7 Disappearances have become an increasingly common method of political oppression, and this is an area where much work is needed to understand the individual and communal consequences. Studies of this population show a wide range of effects, ranging from higher mortality rates in the fathers of the disappeared to psychological disorders in the second-generation children (28-29). These effects may be more marked in Africa, where individual experience is so often defined by reference to the family, and where every individual misfortune is a misfortune for the whole family. When an individual dies, it is crucially important for the whole family that traditional rites are observed, and failure to this is always seen as leading to misfortune for the family. Thus, when a person disappears, the whole family suffers, and the family may suffer from misfortune, quite apart from being unable to grieve in the proper fashion (30). Some general findings can be drawn from the published work. there is a strong association between organised violence and psychological disorder. This effect is found in many different groups: soldiers, war victims, torture survivors, concentration camp survivors, refugees, internally displaced persons, etc. There is a strong indication that there is a "dose -response" effect: that the likelihood of disorder increases with the more direct the experience of violence. This hypothesis would therefore predict much higher rates of disorder in torture survivors than in people who merely witness an isolated incident of trauma, such as a motor traffic accident. Current understandings about trauma Perhaps one of the first areas to examine is the "dose-response" theory. The degree of exposure to violence seems to affect the course of PTSD, and an American study on children attacked by a sniper at school showed this clearly (28). One month after the attack, 77% of the children who had been in the playground when it was attacked showed PTSD, whilst 67% of the children who had been inside the school also showed PTSD. Fourteen months later, 74% of the former group still showed PTSD, whilst only 19% of the latter were still suffering from the disorder. However, not all studies show such a clear-cut effect, and there are many conflicting reports.