An empathetic ear

Victimology professor learns from his own grief

By Rebekah Herbert

For 15 years, it was John Dussich’s job to help people deal with their grief.

But Dussich didn’t realize he needed help himself until one day he found his car speeding down the median of a Northern California expressway at 70 mph.

Dussich was so overcome with grief that he had no idea how his car drifted off the road.

“ The grief spasms, they take you, they grab you,” Dussich said. “It doesn’t matter where you are because that’s where your mind is, your heart is. You can’t control it—it happens automatically.”

Dussich, now a professor of victimology at Fresno State, began work in 1972 as a victimologist. In 1987, he and his wife were struck by tragedy when a hit-and-run driver killed their 20-year-old son, Edward.

His son was walking home from a camping trip on a country road in Woodland, near UC Davis, when a 75-year-old man driving a large car hit him from behind, killing him instantly.

The man fled the scene, but later turned himself in to authorities.

“ My son was blamed with the accident because he was walking on the wrong side of the road,” Dussich said. “The man was never arrested.”

The man was on his way home from a wedding, Dussich said, and was never tested for alcohol, nor was his age or driving ability taken into consideration.

After working as a counselor of victims for many years, Dussich now needed guidance and assistance.

“ I was amazed at how much I didn’t know about being a victim,” Dussich said.

A German social worker came to Dussich, his wife and younger son during their time of grief. Dussich met she and her husband (both victimologists) while setting up victim services in Germany.

“She took care of my wife and I like we were kids—we couldn’t function,” Dussich said. “We couldn’t make our meals, we couldn’t talk, we were just out of it.”

Dussich could now relate to other victims on a more emotional level.

“ It taught me so much about grief, trauma, trying to cope, what happens in a family,” Dussich said.

Dussich understood the essence of grief he had seen people suffer from all over the world.

“ It made me more aware of what people go through,” Dussich said. “How you can’t control your feelings and reactions and grief.”

As Dussich reflected on the loss of his son, he thought back to the two months he spent in Bosnia, where he organized services for many war victims in the city of Sarajevo.

“ It was like outer space,” Dussich said. “All these people walking around—undernourished, traumatized. They had a shallow, distant, empty look in their faces—the whole city full of people, like zombies.”

Dussich found a Bosnian psychologist who could translate for him, and began counseling people who had suffered and lost so much.

“ It was the first time I have ever been exposed to people who had been suffering from multiple traumas,” Dussich said. “Usually I deal with people who suffer one trauma—earthquake, murder, etc. But here, for the first time, I had people who had maybe seen their son explode in front of their faces, or had watched their parents being murdered and also have gone without food and seen massacres for the past five years.

“ It is amazing those people could even function—shock, trauma, brutality—it was terrible.”

He said it was difficult to hear what these people had been through, things he never wanted to imagine, yet alone have a picture etched in his mind.

Two weeks into his stay he called his wife.

“ She said my voice had changed,” Dussich said. “I asked what she meant, and she said it was completely different, it sounds not like you at all.

“ It was the first time I received a real warning call that something was happening to me psychologically,” Dussich said. “I was experiencing deep burnout.”

When helping a victim, Dussich said, it is natural to debrief with another person to get all that you have heard off your chest. In Bosnia, he had no one to talk to because of the language barrier. He had no outlet to let all that he had seen and heard out of his mind.

“ I began to debrief myself,” Dussich said. “I began keeping a journal of all the day’s events and writing every thought, feeling and emotion.

“ I have never opened that diary again to this day to reread those things. I am not willing to go there—I don’t want to see those flashbacks.”

Dussich recalls Bosnia as being one of the most dramatic times in his career and life.

His work was not tailored to Bosnia alone.

Dussich has also brought his services to Japan, helped in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and traveled to El Salvador after a large earthquake killed about 1,000 people.

Dussich began his work in victimology in 1972. After serving as a military police officer in the Army for four years, he began working in the Florida governor’s office in planning and funding new criminal justice organizations.

“ This one project I was working on was giving so much help to the criminals that I just struck by the irony and injustice of not doing anything for victims; thus, I asked myself what are we doing for victims, and of course, the answer was nothing, zero,” Dussich said.

Dussich started writing a concept paper about how to help victims through a service located in the police department. He sent the paper to a Hungarian professor who had introduced Dussich to the concept of victimology some years back when he was getting his masters in criminology at Florida State University.

The Hungarian professor loved the idea and encouraged Dussich to propose it at the first victimology symposium in Israel in 1973. The idea was well liked and Dussich was able to fund the program through his job within the governor’s office.

This first project was established in Fort Lauderdale and was called The Victim Advocate Program. Their first employee was a retired advertiser who sent Dussich’s paper all over Florida and other states to get the concept spread to all parts of America.

In 1974, Dussich organized the first national conference on victim assistance using his project as the host. The approximately 50 people whom he invited were the real pioneers in the field of victim assistance. These people were so excited to be finally able to share their ideas and experiences for the first time with others also working with victims, Dussich said. He called this emotion “the victim advocate feeling.”

After this 1974 conference, Dussich realized a new profession was emerging and he decided to create a national organization that would represent both victims and advocates. He named this new organization the National Organization for Victim Assistance – NOVA. He created a logo, purpose and membership brochure in hopes of soon finding an opportunity to promote his ideas to the public.

Jim Rowland, head of the probation department in Fresno at the time, heard about Dussich’s work with victim assistance in Florida and asked him to come speak and help organize a proposed state conference.

Dussich agreed only if he could launch his new organization; and so, in 1976 NOVA was launched in Fresno.

Jim Rowland, now 71, recalled Dussich as being a very influential person.

“ I loved his dedication to the field and to the victims,” Rowland said. “He always focused on the needs of the victims. He was determined, not easily discouraged.”

Through all that Dussich has accomplished, his determination continues to have a strong hold on him.

Dussich has helped start programs for victims in many European countries. He is the principal founder and a life member of the American Society of Victimology launched in Kansas City, Kansas in 2003 and he still teaches annual courses in Japan, Central America and South America.

Now Dussich, 66, teaches full-time at Fresno State, where he began last fall.

He has helped people all over the world deal with grief and loss.

Though there is no greater loss in his life than his son, he will continue to provide services to victims, he said. Having been one himself, he understands the need for someone to be there for support.

“ I now realize how important it is to have somebody with you when in deep grief,” Dussich said. “Especially in those early days after a trauma.”