The victims, many of whom had been victimized several times, were interviewed and taped and included, among others, 42 owners and employees of small businesses and 2 bank cashiers. All of the interviewed victims were haunted by fear which had first manifested itself as paralysis, hysteria, or trembling during the offense, subsided only slowly, and lingered on as the fear of being victimized again. As a result, the subjects were difficult to approach and refused to mention names of persons or geographic locations during the interviews. In their efforts to protect themselves against further victimization, the victims had imposed severe restrictions of liberty on themselves. Some had moved to a different location, one of the cashiers changed professions, and several others remained obsessed with security devices or arms. The interviews confirmed previous research findings that the victims (especially rape victims) suffered from their total helplessness and lack of control during the attack; some even blamed themselves for having offered no resistance to the attacker. Most of the victims interviewed had experienced intensive contacts with the criminal justice system as a result of their victimization; they described the ensuing investigation and interrogation in highly negative terms likening this experience to a second victimization with comparable feelings of powerlessness.