. In either case, the surviving spouse must find a way to pay the bills amidst her grief. The kids will need to depend on free lunches and other charity at school and the other kids can be cruel about such things. If there were any savings or college funds, they’ll be used for daily expenses. The children will no longer be able to go to college, their entire future compromised.

An entire family can be bankrupted. Those financial ripples go on to cause other trauma—shame, fear, hunger. No one steps up to pay for this family. The cops aren’t responsible. The city isn’t responsible.

The only one responsible is the person who committed the murder and, statistically, if they are caught, they’re unlikely to be sentenced in a way as to bring peace to the family. The family suffers for years for the actions of a single murderer.

There are other kinds of ripples, of course. Here’s a more detailed example: A psychologist is nearly killed by a client while trying to keep the client from hurting/killing everyone in their place of work.

The client is angry because his court-ordered therapy required him to be on time for the therapy sessions. He’s missed several and his probation has been revoked.  He’s going to jail and he’s filled with rage. If he’s going down, he’s going to take everyone with him.  He sets the practice’s building on fire in an attempt to smoke out the therapists and other clients there for treatment.  He’s waiting in the lobby for the occupants to exit—armed and ready to cause real pain.  Occupants and therapists are huddled behind doors barricaded with desks and chairs so that the client can’t get in to hurt them.  Smoke is spreading. They are terrified.

Only two people have not been able to retreat behind closed doors—the owner of the practice and one of his therapists.  The owner confronts the rage-filled client, but the owner is a man of small stature and the angry client is over six feet tall and muscular—and armed with knives.  This isn’t going to end well.

Luckily the other therapist hasn’t been seen.  He’s standing in the shadows, frantically trying to think of what he should do.  He’s got martial arts experience and wrestled in high school but that was nearly twenty years before.  Luckily his skills come back to him.  He attacks the much-larger client, taking him down, pinning him to the floor—and somehow he holds the man down while the fire department arrives to put out the fire.  The firefighters then hold the client down until the police arrive.

Crisis averted.  For the moment.

The client is arrested.  You’d think he’d go to jail for a long time, considering he’s committed arson and attempted murder.  But he’s sentenced to only thirty days in jail.

Thirty days.

And, as he’s dragged away from the courtroom, he turns to the therapist who’d wrestled him to the floor and threatens the man and his family.

Ripples ensue.

The therapist is traumatized but doesn’t realize it yet.  It hasn’t quite sunk in and won’t for years.  He’s just getting through each day.  His first action is to quit his job, because it’s not the first time his life has been threatened by a client.  It’s the third.  He’s got a wife and two young daughters and he’s afraid the next time he won’t be so lucky.

He’s just a dissertation away from his doctorate, but he walks away from that too.  He can’t bear to think about the field of therapy now.  Every client is a potential threat.

His career as a therapist is over.  He was a good therapist.  He helped a lot of people.  But now, the world is missing one good therapist and anyone who might have come to him cannot.  The remaining therapists will have to take on more clients.  These therapists will now have to work harder, longer.  Clients have lost an ally in their recovery.

All because one rage-filled client got violent when faced with the consequences of his own actions.

The therapist’s wife is also affected.  Besides the fear that never quite subsides—she’d come so close to losing the love of her life—she is now the sole breadwinner because the trauma runs far deeper than either husband or wife are aware.  PTSD is an insidious condition, affecting everyone a little differently.  For the therapist, it’s going to be several years before he’s ready to tackle a structured job in public.  With people who might be threats.  When he’s able to, he thrives once again, but there’s always the knowledge that an attack can come from anywhere at any time.  He’s always vigilant. Continuous vigilance is physically and mentally exhausting.

All because one rage-filled client got violent when faced with the consequences of his own actions.

The therapist and his wife are afraid of the rage-filled client’s threats, that after his thirty days in jail, the man will follow through and come after the therapist, his wife, and his two young daughters. They sell everything and move. Start all over again in an uncertain economy. More ripples. The family moves several more times, trying to find that new start. Their children’s lives are disrupted and their home not as stable as it once was.

There are financial ripples. Money is very tight. One of their children is sick, but knows that Mom and Dad are stressed, so she doesn’t say anything. The child gets worse and worse until she finally admits how sick she is. The parents now feel guilt on top of everything else.

The therapist becomes a teacher and tells his students not to become therapists. It’s too dangerous. (Which is true, in his experience.) The world may lose other good therapists before they can even begin their journey. On the other hand, those people will be a lot safer in other jobs.

All because one rage-filled client got violent when faced with the consequences of his own actions.

The other clients in the building that day faced their own trauma over the years. They’d come to a place of healing, only to have their sense of safety ripped away. One hopes that they found help elsewhere or they probably would have continued to suffer, dragging their families along with them.

The therapists who huddled behind those barricaded doors will always wonder if the new client in their office is the next one who’ll become violent and hurt someone—maybe the therapist. They are always vigilant, which, again, is exhausting.

So many lives were affected that day—and no one was even physically harmed.

So many lives were affected that day—and no one was even physically harmed. The therapist who took the client down walked away with only bruises that disappeared over the next few days. It was the psychological bruises that took years to heal.

If the second example sounds personal, it’s because it is. It happened to my family. My husband was the brave therapist who saved lives that day. I was the wife who didn’t want to let him out of my sight. My daughters were the children whose lives were uprooted.

All because one rage-filled client got violent when faced with the consequences of his own actions.

Ripples happen. I hope the next time you read a story about crime that you think about the victims, about how their lives will go on. Because while the loss of life or the crime itself is horrific, the aftereffects—the ripples—can continue for a lifetime.

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