NCJ Number
202645
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 18 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2003 Pages: 473-484
Date Published
August 2003
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the association between child sexual abuse and adult sexual revictimization by sex partners and strangers/nonsex partners.
Abstract
The study assessed three forms of adult sexual revictimization: rape by a sex partner (including johns), other sexual victimization by a sex partner (including johns), and rape/sexual assault by a stranger/nonsex partner. This study also attempted to identify the pathways (mediators) through which child sexual abuse could affect revictimization. The pathways examined were adolescent sexual abuse, lifetime sex-trading, drug treatment, and mental health treatment. The hypothesis was that child sexual abuse would impact revictimization by a sex partner to a greater extent than revictimization by a stranger/nonsex partner. Subjects were participants in the National Institute on Drug Abuse-supported Women Helping to Empower and Enhance Lives Project, a 3-year study and evaluation of a HIV prevention model for non-injecting female sex partners of male heterosexual injection drug users. Two research instruments were administered: the Risk Behavior Assessment and the Women’s Supplement. The results revealed that approximately one-fourth of the community-recruited women in the sample had been revictimized. Child sexual abuse was associated with all three forms of adult sexual revictimization. Child sexual abuse appeared to be an important predictor for both rape and for other sexual victimization by a sex partner, as it remained a significant predictor in the regression analyses even after mediators were added. Child sexual abuse was also related to rape or sexual assault by a stranger/nonsex partner; however, its loss of significance when mediators were added to the analysis indicated that child sexual abuse was not the dominating force for revictimization by someone other than a sex partner. Child sexual abuse is part of a larger complex of variables that predict this form of adult revictimization. These findings suggest that child sexual abuse exerts a stronger effect on sexual revictimization by a sex partner than by a stranger or nonsex partner. 4 tables, 29 references