The Effects of Threatening Versus Nonthreatening Previous Life Events on Levels of Fear in Rape Victims

Abstract

Although the link between the level of the psychological distress of victims after a rape and life events that occurred before the attack has historically been attributed to a general event-related disruption of the victim's psychological equilibrium, recent research suggests that only specific types of preattack events--those the victim perceives as making her vulnerable to future harm--may be associated with the postassault level of fear experienced by the rape victim. To test this thesis empirically, the authors compared the levels of fear of three groups of recent victims, one and six months after the rape: those who had experienced at least one life-threatening event in the year before the attack, those who had experienced only nonthreatening (but major-impact) events, and those who had experienced no major-impact events. Victims who had experienced at least one life-threatening event in the previous year were found to have significantly higher one-month and six-month (controlling for one-month) levels of fear than did victims in either of the other two groups; the means of these latter two groups were not found to differ significantly. These results empirically validate the importance of components of the threat of future harm associated with prior life events to short-term and long-term levels of fear of rape victims and offer one basis on which to identify victims who are at particularly high risk of experiencing long-term psychological distress.