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ERIC Number: EJ826318
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Mar
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0361-6843
EISSN: N/A
Sexual Assault Victims' Acknowledgment Status and Revictimization Risk
Littleton, Heather; Axsom, Danny; Grills-Taquechel, Amie
Psychology of Women Quarterly, v33 n1 p34-42 Mar 2009
How a victim of rape characterizes her assault has potential implications for her postassault experiences and revictimization risk. Prior research has identified several potential benefits to not conceptualizing one's experience as a form of victimization. The current study sought to identify whether there are costs to not acknowledging rape as well, specifically whether unacknowledged victims are at elevated risk of revictimization. The revictimization risk behaviors of 334 acknowledged and unacknowledged female college rape victims were compared. Unacknowledged victims reported more hazardous alcohol use and were more likely to report that they continued a relationship with the assailant after the assault. A subsample of 105 victims completed a 6-month follow-up survey regarding sexual victimization during the follow-up period. Unacknowledged victims were nearly twice as likely to report having experienced an attempted rape during the 6-month follow-up period. Implications of the results for future work evaluating rape acknowledgment, rape recovery, and revictimization are discussed.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A