This study compared experiences of safety and trust for male and female immigrant survivors of torture from various countries living in the United States. It found that while both genders felt increased safety due to freedoms and legal protections in the US, they struggled to form trusting relationships due to cultural differences from their communities of origin. However, organizations like TASSC and the Kovler Center provided supports where survivors felt they could build trust with others who understood their experiences.

1. A Comparison Study of Trust and
Safety for Men and Women
Immigrant Survivors of Torture
Ashley R. Brazil, Holloway N. Marston,
Hollis Rabin, and Tina M. Sandora
Adler School of Professional Psychology
Summer 2012

2. Safety
• Engaging in activities that promote a sense of physical
security (PSOC research team, 2012).
• “A state or situation characterized by adequate control
of physical, material, or moral threats, which
contributes to a perception of being sheltered from
danger” (Nilsen, Hudson, Kullberg, Timpka, Ekman &
Lindqvist, 2004).
• “Safety is a state in which hazards and conditions
leading to physical, psychological or material harm are
controlled in order to preserve the health and well-
being of individuals and the community” (WHO, 1998).

3. Trust
• You cannot have trust if you do not have a sense of physical safety. (N.
Bothne, personal communication, My 22, 2012)
• Trust entails the emotional relationship between people and involves how
comfortable one is with influencing or being influenced by another. This
includes a sense of reliability and reciprocity between people (Bothne, N.,
n.d.; Tanis & Postmes, 2005).
• “Extreme situations caused by war and torture also call into question
connections, such as kinship, friendship, and the sense of community,
that link individuals to each other (Lifton 1988). Painful breaches of trust
by relatives, neighbors, and friends can make it difficult for survivors to
trust other people and to feel secure in their company (Kuoch, Miller, and
Scully 1992; van Boemel and Roze´e 1992; Blair 2001). Moreover, because
some categories of professionals, such as medical doctors, teachers,
psychologists, and the police, are involved in the persecution or are
associated with persecuting regimes, survivors are often reluctant to trust
those same types of professionals in the country of resettlement (Stover
and Nightingale 1985; Millett 1994).” (Behina, 2004, 28).

4. Methods & Participants
• 16 participants
– 8 Men
– 8 Women
• All survivors of torture from countries in Africa, Latin
America, Eastern Europe, Asia
• 27-60 years old
• Qualitative Study
– Semi-structured interviews
– Grounded Theory

5. Safety
Country of Origin United States
Men Men
- “So first, there was Yugoslavia before the war. Our - “TASSC was the first place I talked about the rape of
community (Albanian) was really persecuted by the my daughter. I never talked about the rape of my
Serbian community because they had all the rights daughter in my country; I never talked about this
and everything. They were all free, and to us it rape. Because in my country it is a taboo. I cannot
stopped everything—the right to school, the right talk to even my brother or sister. I cannot talk to
to express yourself freely, everything. So it was kind them what has happened in my house because it is
of a terrible time.” a taboo…”
- “…they started calling my parents house, my ex-in- - “The idea of community in itself is a beautiful thing,
laws house saying, threatening them, threatening it’s a beautiful concept. But when you live in a
me telling me I had to leave. I felt they were foreign country it’s completely different. You have
following where ever I was trying to go so finally to go by the rules of the country you live in, but it’s
because of the pressure because of my ex-wife at not the same as integrating like it’s your
that time was seeking hospitality and my son was community.”
going from home to home with different friends Women
that were living up there, decided I had to leave.” - Interviewer: “why did you come here?”
Women Response: “because the Arab people together. then
- “If you beat a woman in America, the police will I don’t want to come back to Saudi Arabia because
pick you up, but back at home you can be beating its not free, in the United States is good is free”
your wife, she will be screaming, if somebody - “I feel secured in that community because I know
comes and you tell them, ‘don’t enter my door’, he that when I trek out of the bus, if anybody wants to
will go back.” attack me, before I scream ‘hey, help!’ the
- “I was in STF democrat party, and when you, when policeman will be around, a person from the store
they say something….the governor want to take the will be around, people in my house will hear that
community ** and kill you because you are not in their mother is screaming outside and I will be
the, their party.” safe.”

6. Trust
Country of Origin United States
Men Men
- “Being part of the community in Congo is very different - “So he is explaining that’s why he’s so connected to the
from being part of the community here, because in
Congo it’s usually coming from a common ethnic basis, Kovler Center, because here they really talk about it and
whereas here it’s because they’re in a foreign country he’s here all the time because they talk about torture
and people get together just because they’re not in their here and every 26 of them. Every year they have
country.” celebration of international. Other people, they don’t
- “My wife and children are part of my life. My brother know about it. They’re not interested. It’s not their
too my sister too. My friends that I share my life or
secrets or share them a confidence. I lived with them we problem.
see each other all the time. That’s not like here. Here I - “If you are alone here it is difficult to advance because
have to call to ask to see my friends, or to set up an you learn about the country through your interactions
appointment. Not in Congo, if I go to someone’s house
we can talk they would be there. and relationships from other people. When you’re in a
Women place where you do not live together like you do back in
- “Cause our country…if you have a house, if I see you in Congo, it is hard to do that.”
the street, I cannot leave you in the street if you are my Women
family. You have a problem you take it to the family, I’ll
share with you whatever it, is not a problem. You share - “TASSC is more trustful to me because I deal with them,
together.” we discuss. I know their mind. They know mine. I tell
- “Even if you go for the store to buy a food you them what I like, what I don’t like. I see their reactions. I
remember that I have money where I need to put for the know what they are. But with somebody I cannot
meeting Saturday. And that money where you put for discuss with, I cannot deal with, I cannot trust you
the meeting, they put it together and they give for
someone who needs it and asks for their help. You give because I don’t know whether you are there to kill me,
to him; then next week maybe me, I’ll have to ask for or to wound me, or to do what thing with me or even to
that. They put the same money, they give to you. leave my door open.”
- “I no have no family really but I pick TAASK as my
family,* everything TAASK, if you’re sick, if you no
have…if you’re sick, I go to the TAASK. That’s the family”

7. Similarities
• Trust and Safety are interrelated
• Safety is felt in the United States because of freedom and respect
for the rights of the individual
• Difficulties with safety when coming to America
– Communities here differ significantly from the communities in their
country of origin
• Vital need to move away from country of origin because safety was
threatened
• Struggle to form trusting relationships in the United States
– Communities they live in are not likely to include people they are
emotionally connected with
– Miss feelings of togetherness and the sharing of resources
– TASSC and the Kovler Center are strong supports where many feel they
can form trusting relationships with other members and staff
• Family is a place where trust is often found

8. Differences
Men Women
• Police decrease sense of safety • Police presence increases
• Politics played a key role in
perception of safety sense of safety in the
– differences in political ideologies United States
often led to torture in their country
of origin • Sharing and togetherness in
• People with differing political a community often help
ideologies would not be able to
form a trusting relationship cultivate a feeling of trust
• When building trusting – Difficulties building trust in
relationships it is important for to the United States stem from
have others understand their
experiences and to disagree with neighbors not forming
torture entirely communities

9. References
• Behina, B. (2004). Trust building from the perspective of survivors of
war and torture. Social Service Review, 26-40.
• Nilsen, P., Hudson, D. S., Kullberg, A., Timpka, T., Ekman, R., &
Lindqvist, K. (2004). Making sense of safety. Injury Prevention,
10(2), 71-73.
• Tanis, M., & Postmes, T. (2005). A social identity approach to trust:
Interpersonal perception, group membership and trusting
behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 35(3), 413-424.
• Tropp, L.R., Stout, A. M., Boatswain, C., Wright, S., & Pettigrew, T. F.
(2006). Trust and acceptance in response to references to group
membership: Minority and majority perspectives on cross-group
interactions. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(3), 769-794.
• World Health Organization. Safety and safety promotion:
conceptual and operational aspects. Quebec: WHO, 1998:1–20.