It is understandable the two situations you have described can be a trigger. The defenseless were victims in both scenarios. Something like that can trigger times in one's own history where one could have felt helpless. What can contribute to the trigger is that bad happened or may be happening even though you have some exposure but your exposure did not prevent. Much of that can trigger something from any time in one's history, especially during childhood where anything similar took place.

Often a person chooses a career that has something to do with prevention because of challenges they witnessed or experienced at a young age themselves.