RESUMO
The data were collected from three independent community samples, beginning seven months after the 1994 Northridge, California earthquake and following in one year intervals for the two subsequent samples. Exposure to traumatic stress (Norris 1990)-including criminal victimization-in the 12 months prior to the interview was assessed in each sample. For all traumatic stress/victimization and for each of seven individual events, rates remain flat over time (3 data points), suggesting that neither social disorganization nor social cohesion occurred after the earthquake. In the first sample respondents only reporton pre-disaster events, for them post-earthquake rates of traumatic stress and victimization were compared with pre-earthquake rates. In contrast to the trend data, reduction in rates of robbery and, to a lesser extent, major life changes suggest that an altruistic community (social cohesion) may have risen. A third set of analyses show that the severity of exposure to the earthquake does not make a contribution to traumatic stress or victimization beyond that explained by the demographic variables repeatedly found to predict vulnerability to victimization. There is no indication that social disorganization follows a natural disaster, and there is minor support for the emergence of an altruistic community (AU)
