Traumatic Grief After Homicide

Abstract

In this article, we examine the impact of community response on the devastating experience of losing a loved one to homicide. Although traumatic grief is deeply personal, an individual’s loss is also inevitably social, and survivors often contend with varying expectations from family members, community, and society at large, which have a profound impact on their experience of loss and grieving. In this article, using relevant clinical material, we seek to illuminate four key issues that emerge in the immediate and enduring aftermath of homicide: (a) common expectations of homicide survivors from family and surrounding community, particularly around the dominant narratives of healing and closure; (b) similarities and disparities in personal and public narratives of singular and multivictim homicides; (c) the permanence of traumatic loss and survivors’ enduring sense of apartness from others; and (d) the impact of homicide bereavement work on clinicians. These and other issues are explored with relevant case examples and clinical recommendations for working with this population. These reflections are based on our experience of doing long-term clinical work with survivors of homicide at the Center for Homicide Bereavement, a community-based program of the Victims of Violence Program at the Cambridge Health Alliance.