Institutional responses to sexual trauma

Abstract

Sexual violence is an intensely personal crime, in a way few other crimes are. It follows that a vast amount of research on sexual violence focuses on the individual, and primarily the victim. For instance, studies of sexual victimization often focus on the type of sexual violence experienced, the mental and physical consequences of sexual violence, and the victim’s characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors (e.g., Was she assertive? Were they drinking?). While this body of work has contributed vital information, sexual violence is also a public issue. Sexual violence happens within institutions, including communities, workplaces, schools, and larger sociocultural contexts. Additionally, trauma survivors may interact with a wide variety of institutions after violence occurs. Scholars have demonstrated the important role of institutional responses to sexual violence. For example, responses from the criminal justice system, medical system, and educational institutions can have a significant effect on survivors’ wellbeing (e.g., Campbell, 2008; Freyd & Birrell, 2013; Monteith, Bahraini, Matarazzo, Soberay, & Smith, 2016; Smith & Freyd, 2014; Smith, Gomez, & Freyd, 2014). This work illustrates that some survivors receive trauma-informed and victim-centered care when accessing support from institutions, but many others experience treatment that is deleterious and re-traumatizing (doubting or blaming the victim, taking no action). However, there is still much to learn about institutional responses to sexual violence. The goal of this special issue is to advance our understanding of how institutions respond to sexual trauma and advocate for better, empirically informed institutional responses. The special issue includes articles that focus on three specific institutions: the criminal justice system, higher education, and the U.S. Military. Two articles examine the criminal justice system. InQualitative Study of Sexual Assault Survivors’ Post-Assault Legal System Experiences, Katherine Lorenz, Anne Kirkner, and Sarah E. Ullman examine sexual assault survivors’ and their informal support providers’ experiences with the legal system. The study is a dyadic, qualitative analysis of interviews with matched pairs of survivors and their informal support providers (i.e., a friend, family member, or significant other). This article advances our understanding of survivors’ decision to pursue, or not pursue, a formal report and survivors’ experiences with the legal system. In their article,