You work at a victim/witness resource center where you assist the victims of crime to handle the emotional and technical ramifications of the crime before they go to court. The husband of a victim, a woman who was carjacked by a teenager one night, takes you aside and asks you to persuade his wife to drop the charges. He tells you confidentially that it would be better for his wife if “she didn’t have to go through this.” Who owns the problem? 

In the above situations, identify who owns the problem. As you study each case, decide whether it is you, as the worker, who owns the problem; whether the client and perhaps the client’s family owns the problem; or whether both you and the client own the problem at the same time.