NCJ Number
227212
Journal
Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma Volume: 18 Issue: 3 Dated: April-May 2009 Pages: 293-312
Date Published
May 2009
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This study explored the effectiveness of a group trauma and abuse intervention for prostituted women in a prison and a community exiting program.
Abstract
It was hypothesized that the Esuba trauma and abuse group intervention program would decrease the trauma levels of all participants in both the community and prison groups. The findings supported the hypothesis as indicated by improvement from pre- to post-program tests on all trauma subscales of the standard measurement in both the prison group and the community group. The hypothesis that stated that changes in the levels of trauma symptoms, based on the Trauma Summary scale, would be greater for the community group when compared to the prison group was not supported by the findings. Instead, the results indicated that the trauma symptom levels of both groups decreased significantly with the prison group experiencing greater change. Experiences of trauma and the long-term physical and mental health impact of violence and abuse are significant problems in the lives of prostituted women. Past research on the problems of prostitutes supports the need to develop and implement trauma-focused treatment programs. One program studied is Esuba: Women Helping Women Turn Abuse Around. It is a therapeutic intervention for women who have been victimized and traumatized. The program is a psychoeducational therapy group and was chosen to be used in this study. The study evaluated and compared the effectiveness of Esuba for 2 samples of female prostitutes (n = 29), 1 in the community and the other in prison. Both groups were provided with the Esuba 12-week psychoeducational intervention addressing trauma and abuse issues. Figure, tables, and references