| NCJ Number: |
212031  |
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| Title: |
Correlates of Women's Sexual Assault Disclosure to Informal and Formal Support Sources |
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| Journal: |
Violence and Victims Volume:20 Issue:4 Dated:August 2005 Pages:417-432 |
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| Author(s): |
Laura L. Starzynski M.A.; Sarah E. Ullman Ph.D.; Henrietta H. Filipas M.A.; Stephanie M. Townsend M.A. |
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| Date Published: |
August 2005 |
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| Page Count: |
16 |
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| Publisher: |
http://www.springerpub.com/ |
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| Format: |
Article |
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| Language: |
English |
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| Country: |
United States of America |
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| Annotation: |
A sample of adult sexual assault survivors were surveyed to identify demographic, assault, and postassault factors differentiating women disclosing both to informal and formal support services and differences in social reactions, either positive or negative.
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| Abstract: |
Research on sexual assault has examined how this crime differs from other violent crimes in terms of psychological impact on victims and societal responses to the problem. Many factors can affect the social reactions women in particular receive when disclosing sexual assault experiences. Women disclose their sexual assault experiences to different types of informal and formal support sources. Informal support includes romantic partners, parents, and friends. Formal support services include clergy, police, medical personnel, mental health professionals, and rape crisis counselors. This study involved two sets of analyses. First, it examined which demographic, assault, and postassault characteristics were related to sexual assault survivors’ disclosure of the assault to informal support sources only or to both formal and informal support sources. Second, differences in social reactions (positive or negative) for women telling informal sources only or both sources were examined. Study results indicate that both assault characteristics and women’s postassault responses are related to sexual assault victims’ disclosures of their assaults to social support sources and to the social reactions victims receive from others using a large, ethnically diverse sample. The findings highlight the importance of increasing societal awareness of sexual assault in general. The results also suggest that further research is needed on sexual assault survivors’ disclosure experiences and the reactions they receive from their social support networks. Tables, references
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| Main Term(s): |
Sexual assault victims |
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| Index Term(s): |
Attitudes toward victims; Female victims; Psychological victimization effects; Rape trauma syndrome; Reactions to crime; Sexual assault; Victim attitudes; Victim reactions to crime; Victim services |
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To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=233499 |
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