Staff writer
Several support groups have been set up in Japan for victims of violent crime, and the question they now face is what kind of support they can and should provide, an expert says.
Canadian trauma counselor Maggie Ziegler, who visited Japan recently, said the question "How can I help you?" is the most important one from the victim's perspective. In 1992, Ziegler and a friend read a newspaper article about a women's group in Croatia and wrote to the group asking how they could help. "They wrote back and said 'We have received hundreds of letters of support, but none of them say how can I help,'" she said, adding that the group said many others simply offered the assistance they thought the group would need. She visited Croatia twice and trained the group how to help other women.