Samenvatting

Honour-related emotions such as shame, guilt, anger, distrust and pride play a critical role in regulating the response to a traumatic event and the severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Crimes with the intent to cause harm to a person include, to a greater or lesser extent, a component to overpower and humiliate. Such traumatic experiences can, especially in more collectivist cultures, lead to a complex mix of posttraumatic guilt and shame. In order to restore honour, posttraumatic shame or guilt can lead to violence. Together with posttraumatic stress symptoms such as flashbacks and hyperarousal it may even lead to excessive violence.