The effects of attributions on crime victims' psychological readjustment

Examined the relationship between external, character, and behavior attributions and coping with burglary victimization among 101 men and 64 women. Possible mediators of the attribution–coping relationship were also examined. Ss completed measures of coping with crime, emotion- and problem-focused coping, relative vulnerability, selective evaluation, event expectancies, future avoidability, and attributions. Behavior attributions resulted in the best adjustment, and external attributions were associated with less successful emotion-focused coping processes. Character attributions, including reporting higher levels of prior life stress and prior criminal victimizations, appeared to result in learned helplessness responses.