Bergen, R. K. (1996). Wife rape: Understanding the response of survivors and service providers. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Chapter 3: Defining and ending the violence
This chapter focuses on how women define and deal with their experiences of marital rape. Interviews with survivors indicate that coping with violence, defining abuse as rape, and ending the violence are all interconnected. Interviews indicate that identifying a forced sexual experience as rape results in women being more likely to terminate the relationship or seek help. Naming the violence is crucial to ending it. The chapter focuses on the issues of defining wife rape, seeking help, effects of wife rape, and becoming a survivor.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers; survivors

Chapter 4: The response of two agencies to wife rape
This chapter focuses on how service providers respond to survivors of wife rape. Two nonprofit organizations, Refuge and WASA, are profiled focusing on how they respond to and provide services for wife rape survivors. Women's responses to service providers are also included. Problems such as the shuttling of survivors between agencies for assistance, and providing interventions that do not specifically address marital rape issues, are discussed.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers

Chapter 5: Providing services to wife rape survivors – Current trends and future directions
This chapter explores how women's organizations respond to marital rape. The results of a survey sent to battered women's shelters, rape crisis centers, and combination programs across the United States are analyzed. Ways in which agencies can improve services to survivors of wife rape are discussed. Policy recommendations in the areas of outreach, staff and volunteer training, and the inclusion of wife rape in an organization's agenda are detailed.

Topics: Marital rape; rape crisis centers; victim services

Campbell, R. (2006). Rape survivors’ experiences with the legal and medical systems: Do rape victim advocates make a difference? Violence Against Women, 12, 30-45. [Posted December 2006.]

Key Points: Survivors of sexual assault who were assisted by rape crisis center advocates received more medical and legal services, and were less distressed by their interactions with law enforcement and medical personnel.  

Abstract: This study looked at women who were treated in emergency rooms after reporting rape. Two hospitals were included in the study: one had a policy of paging a rape crisis advocate when a victim arrived, and the other did not. Participants included 36 women who worked with rape victim advocates and 45 who did not.

Survivors were asked about medical and legal services that were offered, secondary victimization behaviors by medical and law enforcement staff, and their emotional responses to the secondary victimization.

Victims who worked with advocates had more police reports taken (59% vs. 41%) and were less likely to experience secondary victimization behaviors from medical and legal personnel. They were more likely to be offered emergency contraception (33% vs. 14%) and information about/treatment for STDs. They were less likely to blame themselves for the assault (54% vs. 82%) and less reluctant to seek further help (67% vs. 91%).

The author recommended that rape crisis centers continue to work with medical and legal systems to streamline response systems and increase the use of advocate services.

Topics: Rape crisis centers; secondary victimization; victim services

Hellman, C. & House, D. (2006). Volunteers serving victims of sexual assault. Journal of Social Psychology, 146, 117-123. [Posted October 2006.]

Key Points: Sexual violence crisis hotline and hospital advocate volunteers were most satisfied with their work when they were emotionally attached to the agency and attended monthly meetings that they found helpful. Satisfied volunteers intended to stay in their positions. 

Abstract: In this study, researchers looked at factors associated with volunteer satisfaction, commitment, and intent to continue volunteering. Twenty-eight sexual violence crisis hotline and hospital advocate volunteers filled out mail-in surveys. Satisfied volunteers were more likely to report intending to remain in their positions. Compared with less satisfied volunteers, satisfied volunteers reported higher levels of feelings of competence, social support, and emotional attachment to the agency. They also reported finding monthly agency meetings more valuable and had lower levels of exposure to victim blaming from other service providers.

This is a very small sample, but it reaches the same conclusions as previous research. The authors recommended on-going training for volunteers, including skills-building to confront victim-blaming among other service providers. By addressing these issues, volunteers may be more satisfied, which may lead to better retention.

Topics: Advocate self-care; rape crisis centers; victim services

Koss, M. P., & Harvey, M. R. (1991). The rape victim: Clinical and community interventions (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Chapter 4: The rape crisis center
This chapter reviews the origins, scope, and impact of the rape crisis center movement. Attention is given to its feminist origins and to the unifying effect of feminist values on the aims, services, and organizational structure of the early and "prototypical" rape crisis center. Through case examples, the impact of the rape crisis center movement on the medical, legal, and mental health practices of traditional public services agencies is discussed. Highly effective, exemplary rape crisis centers are discussed.

Topics: Rape crisis centers

Chapter 5: The clinical treatment of rape victims
Studies of rape victims suggest that relatively few seek professional help immediately after a rape, attempting instead to cope with rape on their own. However, results of one study indicated that up to 48% of victims eventually sought help for rape-related concerns. This chapter discusses four clinical interventions utilized to treat victims: a single-session trauma debriefing procedure for recent rape victims; an individual integrative treatment for victims who seek therapy months or years after their assault; intervention as group treatment; and public education designed to reach a large group of victims who do not seek formal services. A section on the challenges of working with rape victims is included.

Topics: Rape crisis centers

Kuecker, T. (1998). An analysis of statewide sexual assault service providers. Violence and Intentional Injury Prevention Program, 1, 5 pages.

This report is a survey conducted by the Michigan Sexual Assault Surveillance System (SASS) as part of the Violence and Intentional Injury Prevention Program (VI2P2). It was conducted for the purpose of assessing how agencies and service providers who come into contact with survivors of sexual assault collect and manage their data. The surveillance aspect of the SASS involves focusing on issues such as incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, and economic costs of sexual violence. This report outlines the responses of 69 of the 148 agencies and service providers contacted by the SASS team. Results show that more than two-thirds of the agencies surveyed have a systematic method for collecting data on sexual assault. However, only one-third of these agencies had access to e-mail or other Internet services and less than a third of them were judged to be technologically behind current standards. The SASS team created a website for the agencies that can assist them in accessing sexual assault data and SASS briefing reports.

Topics: Evaluation; prevalence; rape crisis centers

Wasco, S., & Campbell, R. (2002). Emotional reactions of rape victim advocates: A multiple case study of anger and fear. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 120-130.

This study evaluates rape victim advocates’ emotional responses to their work. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the emotional reactions of women who support rape victims through the criminal justice process and through other services provided after the assault (physical and mental). Results showed that women respond to individual factors and environmental factors surrounding rape with emotions of fear and anger. Also, some rape victim advocates viewed their emotional responses as beneficial to the victim specifically and within their work in general.

Topics: Advocate self-care; rape crisis centers; victim services

Wasco, S., Campbell, R., & Clark, M. (2002). A multiple case study of rape victim advocates’ self-care routines: The influence of organizational context. American Journal of Community Psychology, 30, 731-760.

The purpose of this study was to examine how rape advocates cope with their job which includes repeated exposure to rape victims and their experiences. Qualitative analysis was conducted on the types of self-care strategies used and the organizational settings of the work place of rape victim advocates. This study further evaluated the relationship between the advocates’ use of self-care strategies and organizational support provided. Results indicate that self-care routines were derived from various resources and provided the benefit of “cathartic releasing of traumatic material”, and “improving capacity to integrate traumatic material into one’s life.” Several organizational characteristics reviewed in this study were reported as being supportive. All of the victim advocates reported using self-care strategies; however, those who worked in organizations with higher levels of support were able to benefit from a combination of both self-care and organizational support methods.

Topics: Advocate self-care; rape crisis centers; victim services

Updated 08/01/07