Services for Victims of Rape - A Dualistic Practice Model

• NCJ Number: 75258
• Journal: Social Casework Volume: 62 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1981) Pages: 30-39
• Author(s): K A Holmes
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Based on a paper presented at the NASW (National Association of Social Work) Biennial Professional Symposium, San Diego (CA), November 17-22, 1977

Annotation

This paper presents a dualistic model that utilizes crisis intervention and advocacy strategies for the use of social workers who deal with rape victims.

Abstract

The crisis intervention strategy is based on the principle that a state of crisis experienced by a rape victim is not an illness and does not require a traditional diagnosis-treatment-cure model. Rather, it is a temporary and normal reaction to stress. The crisis intervention worker strives to reduce the immediate impact of the rape and to help the victim regain control. The strategy can be implemented in any or all of the formal service delivery systems with which victims interact. For example, a social worker may help the victim by answering questions and by offering realistic reassurance regarding procedures involved in medical examinations and interviews with a police investigator or a prosecutor. The advocacy strategy should be implemented by the social worker when the services, to which the victim is entitled, are inadequate. To be an effective advocate, the social worker ought to know the policies, regulations, and appeal procedures of the agencies and systems that may have to be confronted. Equally crucial are skills in such areas as organization and public relations. The advocacy strategy may involve case advocacy, i.e., action taken on behalf of a specific client, and class advocacy, i.e., action taken to effect change in policies, practices, or laws affecting all victims. The class advocacy should be implemented when the individual case has not been resolved. However, if, as feminists contend by their definition of the problem, rape represents predatory sexual inequality or a means of social control, then only the restructuring of society and resocialization toward sexual equality can be the advocate's final objective. In the interim, the dualistic model can serve to help victims deal more effectively with the existing realities of rape and can improve and humanize the services that they must have. A table and footnotes containing references are included.