History Of Sexual Violence Research Articles

Differences in Trauma-Related Guilt in Females with History of Sexual Violence Based on Insomnia Severity

Differences in Trauma-Related Guilt in Females with History of Sexual Violence Based on Insomnia Severity

Suicidal ideation: Risk Factor- Vulnerability and Protective Factor — Resiliency among youth of Juvenile Justice System

Suicide is a leading cause of death for adolescents. A number of problem behaviours associated with youth suicide fall into the purview of law enforcement personnel, and they are therefore in a position to detect risk and prevent suicidal behaviours. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that increase or decrease suicide risk among a group of the juvenile justice system at risk for school dropout, a population known to be at increased risk for multiple problem behaviours. Studies of youth who died by suicide provide information to guide prevention efforts, and there is evidence that a number of youth who died by suicide had contact at some point with the legal system. The literature is sparse with regard to suicidal ideation among Indian women with a history of sexual violence as a minor. Using survey data, this study utilized logistic regression to investigate the roles of a risk factor, criminal justice involvement, and protective factors, and ethnic identity in experiencing suicidal ideation. Findings suggest that criminal justice involvement and the interaction of ethnic identity and spiritual well-being are important factors in understanding which Indian may be at a greater risk of experiencing suicidal ideation. Results are discussed relative to prevention and early intervention programs; particularly the importance of understanding adolescent violent behaviours within a context that addresses stress and distress.

MAP Training My Brain™: Meditation Plus Aerobic Exercise Lessens Trauma of Sexual Violence More Than Either Activity Alone.

Sexual violence against women often leads to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental illness characterized by intrusive thoughts and memories about the traumatic event (Shors and Millon, 2016). These mental processes are obviously generated by the brain but often felt in the body. MAP Training My Brain™ is a novel clinical intervention that combines mental training of the brain with physical training of the body (Curlik and Shors, 2013; Shors et al., 2014). Each training session begins with 20-min of sitting meditation, followed by 10-min of slow-walking meditation, and ending with 30-min of aerobic exercise at 60–80% of the maximum heart rate (see maptrainmybrain.com). In previous studies, the combination of mental and physical (MAP) training together significantly reduced symptoms of depression and ruminative thoughts, while reducing anxiety (Shors et al., 2014, 2017; Alderman et al., 2016). We also documented positive changes in brain activity during cognitive control and whole-body oxygen consumption in various populations. In the present pilot study, we asked whether the combination of meditation and aerobic exercise during MAP Training would reduce trauma-related thoughts, ruminations, and memories in women and if so, whether the combination would be more effective than either activity alone. To test this hypothesis, interventions were provided to a group of women (n = 105), many of whom had a history of sexual violence (n = 32). Groups were trained with (1) MAP Training, (2) meditation alone, (3) aerobic exercise alone, or (4) not trained. Individuals in training groups completed two sessions a week for at least 6 weeks. MAP Training My Brain™ significantly reduced post-traumatic cognitions and ruminative thoughts in women with a history of sexual violence, whereas meditation alone, and exercise alone did not. MAP Training significantly enhanced a measure of self-worth, whereas meditation and exercise alone did not. Similar positive effects were observed for all participants, although meditation alone was also effective in reducing trauma-related thoughts. Overall, these data indicate the combination of meditation and exercise is synergistic. As a consequence, MAP Training is preferable and especially so for women who have experienced sexual violence in their past. Simply put, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Who, What, Why and When of Gynaecological Referrals for Refugee Women

Refugees have health needs relating to unstable living situations and poor access to care. We examined the nature of health problems requiring gynaecological referrals for refugee women in Toronto. A retrospective cohort design was used to examine gynaecologic referrals of women at a refugee clinic between December, 2011 and June, 2016. The primary outcome measure was the indications for gynaecological referral. 125 out of 1040 women received a gynaecologic referral for 131 unique concerns. The most common referrals were for abnormal uterine bleeding and cervical dysplasia. Fibroids were prevalent amongst African patients, while referrals for LARCs/sterilization were absent from Middle Eastern patients. 26% of patients referred had a sexual violence history. Refugee women exhibit gynaecologic needs similar to the broader population. Needs vary by geographic origins. As global conflicts shift, so too will this population's needs. High rates of sexual violence history reflect the need for further understanding and intervention.

History of Sexual Violence in Higher Education

AbstractIn this chapter, we describe the history of sexual violence as it pertains to postsecondary institutions, focusing on social movements, research, and policy, and their implications for higher education.

Risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections in noninjecting drug users: A cross-sectional study.

The objective of this study was to investigate risk behaviors for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in noninjecting drug users (NIDUs), using STI diagnosis history as an indicator. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 323 NIDUs of two facilities for alcohol and/or drug dependence treatment in the Goiás State, Central Brazil. All participants were interviewed about risk behaviors and STI history. Multivariable analysis was performed in order to identify predictors of STIs. Adjusted prevalence ratio (APR) with confidence intervals of 95% was obtained using a Poisson regression model. Prevalence of self-reported STIs in the previous 12 months was 25.4% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 21.0-30.4%). A multivariable model verified that age (APR: 1.01; 95% CI: 1.00-1.01), sexual contact with partners diagnosed with STIs (APR: 1.27; 95% CI: 1.12-1.45) and injecting drug users (IDUs) (APR: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.14; 95% CI: 1.01-1.31), exchange sex for money and/or drugs (APR: 1.12; 95% CI: 1.02-1.21), and a history of sexual violence (APR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.04-1.32) were predictors of STIs. Elevated rates of STI history and risk behaviors were observed in NIDUs, supporting the vulnerability of this group for these infections. Public policies and health outreach should be intensified in this population, principally regular STI testing of individuals in treatment for drug dependence and their sexual partners.

Sexual re-victimisation of adolescent girls in institutional care with a history of sexual violence in childhood: empirical results and conclusions for prevention

The article explores the issue of sexual re-victimisation, based on a short-term longitudinal study of adolescent girls in residential care in Germany. Using qualitative and standardised instruments, the study examined the frequency and conditions of re-victimisation occurring within a set time period and the possibilities and difficulties of preventing the recurrence of sexual violence, including psychological and social consequences of sexual abuse. The research found that despite traumatic problems and psychological disorders, for the girls and young women in residential care improvement towards lesser vulnerability after sexual abuse and other forms of endangerment was possible.

Pornohealing: Pornography as a healing process for individuals with a history of sexual violence

By taking as a starting point “The Clit List,” a pornographic database that includes porn material addressed to individuals who have experienced sexual harassment(s) and/or assault(s), this essay brings forward the following question: can pornography take the form of a healing process for individuals with a history of sexual violence? In order to provide an answer, alternative uses and aspects of pornography will be explored, with a particular focus on queer, feminist, and ethical porn. Following the contemporary history of pornography, I engage with both Queer Theory by discussing queer feminist approaches to porn, but also Affect Theory by sharing queer feminist approaches to trauma and the potential healing that an (erotic) film can induce in the spectator. More than simply seeking for alternative aspects of porn, this essay accounts for the (re)introduction of pornography as a productive media with a sexual healing possibility.

Consider the impact of regulations banning violent student‐athletes from teams

The cases of student‐athletes with a history of sexual violence — or who have been alleged to have engaged in such conduct — have garnered the attention of the entire college athletics community during the last several years.

Group education sessions for women veterans who experienced sexual violence: Qualitative findings.

The impact of sexual violence (SV) on mental health, self-care, and interpersonal relationships is profound and poses special challenges to health care delivery. Reproductive health care merits special attention because the care required may be linked to reminders of past abuse. We explored facilitators and barriers affecting the use of reproductive health services among women veterans with a history of SV. Between June and September 2015, we conducted 2 focus groups and 3 general education sessions with 27 female veterans with a history of SV at 1 medical center. We analyzed transcripts according to applied thematic analysis and used Nvivo software for data management and retrieval. Three main themes emerged from the focus groups and education sessions. (a) expressed a desire for greater agency in relation to the control they have over their bodies and medical care; (b) described how posttraumatic stress symptoms are retriggered during medical care; and (c) expressed needs for additional education, peer and provider support within the medical system. For women with a history of SV, multiple individual and systemic barriers complicate how they utilize reproductive health services. Group education sessions were an effective mode of support, information and connection to other women within the Veterans Health Administration. (PsycINFO Database Record

Impact of Sexual Violence Across the Lifespan on HIV Risk Behaviors Among Transgender Women and Cisgender People Living With HIV.

To examine sexual violence across the lifespan among transgender and cisgender people living with HIV and its associations with recent risk behaviors. Seven community-based sites serving priority populations disproportionately affected by HIV in the United States, including major metropolitan areas in the West and East Coast, as well as the suburban Mid-Atlantic and rural Southeastern regions. From 2013 to 2016, baseline survey data were collected from participants (N = 583) of a multisite community-based HIV linkage to/retention in care study conducted at 7 sites across the United States. Adjusted mixed-effects logistic regression models with random effect for site-assessed associations of sexual violence and gender identity with risk outcomes including condomless sex, sex trade involvement, and substance use-related harms. One-third of participants reported a history of sexual violence; transgender [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 5.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6 to 10.1] and cisgender women (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI: 2.3 to 6.4) were more likely than cisgender men to experience sexual violence. Sexual violence was associated with experiencing drug-related harms (AOR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.2 to 5.5). Transgender women were more likely than cisgender men to have sold sex (AOR = 9.3, 95% CI: 1.7 to 50.0). A history of sexual violence is common among transgender and cisgender women PLWH, and it increases risk for drug-related harms. Transgender women are also more likely to report selling sex.

Acceptability, Feasibility, and Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Group Education Sessions for Women Veterans with a History of Sexual Trauma

Abstract Women with a history of sexual violence may face obstacles to obtaining preventive health services. Group education models have been used in other settings to improve knowledge and uptake of care. Focus groups were conducted to solicit the concerns and input of the subject population. Interdisciplinary group education sessions (GESs) were designed specifically to address concerns voiced in focus groups. GESs were conducted, addressing mammograms, pelvic examinations, and menopause, and emphasized preventive health education, as well as shared decision-making. GESs were audio recorded and qualitative feedback was collected immediately after each GES. Surveys were administered before and after each GES to evaluate attitude and knowledge change. A total of 18 women attended the focus groups, and 27 women attended at least one GES, with 12 women attending both. GESs were well received, and participants cited the education, group support, and healing dynamic as benefits of participation. Content knowl...

Vulnerability in adolescence: a case report of attempted abortion and sexual violence

Background: Abortion, even when provided by law in cases of sexual violence, continues to be practiced in an insecure way, since women who suffer violence are not reported or guarded by social, institutional or age vulnerability, as in adolescence. Objective: Describe the clinical consequences of unsafe abortion, report this experience as well as sexual violence in situations of social and age vulnerability. Method: It is a clinical case report, with the consent of the patient, in the year 2016, of a 16-year-old female adolescent with a personal history of sexual violence by an intimate aggressor. Admitted to the health service with diagnosis of acute abdomen and induced abortion using antibiotic therapy. Results: Laboratory tests revealed altered C reactive protein and presence of leukocytosis, ultrasound showed heterogenic mass, computed tomography showed presence of cylindrical foreign body in vaginal cavity, surgical interventions, sepsis, clinical complications (pulmonary thromboembolism) and prolonged hospitalization. Conclusion: The history of violence portrayed in this study reveals an attempt of abortion with self harm, revealing negative clinical repercussions and the health problems of the adolescent. This person has committed an abortion that does not fit into the abortion criteria provided by law. It also revealed the need for further discussion on the topic, highlighting health promotion practices against unsafe abortion.

A history of sexual violence: on rape and assault as Cronenberg tropes

This essay argues that rape and sexual assault, while seldom central to the overt plots of David Cronenberg’s movies, recur often as story points in films across every period of his career. The oblique or ambiguous ways in which films like Stereo (1969), A History of Violence (2005), and A Dangerous Method (2011) confront sexual violence as theme or event do not render it a marginal concern. In fact, the quandaries of what ‘counts’ as sexual violence in Cronenberg’s cinema, whether the body or the mind is the primary site of such violence, and how specific dynamics of gender and power inflect each instance are precisely what make his work distinctive and valuable on this topic. His films remind viewers of how, in images as in the law, rape and assault can prove difficult to define or to recognize, and therefore to protest or prosecute.

Psychosocial Correlates of Attitudes Toward Male Sexual Violence in a Sample of Financial Crime, Property Crime, General Violent, and Homicide Offenders.

Although those currently serving prison sentences for sexual violence can be identified and receive treatment, the number of prisoners with a history of sexual violence against female partners is unknown. Methods to identify prisoners with a proclivity for such violence and accurately assess the risk they pose before and after incarceration are therefore required. Here, we aimed to assess the level of sexually violent attitudes within dating relationships and to examine their associations with experiences of child abuse and neglect (CAN), psychopathic personality traits, prisonization, number of incarcerations, age, years of schooling, relationship status, and parenting among different types of offenders (financial crime, property crime, general violent, and homicide offenders). Data were collected among a large systematically selected sample of adult male inmates ( N = 1,123). We demonstrated that sexual violence-supportive attitudes appear to be a function of child sexual abuse and psychopathic personality traits, and may be developed through early socialization experiences as well as incarceration. Practical implications of current findings are discussed.

Resilience processes within the school context of adolescents with sexual violence history

Abstract: This study examines the school context of adolescents with a sexual violence history, highlighting their perceptions of protective and vulnerability mechanisms within a social ecological resilience framework. The study was conducted in a youth service agency located in a mid-sized city in the inner of Sao Paulo state. Initially, 31 male and female adolescents victims of sexual violence, aged 12-18, answered survey items assessing resilience processes. Based on their responses, a subgroup of seven adolescents was selected to participate in individual semi-structured interviews addressing the role of school in their lives. Five key themes were identified in the data, with two overarching categories emerging: ‘evaluation of school structure’ and ‘formative processes through diversity and difference’. Exploration of interview excerpts within these categories revealed that schools occupy an ambivalent space in terms of risk and protective factors in the participants’ lives, with predominately negative social indicators emerging.

Association between Physical and Sexual Violence and Mental Health in Suburban Women of Zahedan: A Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Suburban population is a group at risk of violence and mental disorder due to inappropriate socioeconomic and environmental factors in informal settlements. Sexual and physical violence are associated with short and long-term mental health disorders. Aim: To investigate the association between physical and sexual violence and mental health status in suburban women of reproductive age. Materials and Methods: This correlational cross-sectional study assessed the sexual and physical violence and mental health among 400 suburban women living in Zahedan, Iran in 2016. Randomised one stage cluster sampling was used. General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) and sexual and physical violence questionnaire was used for data collection. For data analysis, descriptive statistical methods, independent t-tests and linear regression analysis were performed. Results: In 400 samples, 72 (18), 156 (39) and 248 of women (62) experienced physical violence, sexual violence and mental disorders respectively. There were significant differences between the mean of GHQ-28 scores in groups with and without a history of physical violence (p<0.001) also in groups with and without a history of sexual violence (p=0.03). Linear regression analysis showed physical and sexual violence had significant relationship with GHQ-28 (p<0.001, p=0.03 respectively). Conclusion: Status of mental health of suburban women is inappropriate and is under effects of physical and sexual violence. Policy and planning to reduce violence, mental health promotion and providing acceptable service for these people are essential.

Danticat’s Vodou Vernacular of Women’s Human Rights

In Breath, Eyes, Memory, Edwidge Danticat uses a Haitian vernacular of Vodou to represent sexual violence against women as a human rights issue. The term vernacular joins earlier commentary on the novel with current theories of human rights discourse. Critics note that Danticat uses domestic vernaculars such as folklore, storytelling, and cooking to reveal Haiti’s hidden history of sexual violence. Similarly, human rights theorists explain that states and advocates use a moral vernacular to negotiate how to apply human rights principles in particular contexts. I claim that Danticat uses Vodou tropes of the Marasa twins and the lwa Ezili to connect Sophie’s virginity testing and Martine’s rape to the Haitian state’s political violence against its people. In this way, Danticat’s Vodou vernacular links the private and public to demonstrate that sexual violence constitutes a violation of human rights that cannot be bracketed as personal or cultural. The novel thus participates in the transnational feminist movement of the 1980s-1990s that sought recognition for rape as a war crime and as a justification for political asylum. Moreover, the novel’s Vodou vernacular resists the normativizing effects of liberal feminism and Western humanism to constitute Haitian women as human rights subjects.

Torture, the State, and Sexual Violence against Men in Colonial India

This article broadens the analysis of gendered violence in colonial India by focusing on sexual violence against men. Rather than seeking to “recover” the “submerged” history of sexual violence against men, I interrogate the traces of such violence in the colonial archive to consider how and why the sexual violation of Indian men was able to enter the colonial archive. In light, moreover, of the refusal of colonial officials to name such violence as a sex crime, I consider what a nonevent reveals about the archive and, by extension, colonial rule—above all, about colonial masculinity. I focus in particular on the rape of a subaltern man named Rahmat Musalli—not to formulate his subjectivity but to question the sign of rape in the colonial archive. I hope to build, therefore, on existing scholarship on the ways in which both colonialism and colonial archives are gendered.

Risk and Protective Factors for Suicidal Ideation in African American Women With a History of Sexual Violence as a Minor.

Compared with other ethnic groups, African Americans have the highest rate of childhood victimization. The literature is sparse with regard to suicidal ideation among African American women with a history of sexual violence as a minor. Using survey data, this study utilized logistic regression to investigate the roles of a risk factor, criminal justice involvement, and protective factors, ethnic identity, and spiritual well-being, in experiencing suicidal ideation. Findings suggest that criminal justice involvement and the interaction of ethnic identity and spiritual well-being are important factors in understanding which African American women may be at a greater risk of experiencing suicidal ideation.