Belief in a just world theory and secondary victimization: empirical studies and theoretical developments

Abstract

This article presents the literature relative to the theory and empirical findings relating the belief in a just world (BJW) theory with secondary victimization. We first summarize the BJW theory and the studies from which it was built. Secondly, we present the studies in which the observers’ BJW level is measured by a scale. These studies allowed an evaluation of the level of the observer’s BJW in secondary victimization and psychological well-being. We also present the studies that introduce the categorization variable on the relation between BJW and secondary victimization. Finally we discuss the relation between BJW and levels of information processing.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17575/rpsicol.v14i2.514