NCJ Number
110093
Editor(s)
A W Burgess
Date Published
1988
Length
330 pages
Annotation
These 15 research papers on rape and sexual assault focus on the effect of rape on its victims and the social constructs that support and promote rape in our culture.
Abstract
Using surveys, reviews of psychiatric records, and analyses of historical materials and recent research, the authors focus on a variety of victim populations. Individual papers consider the adequacy of national crime statistics and criminal victimization studies, the relationship between physical and sexual abuse and subsequent psychiatric illness, and the relationship between sexual trauma, sexual functioning, and sexual preference in relation to alcoholism and drug dependency. Additional papers consider sexual harassment by teachers of students, prostitutes as victims of rapes that are unrelated to their prostitution, sexual abuse of boys, and victim response strategies in sexual assault. Further papers focus on the treatment of patients who have been sexually abused by psychotherapists, the effects of self-blame in the recovery of rape victims, and treatment approaches. Papers addressing the social context of sexual assault examine the vulnerability of adolescents of sexual assault, adolescents' attitudes about gender roles in dating relationships, recent developments in rape law reform, and women's attitudinal and behavioral reactions to crime. Tables, chapter reference lists, and index.