Supportive and Unsupportive Aspects of the Behavior of Others Toward Victims of Sexual and Nonsexual Assault

• NCJ Number: 161937
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1996) Pages: 250-262
• Author(s): R C Davis; E Brickman
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 13 pages
• Grant Number(s): R01 MH40352
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Mental Health
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study asked victims and their primary significant others (SO's) to rate the amounts of supportive and unsupportive behaviors of the SO's following sexual or nonsexual assaults.

Abstract

Subjects included 128 recent victims of violent crime and 128 persons designated by the victims as their primary significant others. Sixty-six percent of the crimes in the sample involved a rape or sexual assault, and 34 percent involved a nonsexual assault. All of the victims were female, and they ranged in age from 17 to 83, with a mean age of 32. The sample was primarily minority and low income. The study was conducted with a standardized interview schedule, which included demographic and other background questions; measures of psychological adjustment; and the Crime Impact Social Support Inventory (CISSI), a measure developed for this study. The CISSI is a 42-item inventory of both supportive and unsupportive behaviors that a significant other might display toward the victim after a crime. Questions are not specific to sexual assault, but several do make reference to criminal victimization. The findings show that victim and SO reports of supportive behavior correlated moderately, but victim and SO reports of unsupportive behavior were only weakly correlated; nevertheless, victims and SO's reported similar levels of both supportive and unsupportive behavior. Neither victim nor SO report data show differences in amounts of supportive SO behavior according to whether the crime was a sexual or a nonsexual assault. According to both victims and SO's, however, rape victims received higher levels of unsupportive SO behavior. Moreover, according to victim reports, unsupportive actions of female SO's were comparable in sexual and nonsexual assault cases; male SO's, however, were far more likely to engage in unsupportive actions in sexual assault cases than in nonsexual assaults. 3 tables and 44 references