ID: HR19-1309
Presenting author: Katherine Rudzinski
Katherine Rudzinski, Carol Strike
Background: Crime victimization is a significant adversity facing street-involved individuals who smoke crack cocaine. Self-blame is a common reaction to victimization, yet existing psychological conceptualizations typically disregard the potential for this practice to signify a resilient response for individuals dealing with victimization, in high-risk environments and with limited resources. Although evidence of the political ideologies, language, and policies that stigmatize and blame people who use drugs is widely documented, self-blame attributions in the context of victimization among individuals who smoke crack are not well researched.
Methodology: Qualitative interviews focusing on victimization experiences and coping strategies were conducted with 30 street-involved individuals who regularly smoked crack. Participants were recruited through advertisements at harm reduction agencies in a mid-sized community in Southern Ontario, Canada, between April and July 2014. Using a thematic framework data analysis our study examines self-blame and resilience following experiences of victimization among participants.
Results: Most participants reported multiple instances of last-year victimization, with half experiencing more than ten instances. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic violence this research reveals the dual nature of self-blame: as a practice that often causes suffering, but also produces opportunities for agency, competency, and resilience following victimization. Practices of self-blame help participants deal with victimization by providing hope for self-protection from future victimization, building capital through classifying past harms as “lessons learned”, and constructing survivor identities in the face of domination.
Conclusions: There is an urgent need for policy makers, researchers, and service providers to better understand the structural conditions (e.g., economic, political) which influence the lived-experiences of victimization and self-blame for street-involved individuals who smoke crack. Future programming and policies should draw out the productive aspects of self-blame, while assisting individuals in accumulating the resources needed to effectively cope with victimization and domination, as well as to improve their safety and well-being.