Unfounded Sexual Assault: Women’s Experiences of Not Being Believed by the Police

Why don't more women report sexual assault to the police?

© 2000 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors An estimated 94% of sexual assaults never come to the attention of the criminal justice system. We examined data from the charts of all 958 individuals who were examined at the Sexual Assault Service between Jan. 1, 1993, and Dec. 31, 1997. This service is operated by the Children's & Women's Health Centre of British Columbia in partnership w...

Police interviews of sexual assault reporters: do attitudes matter?

Sexual assault is underreported in the United States. Survivors are often reluctant to make police reports for various reasons; one is fear of revictimization by criminal justice professionals. Conversely, police officers often lack skills for interviewing crime victims. Posttraumatic stress reactions among victims can exacerbate the problem. Although some victims prefer female interviewers, it...

Getting Told and Being Believed

Incarcerated adolescents' experiences as perpetrators of sexual assault.

OBJECTIVES To identify self-reported characteristics of past sexual assaults perpetrated by incarcerated juveniles and to determine potential precursors of this behavior. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS Participants completed an anonymous written questionnaire regarding their experiences of sexual abuse and/or assault as both a victim and a perpetrator. The questionnaire was incorporated into an exi...

Conceptualizing the harm done by rape: applications of trauma theory to experiences of sexual assault.

Based on a review of theory and evidence, this article highlights the limitations of trauma response models and applications of posttraumatic stress to characterize the experiences of women who are raped. There are two primary problems with trauma response theories. First, traditional notions of trauma are likely too narrow to accurately capture the complexities of women's experiences of sexual...