Sexual Assault Services

Sexual violence remains a serious, pervasive problem despite community and nationwide efforts in the last few decades to better understand and prevent it. Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey reveal that 1 in 6 women will experience a rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. Nearly half of the female victims surveyed, regarding their most recent experience of rape, thought they or somebody close to them would be seriously harmed or killed. (Tjaden & Thoennes, US Dept of Justice, 2006). Rape and sexual assault remain the most under reported crimes in the United States. In Rebecca Campbell’s review of therapeutic issues for rape survivors, she states that rape destroys a victim’s sense of personal safety and threatens the assumptions survivors have about themselves and the world. She states that through the process of recovery, many victims experience guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, tension, crying spells, depression, anger, discomfort in social situations, impaired memory and concentration, exaggerated startle response and rapid mood swings. Even years after the assault, survivors are more likely to have a mental health diagnosis, alcohol or drug dependence, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sexual violence is unique in the way that it’s experienced by victims because they are most often acquainted or in some type of relationship with the perpetrators. Low incidences of reporting should never be confused with the impact that sexual violence has on victims. Not only do victims often decide to refrain from or withdraw their report to the police, they also tend to withhold their experiences from friends and family due to shame, embarrassment or fear of rejection or disapproval. Often, counseling is their only option for working through the feelings and symptoms that are a result of being sexually victimized. A victim’s suffering can be reduced by appropriate intervention.