This study examined patterns of formal and informal help-seeking in relation to violence, abuse, and control reported by 696 women and 471 men. Computer-assisted telephone interviews were conducted in 2004 as part of the General Social Survey on Victimization in Canada. Findings indicated that the most common informal sources of help for women were family, friends, and neighbors across all types of IPV and as the severity of violence and control increased so did help-seeking from formal sources. Among men, those who experienced moderate violence and control used both formal and informal sources of help. Men who reported less severe levels of physical violence were less likely than women to report or seek help. A wide range of health, social, and safety services and programs are needed to assist female and male victims of IPV.
These summaries were written by SVPEP staff and are based on original papers published within the last 6 years. The information available on this web site is provided as a public service and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the Arizona Department of Health Services, or the University of Arizona. To conduct an individual search or locate older articles use the Search Summary Database which includes over 600 articles related to sexual violence.
Victim Services
Ansara, D. L., & Hindin, M. J. (2010). Formal and informal help-seeking associated with women’s and men’s experiences of intimate partner violence in Canada. Social Science & Medicine, (online).
Only those who were heterosexual and reported a current, ex-spouse or common-law partner were interviewed.
Averill, J. B., Padilla, A. O., & Clements, P. T. (2007). Frightened in isolation: Unique considerations for research of sexual assault and interpersonal violence in rural areas. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 3, 42-46.
Characteristics of rural communities affecting victims’ ability to seek and access response services include lack of telephone service, public transportation, and privacy. Attitudes contributing to barriers include mistrust toward “outsider” interventions (e.g., law enforcement or social service agencies) and acceptance of traditional gender roles. Health and social services tend to be limited in rural areas, and victims must travel long distances to access them or wait a long time for emergency response. Victims may be less aware of services available to them. Existing victim and offender services are often managed by volunteers from the community, and confidentiality may be compromised. To address these barriers, the authors suggest a collaborative approach involving partnerships between different organizations and agencies, and encourage practitioners to obtain training to improve their ability to work with rural communities.
The article focuses on recommendations for forensic nurses.
Azikiwe, N., Wright, J., Cheng, T., & D’Angelo, L. J. (2005). Management of rape victims (regarding STD treatment and pregnancy prevention): Do academic emergency departments practice what they preach? Journal of Adolescent Health, 36, 446-448.
Results showed that 60% of emergency departments screen for STDs. Additionally, 85.9% provide EC counseling, 87.7% administer the first dose in the emergency department, and 64.7% offer HIV postexposure prophylaxis (PEP). Interestingly, only 67.9% of emergency departments have an EC policy and only 55.3% have a nonoccupational HIV PEP policy. As such, the majority of academic emergency departments are apparently offering EC counseling, EC treatment, and HIV PEP to victims of sexual assault, despite the absence of institutional policies.
Burgess, A. W., & Morgenbesser, L. I. (2005). Sexual violence and seniors. Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 5, 193-202.
In this article, the authors outline key issues related to the risk factors, psychological and physical impact, role of forensic services, and therapy unique to elderly victims of sexual assault. That is, reasons why the literature on sexual violence has overlooked elderly victims are reviewed. Additionally, the authors discuss: early recognition and detection tactics, intervention services addressing signs and symptoms of physical and emotional trauma, specifics concerning forensic examinations on elderly victims, therapy focusing on individual counseling (concerning rape trauma symptoms and rape trauma syndrome), group counseling and music therapy, living situations (independent/assisted living or nursing home), interventions for relatives of abused elderly, prevention suggestions, crisis intervention, and recommendations for nursing home staff – e.g., the need to establish behavioral baselines upon admission of new residents in order to identify victimization responses should abuse occur within the nursing home.
Campbell, R. (2006). Rape survivors’ experiences with the legal and medical systems: Do rape victim advocates make a difference? Violence Against Women, 12, 30-45.
This study looked at women who were treated in emergency rooms after reporting rape. Two hospitals were included in the study: one had a policy of paging a rape crisis advocate when a victim arrived, and the other did not. Participants included 36 women who worked with rape victim advocates and 45 who did not. Survivors were asked about medical and legal services that were offered, secondary victimization behaviors by medical and law enforcement staff, and their emotional responses to the secondary victimization. Victims who worked with advocates had more police reports taken (59% vs. 41%) and were less likely to experience secondary victimization behaviors from medical and legal personnel. They were more likely to be offered emergency contraception (33% vs. 14%) and information about/treatment for STDs. They were less likely to blame themselves for the assault (54% vs. 82%) and less reluctant to seek further help (67% vs. 91%). The author recommended that rape crisis centers continue to work with medical and legal systems to streamline response systems and increase the use of advocate services.
Chen, Y., & Ullman, S.E. (2010). Women’s reporting of sexual and physical assault to police in the National Violence Against Women survey. Violence Against Women, 16, 262-279.
This study used 874 sexual assault and 1,376 physical assault cases from the National Violence Against Women Survey to examine factors that may affect rape and physical assault reporting. Findings indicated that victim reporting for physical assault was twice that of sexual assault. Approximately 75% of all assaults were unreported, 18% reported by victims, and 7% reported by third parties. Assault characteristics that increased likelihood of reporting included: attack by a stranger, perceived life threat, weapon use, victim injury, and if the victim was unsure if the perpetrator used substances. Training for criminal justice officials and service providers should include information about how all victims who report assault should be treated justly and with dignity and should be informed that rape is a crime even if perpetrated by a non-stranger, without weapons and physical force or injury.
Analysis lacked information about post assault variables such as psychological symptoms and if victims received help from others that could have influenced reporting.
Elklit, A., & Shevlin, M. (2010). General practice utilization after sexual victimization: A case control study. Violence Against Women, (online).
Data from 1999-2005 from the Danish Civil Registration System was used to examine the relationship between visiting the Centre for Rape Victims (CRV) and frequency of visits to a general practitioner. Findings indicated that contact with a general practitioner was higher among those who visited the CRV than the control group. Results of this study may be used to estimate health needs of victims of sexual violence.
This was a case-control study conducted in Denmark.
Fotheringham, S. & Tomlinson, D. (2009). Identifying the potential for collaboration between women’s shelters and sexual assault centres: Comparing and contrasting the service delivery needs of clients. Currents: New Scholarship in the Human Services, 8, 1-13.
Between 2005 and 2006, 24 senior-level management staff from 19 Sexual Assault Centres and Women’s shelter in Alberta, Canada were interviewed about services, client groups, level of collaboration, and perceived benefits and risks of collaboration. Collaboration was defined as “efforts involving any form of working together ranging from informal, to the sharing of space and creation of new structures.” The majority of participants reported that collaboration was possible and essential. Drawbacks reported included a loss of distinction between each issue resulting in less funding as well as marginalization of male sexual abuse victims. Authors suggested that collaborative treatment models would better serve women who experience both forms of violence.
Findings included a sub-sample of providers that were part of a larger study across Canada and 3 states in America.
Hellman, C. & House, D. (2006). Volunteers serving victims of sexual assault. Journal of Social Psychology, 146, 117-123.
In this study, researchers looked at factors associated with volunteer satisfaction, commitment, and intent to continue volunteering. Twenty-eight sexual violence crisis hotline and hospital advocate volunteers filled out mail-in surveys. Satisfied volunteers were more likely to report intending to remain in their positions. Compared with less satisfied volunteers, satisfied volunteers reported higher levels of feelings of competence, social support, and emotional attachment to the agency. They also reported finding monthly agency meetings more valuable and had lower levels of exposure to victim blaming from other service providers. This is a very small sample, but it reaches the same conclusions as previous research. The authors recommended on-going training for volunteers, including skills-building to confront victim-blaming among other service providers. By addressing these issues, volunteers may be more satisfied, which may lead to better retention.
Jones, J. S., Alexander, C., Wynn, B. N., Rossman, L., & Dunnuck, C. (2009). Violence: Recognition, management and prevention. Why women don't report sexual assault to the police: The influence of psychosocial variables and traumatic injury. The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 36, 417-424.
This study identified reasons why women may not report sexual assaults to police and the differences in demographics, assault characteristics, and injury patterns between those who do and do not report assaults. Data was gathered from 337 adult women who presented to a YWCA Nurse Examiner Program or emergency department. Results indicated that one out of four of the women did not report the rape to the police. No differences were reported in frequency or severity of injuries between reporters and non-reporters. Age, martial status, and ethnicity were not associated with reporting. Women who did not report were more likely to be employed, had a history of drug or alcohol use, knew the perpetrator, and had longer intervals of time between assault and forensic evaluation. The authors suggested that a strategy to increase reporting may be to increase the likelihood of arrest and prosecution of perpetrators.
Documentation of the clinical exam may not have been uniform across all nurse examiners.
Thapar-Bjorkert, S., & Morgan, K. J. (2010). “But sometimes I think…they put themselves in the situation”: Exploring blame and responsibility in interpersonal violence. Violence Against Women, 16, 32-59.
Institutional discourses that may support a culture of blame and responsibility aimed at female victims of violence were examined. In 2005, unstructured interviews were conducted with 15 volunteers (13 women, 2 men) who worked with female victims of violence in the United Kingdom. The narratives were divided into 3 themes: burden of responsibility placed on women, surveillance and normalizing judgments, and institutional attitudes. The analyses suggested that even though organizational rhetoric, policies, and measures provided immediate assistance to victims they often did not address wider social attitudes that may cause an ambiguous response from the volunteer toward the victim’s experience. Authors suggested that the civic-political culture should move away from a produced victim and focus on the social attitudes that may generate a victim.
All volunteers interviewed were recruited from a single branch of victim services during one volunteer meeting.
Wasco, S., & Campbell, R. (2002). Emotional reactions of rape victim advocates: A multiple case study of anger and fear. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 120-130.
Qualitative analysis was conducted on the emotional reactions of women who support rape victims through the criminal justice process and through other services provided after the assault (physical and mental). Results showed that women respond to individual factors and environmental factors surrounding rape with emotions of fear and anger. Also, some rape victim advocates viewed their emotional responses as beneficial to the victim specifically and within their work in general.
Wasco, S., Campbell, R., & Clark, M. (2002). A multiple case study of rape victim advocates’ self-care routines: The influence of organizational context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 731-760.
Qualitative analysis was conducted on the types of self-care strategies used and the organizational settings of the work place of rape victim advocates. This study further evaluated the relationship between the advocates’ use of self-care strategies and organizational support provided. Results indicate that self-care routines were derived from various resources and provided the benefit of “cathartic releasing of traumatic material”, and “improving capacity to integrate traumatic material into one’s life.” Several organizational characteristics reviewed in this study were reported as being supportive. All of the victim advocates reported using self-care strategies; however, those who worked in organizations with higher levels of support were able to benefit from a combination of both self-care and organizational support methods.
Zweig, J., & Burt, M.R. (2007). Predicting women’s perceptions of domestic violence and sexual assault agency helpfulness: What matters to program clients? Violence Against Women, 13, 1149-1178.
Interviews with 1,509 women were conducted to asses if community agency interaction, staff behavior, and combination of services predict helpfulness of domestic violence and sexual assault agencies. Women reported that private non-profit victim service agencies were most helpful when there was positive staff behavior and when they felt a sense of control when working with staff. Increased helpfulness was reported when victim services were perceived to have interacted with the legal system and other community agencies.
Women were only interviewed once and so results do not examine the long-term impact on women’s health and safety.