Intervention with Victims

Code:

PJD07

Acronym:

IV

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
CNAEF	Psychology

Instance: 2025/2026 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Psychology
Course/CS Responsible:	Master Degree in Psychology

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
MPSI	38	Plano de Estudos 2021	1	-	6	54	162

Teaching language

Suitable for English-speaking students
Obs.: Classes will be taught in Portuguese, but many documents will be provided in English and the assignments can be presented in English. Throughout the classes, the teacher will clarify doubts and answer questions in English whenever necessary

Objectives

The main goals of this course are to promote a deep understanding of the causes, dynamics, processes and consequences of violence / victimization, as well as the main explanatory theories and intervention models based on them. It includes the main models of risk assessment and management; the main models, programs, and strategies for psychological intervention with victims; highlight the need for a network intervention in this area; and promote the understanding of the interrelationships between intervention with victims and intervention with perpetrators.

We intend also to promote the mastery of some concepts and theories in related areas (e.g. Law, Criminology, Forensic Medicine).

Another main goal is also to analyze and discuss with students the importance of preventing gender-based violence and how this is a central issue when working with victims. Similarly, social responsibility and its association with intervention in this area will also be discussed.

These classes are therefore committed to promoting the Sustainable Development Goals 5 - “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, 16 - “Promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies”, and 3 - “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”

Learning outcomes and competences

At the end of the UC students should:

1. Identify and master the main explanatory theories and intervention models that allow us to understand the phenomena of violence and victimization, and understand their causes, processes and dynamics; in short, have the theoretical knowledge necessary to support the development of appropriate assessment and intervention skills with victims (children, young people and adults).

2. Possess basic skills:

(a) to assess and intervene with victims in different professional contexts (e.g. victim support institutions, shelter homes, hospitals and health centers, police, different instances of the judicial system, psychological consultation services, community projects), as well as competences to work in multidisciplinary teams.

(b) to assess and intervene in different situations of violence/victimization, whether emergency situations, with risk/danger assessment and management and subsequent intervention, crisis intervention, or situations requiring ongoing psychological support/therapy (individual or group); to promote equality; to promote the prevention of violence in general, and gender-based violence and violence against children in particular, as well as the prevention of harassment and cyberharassment, bullying and cyberbullying, among other forms of violence/abuse.

(c) to write psychological reports and to intervene in legal proceedings involving victims (including testify in courts).

d) to do the liaison, whenever necessary, with the professionals who are accompanying the offenders.

Working method

Presencial

Program

- Introduction to Criminology and Victimology.

- Violence, aggression and victimization. Main psychological, psychosocial and criminological theories explaining violence and victimization.

- Victimization: criminal statistics, victimization surveys, victim profiles.

- Types of violence, crime and victimization; contexts and forms of victimization. Gender violence, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking and cyberstalking, bullying and cyberbullying, violence against children (e.g., negligence, physical and psychological maltreatment, sexual abuse).

- Dynamics and impact of violence; the specificity of family violence and intimate partner violence, of child maltreatment and of sexual violence.

- Models and strategies of assessment and of psychological / psychosocial intervention with victims of violence and crime (children and adults; individual, couple and group interventions; different strategies, models and programs).

- Victim’s support network.

- Victim - judicial system relationships. Models of restorative justice and mediation.

Mandatory literature

Devaney, J., Bradbury-Jones, C., Macy, R.J., Øverlien, C. & Holt, S. (Eds., 2021). ; The Routledge international handbook of domestic violence and abuse. , Routledge. , 2021
Machado, C. (Coord., 2010). ; Vitimologia. Das novas abordagens teóricas às novas práticas de intervenção., Braga: Ed. Psiquilibrios., 2010
Matos, M. ; Vítimas de crime e violência. Práticas de Intervenção., Braga: Psiquilibrios., 2014
Sani, A. & Caridade, S. (Eds).; Violência, Agressão e Vitimação: Práticas Para a Intervenção. , Lisboa: Almedina., 2018
Manita, C.; Ribeiro, C.; Peixoto, C.; Violência Doméstica: Compreender para intervir. Guia de boas práticas para profissionais de instituições de apoio a vítimas. , Coleção Violência de Género – vol. 2. Lisboa: Comissão para a Cidadania e Igualdade de Género., 2009
Magalhães Teresa; Maus tratos em crianças e jovens. ISBN: 972-8717-39-3
Holt, S., Øverlien, C., & Devaney, J. (Eds, 2017). ; Responding to Domestic Violence: Emerging Challenges for Policy, Practice and Research in Europe., London: Jessica Kingsley., 2017

Complementary Bibliography

Geffner, R.A., Jaffe, P.G. & Sudermann, M. (Eds); Children Exposed to Domestic Violence., Binghamton, NY: Haworth., 2000
Baker, N., Buick, J., Kim, S., Moniz, S., & Nava, L.; Lessons from examining same-sex intimate partner violence., Sex Roles, 69, 182-192. , 2013
Edleson Jeffrey L. ed. lit.; Future interventions with battered women and their families. ISBN: ISBN 0-8039-5945-1
Sandra Walklate ; Handbook of Victims and Victimology., McGraw-Hill., 2007
Freeman, J. & Lobovits. D. ; Playful Approaches to Serious Problems: Narrative Therapy with Children and their Families., W. W. Norton & Company., 1997
Magalhães, T. (Coord.); Abuso de Crianças e Jovens - Da suspeita ao diagnóstico., Lidel, 2010. ISBN: 9789727576555
Sani, A. & Caridade, S. (Eds). ; Práticas de Intervenção na Violência e no Crime. , Lisboa: Pactor., 2016
Gil, E. ; Helping Abused and Traumatized Children: Integrating Directive and Nondirective Approaches., New York: The Guilford Press, 2006
Gonçalves, R. & Machado, C. (Coords., 2002). ; Violência e Vítimas de crimes. Vol.1 – Adultos. , Coimbra: Quarteto., 2002
Gonçalves, R. & Machado, C. (Coords., 2002). ; Violência e Vítimas de crimes. Vol.2 – Crianças. , Coimbra: Quarteto., 2002

Teaching methods and learning activities

- Theoretical classes.

- Theoretical-practical classes with active participation of students, individually and in groups.

- Practical Case-studies.

- Viewing and discussion of videos with topics related to violence/victimization and to the intervention with victims.

- If possible (it will always depend on the consent from the victims), live observation of a consultation with a victim at GEAV - Gabinete de Estudos e de Atendimento a Agressores e Vítimas da UP, through the one-way mirror room of the FPCEUP Counselling Service

- Development of practical work by the students, in small groups, which involves the description of a victimization / victim’s case and the characterization and application of an evaluation and intervention proposal for that case. This type of work requires analysis of theoretical contents and, above all, critical reflection on knowledge and practices, in addition to an exercise of practical application of the knowledge and skills acquired.

- Tutorial supervision of theoretical and practical assignments carried out by students, as well as providing the necessary conditions to develop independent study/work, including research and literature search, in order to facilitate the assimilation of contents.

keywords

Social sciences > Psychological sciences > Psychology

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Trabalho de campo	30,00
Trabalho escrito	30,00
Trabalho prático ou de projeto	40,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	34,00
Frequência das aulas	46,00
Trabalho de campo	40,00
Apresentação/discussão de um trabalho científico	10,00
Trabalho escrito	32,00
Total:	162,00

Eligibility for exams

- Students’ attendance in each class will be monitored. Students must attend 75% of the total number of classes taught. In exceptional cases, legally foreseen, the traditional class attendance may be substituted by the submission of a theoretical-practical assignment. 

- In accordance with the regulation of evaluation, students must have a minimum grade of 10 points to obtain final approval (none of the assessment components can sum less than 8 points). The failure to achieve the minimum score of 10 points implies non approval in the discipline and the obligation to repeat the evaluation.


 

Calculation formula of final grade

Final grade expressed on a scale of 0 to 20.

- 70% of the final grade in the UC results from the evaluation of the practical assignment carried out by the students in small groups: an assignment in which students have to plan and describe an intervention with a victim or group of victims of crime / violence (including the case design, the victim assessment, clinical formulation of the case and intervention steps and strategies). This work is developed during the semestre and presented at the end of the semestre, as a group role-playing of the intervention.
This assignment includes the following evaluation components: "Field work" (30%) + "Practical work or project" (40%).

 - 30% of the final grade in the UC results from a written work, carried out individually, in which the student will complete a worksheet, made available by the teacher before the end of the semester.
This assignment includes the evaluation component of "Written work" (30%).

 

Examinations or Special Assignments

In the legally provided situations, in which students cannot carry out the same assessment assignments that their colleagues will present, the student must negotiate with the responsible teacher the delivery of alternative works, with the same objectives and an equivalent content.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

In exceptional cases, foreseen in the regulations or in cases duly justified and accepted as valid by the School’s competent committees, students may be evaluated outside the usual context and regular calendar, through the completion of a written project with a content similar to what other students have done to assess the practical and the theoretical components.

In these cases, the student should contact the teacher responsible for the discipline at the beginning of the semester to define the rules and methodologies of the alternative evaluation.

Classification improvement

There is a possibility of reformulating the individual written work, once, until the “época de recurso” of the following school year in which the student obtained the approval.
There is no possibility of repeating the practical work / the group role-playing.