Psychological assistance to victims throughout difficult trials

In France, only very recently have victims begun to be assisted throughout “difficult” trials. We have developed different hypotheses to think over the function of psychologists when they step in to help out victims of criminal offences.Moreover, we have developed an argument for the need to set up units of medical and psychological assistance for certain difficult trials.Among other topics, we discuss the victims' expectations for psychic and/or affective reconstruction during trials. We suggest that penal trials can “potentially” heal victims, but more often than not they are “potentially” traumatic.We support our arguments with clinical examples that come from our personal experience of providing psychological assistance to victims.