Disaster , Litigation , and the Corrosive Community

Disaster researchers have debated the utility of distinguishing “natural” from “technological” catastrophes. We suggest that litigation serves as a source of chronic stress for victims of human-caused disasters involved in court deliberations for damages. Data from the Exxon Valdez oil spill are used to evaluate a social structural model of disaster impacts three and one-half years after the event. Results suggest that the status of litigant and litigation stress serve as prominent sources of perceived community damage and event-related psychological stress. We conclude that litigation is a critical characteristic of technological disasters that precludes timely community recovery and promotes chronic social and psychological impacts. Suggestions for alternatives to litigation are provided. As we enter the twenty-first century, it is increasingly clear that large-scale disasters will be pervasive features of social life. The impact of disasters, according to the 2002 World Disasters Report, has significantly changed since *An earlier version of this research was presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, California, August 1998. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Dan Dennard and G. David Johnson to this initial presentation. Funds for the collection and analysis of the data were provided by the National Science Foundation, Polar Social Science Division, Grants DDP-910109, OPP-0082405, and OPP-0002572. Additional support was provided by the University of South Alabama (College of Arts and Sciences) and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station (MIS-605080). Appreciation is expressed to Linda Burcham for her technical assistance in the preparation of the manuscript. The onsite field support provided by the Prince William Sound Science Center, Native Village of Eyak, Copper River Delta Institute, and the Cordova City Council is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Russell Dynes, Enrico Quarantelli, Benigno Aquirre, Bob Gramling, James Lee, and anonymous Social Forces reviewers for helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this article. The authors are solely responsible for the contents. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Direct correspondence to Dr. J. Steven Picou, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of South Alabama, 307 University Boulevard, N., HUMB 34, Mobile, AL 36688-0002. E-mail: [email protected]. 1494 / Social Forces 82:4, June 2004 the early 1970s, as the number of those affected has increased and the number of deaths has decreased (IFRC/RCS 2002). People affected by disasters, by definition, require “immediate assistance during a period of emergency, i.e., requiring basic survival needs such as food, water, shelter, sanitation and immediate medical assistance” (IFRC/RCS 2002:181). Provision of such assistance is necessary in the short term, but long-term social and psychological consequences of disasters for individuals and communities are typically overlooked and outside the purview of emergency response efforts. Different types of disasters, including natural, technological, and mass violence, have caused severe psychological impairment (Norris et al. 2001). In a comprehensive review of articles examining the effects of 130 disasters, Norris et al. (2001) found that in the U.S. technological disasters were more psychologically stressful than natural disasters. Evidence indicates disasters also have impacts at the community level (Erikson 1994). The term corrosive community (Freudenburg 1993, 1997, 2000; Freudenburg & Jones 1991) captures a set of debilitating processes first identified in seminal research on technological disasters (e.g., Erikson 1976; KrollSmith & Couch 1990; Levine 1982). As the term implies, negative effects of some disasters damage individuals and communities over a long period of time (Freudenburg 1997, 2000). Although many factors have been identified as contributing to the emergence and persistence of corrosive communities, we contend that none are as debilitating as litigation processes that typically ensue to redress environmental, economic, social, and psychological damages.1 To our knowledge, no study systematically examines social and psychological affects of litigation on individuals and communities and the degree to which these effects impede timely postdisaster recovery. The analytical framework presented in this article and the specification of the structural equation models are based on assumptions primarily derived from natural disaster studies (Bolin 1982; Clausen et al. 1978; Dynes 1974; Peacock & Ragsdale 2000) and our extension of these studies to include key variables identified in literature on technological disasters (Erikson 1994; Freudenburg 1997). The litigation hypothesis and analytical framework developed below will be operationalized and evaluated for the Exxon Valdez oil spill (EVOS), a major twentieth-century technological disaster. We examine the litigation hypothesis by presenting data from structural equation models of event-related psychological stress and perceived community damage. Longitudinal data are available, allowing for an assessment of long-term (3.5 years) impacts of the EVOS and subsequent litigation on residents of a small resource-dependent fishing community in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Disaster and Litigation / 1495