Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used to collect self-report data from personal interviews with 175 victims of crime (86 violent; 89 non-violent) to address the effects of perceived and received social support during the weeks immediately following the crime event.  This study examined the relationship of perceived social support, received social support and coping strategy to the Mental, Physical and Spiritual Well-being for victims of violent and non-violent crime.

Results: Findings indicate that social support does have a significant direct negative effect on the victim’s level of distress.  Specifically, a direct relationship was found between levels of perceived social support and anger while a direct relationship was also found between received social support and anxiety.  It was also found that there was an inverse relationship between social support and emotion-focused coping and avoidance-oriented coping.  There was, however, a significant positive relationship between social support and problem focused coping.

Implications for Practice: Because of the increase of crimes and the violent nature of those crimes, growing numbers of men and women are faced with having to adapt to the mental, physical and emotional consequences.  Understanding the role of social support is vital to social workers involved with victims of crime.