These summaries were written by SVPEP staff and are based on original papers published within the last 2 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.

Lee, D.S., Guy, L., Perry, B., Sniffen, C.K., & Mixson, S.A. (2007). Sexual violence prevention. The Prevention Researcher, 14, 15-20. [Posted August 2007]

Key Points: Because sexual violence is a social problem, ending it requires comprehensive community prevention strategies as well as individual education.

Summary: The authors reviewed the feminist theoretical basis for sexual violence prevention programs, which states that cultural norms and unequal gender roles lead inevitably to violence against women. They argue that education efforts that address attitudes about gender roles and seek to build relationship skills can be made more effective by incorporating them into comprehensive and community change models. Several comprehensive programs developed using the Ecological Model and the Spectrum of Prevention model are described. Examples of programs based on community mobilization, changing social norms, and social marketing illustrate community level prevention strategies. The importance of promoting policy changes at local and national levels is emphasized. Finally, the authors call for more funding and research into cultural causes of and responses to sexual violence.

Topics: prevention; theory

Macy, R. J. (2006).  A coping theory framework toward preventing sexual revictimization.  Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12, 177-192. [Posted June 2008].
 
Key Points:  Adaptive, proactive, and resistive-defensive coping strategies may be used to construct a framework for interventions to prevent revictimization.

Summary: This paper examines three related coping theories; adaptive, proactive, and resistive-defensive and addresses how they may provide a framework to organize women’s coping efforts after sexual victimization in order to decrease the negative aspects of assault and reduce the likelihood of revictimization.  The paper consists of several sections: a summary of research on revictimization, a description of the three types of coping theories, the connections between theories, limitations of the research, and recommendations for future research.

Limitations: There is limited research on the scope of theory. 

Topics: prevention, theory

Mattaini, M. A., & McGuire, M. S. (2006). Behavioral strategies for constructing nonviolent cultures with Youth: A review. Behavior Modification, 30, 184-224.

Summary: This article provides a brief review of the roots of youth violence at a social level. It describes the traits of effective and ineffective programs to address youth violence, and focuses on two types of intervention strategies it considers to be promising and potentially effective. The first type is universal skill training with youth, for which the article provides an analysis of several programs using universal skill training. Each program description offers and a summary of its strengths and weaknesses. Such programmatic analysis is also provided for the second intervention type, which is the use of universal ecological based strategies in interventions. Such interventions are designed to change cultural practice in cultural networks.

Topics: adolescent/high school; prevention; theory

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Updated 09/22/08