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Victimization refers to a person being made into a victim by someone else and can take on psychological as well as physical forms, both of which are damaging to victims. Forms of victimization include (but are not limited to) bullying or peer victimization, physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse, robbery, and assault. Some of these forms of victimization are commonly associated with certain populations, but they can happen to others as well. For example, bullying or peer victimization is most commonly studied in children and adolescents but also takes place between adults. Although anyone may be victimized, particular groups (e.g. children, the elderly, individuals with disabilities) may be more susceptible to certain types of victimization and as a result to the symptoms and consequences that follow. Individuals respond to victimization in a wide variety of ways, and as a result symptoms of victimization vary from person to person.

Symptoms of Victimization
Symptoms of victimization may include negative physical, psychological, or behavioral consequences that are direct or indirect responses to victimization experiences. Symptoms in these categories sometimes overlap, are closely related, or cause each other. For example, a behavioral symptom such as an increase in aggressiveness or irritability may be part of a particular psychological outcome such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Much of the research on symptoms of victimization is cross-sectional (researchers only collected data at one point in time). From a research perspective this means that the symptoms are associated with victimization, but the causal relationship is not always established and alternative explanations have not been ruled out. Some of the symptoms described also may put individuals at risk for victimization. For example, there may be a two-way relationship between victimization and certain internalizing symptoms such as depression or withdrawal.

Psychological Symptoms
Diagnosable psychological disorders that are associated with victimization experiences include depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Psychological symptoms that are disruptive to a person's life may be present in some form even if they do not meet diagnostic criteria for a specific disorder. A variety of symptoms such as withdrawal, avoidance, and nightmares, may be part of one of these diagnosable disorders or may occur in milder or more isolated form; diagnoses of particular disorders require that these symptoms have a particular degree of severity or frequency, or that an individual exhibits a certain number of them in order to be formally diagnosed.

Depression and Anxiety
Indicators of depression include irritable or sad mood for prolonged periods of time, lack of interest in most activities, significant changes in weight/appetite, activity, and sleep patterns, loss of energy and concentration, excessive feelings of guilt or worthlessness, and suicidality. Depression has been found to be associated with many forms of victimization, including sexual victimization, violent crime, property crime, peer victimization, and domestic abuse. Depression can impact many areas of a person's life, including interpersonal relationships and physical health.

The term anxiety covers a range of difficulties and several specific diagnoses, including panic attacks, phobias, and generalized anxiety disorder. Panic attacks are relatively short, intense bursts of fear that may or may not have a trigger (a cause in the immediate environment that happens right before they occur). They are sometimes a part of other anxiety disorders. Phobias may be specific to objects, situations, people, or places. They can result in avoidance behaviors or, if avoidance is not possible, extreme anxiety or panic attacks. Generalized anxiety is characterized by long-term, uncontrolled, intense worrying in addition to other symptoms such as irritability, sleep problems, or restlessness. Anxiety has been shown to disrupt many aspects of people's lives as well, e.g. academic functioning, and to predict worse health outcomes later in life.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a specific anxiety disorder in response to a traumatic event in a person's life. It is often discussed in the context of mental health of combat veterans, but also occurs in individuals who have been traumatized in other ways, such as victimization. PTSD involves long-term intense fear, re-experiencing the traumatic event (e.g. nightmares), avoidance of reminders of the event, and being highly reactive (e.g. easily enraged or startled). It may include feeling detached from other people, guilt, and difficulty sleeping. Individuals with PTSD may experience a number of symptoms similar to those experienced in both anxiety and depression.

In addition to the established diagnostic criteria for PTSD, Frank Ochberg proposed a specific set of victimization symptoms (not formally recognized in diagnostic systems such as the DSM or ICD) that includes shame, self-blame, obsessive hatred of the person who victimized them alongside conflicting positive feelings toward that person, feeling defiled, being sexually inhibited, despair or resignation to the situation, secondary victimization (described below), and risk of revictimization.

Physical and Behavioral Symptoms
The most direct and obvious physical symptoms of victimization are injuries as a result of an aggressive physical action such as assault or sexual victimization. Other physical symptoms that are not a result of injury may be indirectly caused by victimization through psychological or emotional responses. Physical symptoms with a psychological or emotional basis are called psychosomatic symptoms. Common psychosomatic symptoms associated with victimization include headaches, stomachaches and experiencing a higher frequency of illnesses such as colds and sore throats. Though psychosomatic symptoms are referred to as having psychological causes they have a biological basis as well; stress and other psychological symptoms trigger nervous system responses such as the release of various chemicals and hormones which then affect biological functioning.

Individuals who have been victimized may also exhibit behavioral symptoms after the experience. Some individuals who have been victimized may show externalizing (outwardly directed) behaviors. For example, an individual who has not previously acted aggressively toward others may begin to do so as after being victimized, such as when a child who has been bullied begins to bully others. Aggressive behaviors may be associated with PTSD (described above). Externalizing behaviors associated with victimization include hyperactivity, hypervigiliance, and attention problems that may resemble ADHD. Others may exhibit internalizing (inwardly directed) behavioral symptoms. Many interalizing symptoms tend to be more psychological in nature (depression and anxiety are sometimes referred to as internalization), but particular behaviors are indicative of internalization as well. Internalizing behaviors that have been documented in victimized individuals include withdrawing from social contact and avoidance of people or situations. Drug and alcohol use is associated with the psychological symptoms of victimization as well, and is sometimes referred to as self-medication.

Symptoms Associated with Specific Types of Victimization
Specific types of victimization have been empirically linked to particular outcomes. These symptoms are not associated only with these forms of victimization, but that the links between them have been particularly well-established by researchers.

Sexual Victimization
Some individuals who have experienced victimization may have difficulty establishing and maintaining intimate relationships. This is not a subset of symptoms that is exclusive to sexual victimization, but the link between sexual victimization and intimacy problems has been particularly well-established in research. These difficulties may include sexual dysfunction, anxiety about sexual relationships, and dating aggression. Those who experience sexual victimization may have these difficulties long-term, as in the case of victimized children who continue to have difficulty with intimacy during adolescence and adulthood. Some research suggests that the severity of these intimacy problems is related directly to the severity of victimization, while other research suggests that self-blame and shame about sexual victimization mediates (causes) the relationship between victimization and outcomes.

Childhood Peer Victimization
A symptom that has been associated particularly with school-based peer victimization is poor academic functioning. Again, this symptom is not exclusive to peer victimization, but is contextually relevant. Studies have shown poor academic functioning to be a result of peer victimization in elementary, middle, and high school in multiple countries. Though academic functioning has commonly been studied in relation to childhood bullying that takes place in schools, it is likely associated with other forms of victimization as well as both depression and anxiety affect attention and focus.

Moderating Factors
In psychology, a moderator is a factor that changes the outcome of a particular situation. With regards to victimization, these can take the form of environmental or contextual characteristics, other people’s responses after victimization has occurred, or a victimized person’s internal responses to or views on what they have experienced.

Attributions
Attributions about a situation or person refer to where an individual places the blame for an event. An individual may have a different response to being victimized and exhibit different symptoms if they interpret the victimization as being their own fault, the fault of the perpetrator of the victimization, or the fault of some other external factor. Attributions also vary by how stable or controllable someone believes a situation to be. Characterological self-blame for victimization (believing that something is one's own fault, that it is a stable characteristic about themselves, and that it is unchangeable or out of their control) has been shown to make victims feel particularly helpless and to have a negative effect on psychological outcomes. Along with self-blaming attributions having a potentially harmful moderating effect on symptoms of victimization, increased self-blame may be a consequence of victimization for some individuals.

Coping and Help-Seeking
Research suggests that individuals who participate in active forms of coping experience fewer or less severe psychological symptoms after victimization. One form of active coping is seeking help from others. Help-seeking can be informal (e.g. seeking help from friends or family) or formal (e.g. police reporting of victimization). Attributions about victimization may play a role in whether an individual seeks help or from whom they seek it. For example, a recent study showed that children who are being victimized by peers are less likely to seek support from friends or teachers if they attribute victimization to a group factor such as race, and more likely to seek support if they attribute victimization to more individualized personal characteristics. Similarly, adult victims who blame themselves and are ashamed of being victimized may wish to hide the experience from others, and thus be less willing to seek help.

Though seeking help sometimes improves outcomes for victims, it may also make the outcomes worse depending on the context and responses to help-seeking behavior. Seeking help may increase the severity of victimization symptoms if an individual experiences secondary victimization in the form of victim-blaming, being forced to mentally relive a victimization experience, or other negative responses from individuals or institutions from whom they seek help. Secondary victimization has been documented in victims of rape when they seek medical or psychological assistance. It has also been documented in individuals whose victimization results in criminal trials, particularly if the outcomes of those trials were not in the victims' favor.