Satisfaction with justice and desire for revenge in survivors of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center

ABSTRACT

This study investigated gaps in existing knowledge on justice, desire for revenge, and associated factors in disaster research through data collected nearly three years post disaster on justice and revenge from survivors of the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks. A volunteer sample of 379 employees of eight affected businesses completed interviews and self-report questionnaires. Individual ratings on satisfaction with justice and desire for revenge were compared with demographic characteristics, disaster-related experience, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), disaster-related distress, anger, and concerns about danger and safety. High levels of desire for revenge and relatively low levels of satisfaction with accountability for perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were endorsed. Most of the associations between the justice scores and the revenge score with the disaster response variables were directionally consistent. Dissatisfaction with perpetrator accountability was associated with greater desire for revenge. Both of these variables were associated with greater concerns about danger and endorsement of security regulations at the expense of personal freedoms.

KEYWORDS:

• Terrorism
• 9/11 attacks
• justice
• revenge
• disaster

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rachel E. Zettl is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Lindsay E. Page is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Karen Duong is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Tulsie Patel is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

John R. Dykema is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Meagan Whitney is a resident in psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Emine R. Ayvaci is a Child and Adolescent Fellow at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Carol S. North is the Medical Director of The Altshuler Center for Education & Research for Metrocare Services in Dallas, Texas. She holds The Nancy and Ray L. Hunt Chair in Crisis Psychiatry and is Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She is the Director of the Division of Trauma and Disaster in the Department of Psychiatry.

Jeffrey Sonis is currently a Research Associate Professor of Social Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Institute of Mental Health [grant number MH68853]; Metrocare Services.