Kolton, first year Master’s student, recently shared updates on his thesis project, Victim-Perpetrator Overlap and Post-Traumatic Growth.
His presentation included detailed information on the procedure, survey structure, and data analysis for the study. The focus of this project is Victim-Perpetrator Overlap (VPO), the idea that a current perpetrator of a problematic behavior was previously a victim of the same problematic behavior in the past. Kolton noticed that there is a lack of literature on the perpetrators of the trauma events being reported in Posttraumatic Growth (PTG) studies; he would like to explore the possibility of how PTG might play a role in victims becoming perpetrators.
Data will be collected via an online survey that will include questionnaires about experiences as both a victim and perpetrator along with a PTG inventory for traumatic experiences for both. It is predicted that participants who experience PTG as a victim will be less likely to report instances of committing problematic behavior as a perpetrator. The survey will be randomized so that some participants will complete the questions about their traumatic experiences as a victim first, complete a filler questionnaire, then complete questions about their traumatic experiences as a perpetrator and vice-versa. It is predicted that participants in the condition who answer questions about their experiences as a victim first will be less likely to report instances of being a perpetrator than those in the condition who initially reflect on experiences as a perpetrator. The information gathered from this study could deepen our understanding of why individuals commit crimes and strengthen crime prevention strategies. This project is coming together nicely, Kolton!
FF-PTG LAB 