Long-term Impacts of College Sexual Assaults on Women Survivors’ Educational and Career Attainments
Potter, Sharyn; et al. Journal of American College Health. March 2018.
In this exploratory study, 81 women who said they were sexually assaulted in college provide insight on how sexual violence affected their lifetime education trajectory and career attainment.
- Two-thirds of participants reported a negative impact on their academic goals, while about 14 percent reported no impact.
- One-third completed their college degree on schedule, while nearly a quarter did not complete their degree and were no longer enrolled.
- Some reported their interrupted education path also hindered their career goals. Some also drew a direct line from the sexual violence they experienced to underemployment and workforce performance issues.
Economic Insecurity and Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Victimization
Breiding, Matthew J.; et al. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. October 2017
People in poverty experience higher rates of intimate partner and sexual violence. The authors focus specifically on how food and housing insecurity relate to intimate partner and sexual violence rates.
- Controlling for age, family income, race and ethnicity, education and marital status, this research finds strong associations between food and housing insecurity and intimate partner and sexual violence.
- The researchers note that this work does not indicate whether violence leads to economic insecurity or vice versa — and there could be another variable that explains the association.
Loya, Rebecca M. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. November 2014.
The author conducted in-depth interviews with service providers from 18 rape crisis centers in two metropolitan areas in the Northeast, and 9 sexual violence survivors — 8 of whom had been raped at least once. In addition to the findings below, this research includes narratives on the economic costs survivors encountered.
- Seven survivors needed to take time off work after violence occurred, while 15 providers reported their clients needed time off work during recovery.
- Four survivors reported that their work suffered due to sexual violence — several were also fired or quit — and 13 providers reported their clients experienced declines in work performance.
- Participants suggested that counseling and support services may help survivors reduce economic hardship.
- “They are in jobs where if they don’t show up, they don’t get paid,” according to one provider speaking about her clients and quoted in this research. “Maybe they can take two weeks off, but that means they’re not going to get paid those two weeks. So that pretty quickly affects someone’s ability to pay their rent and pay their utility bills and buy food and take care of their kids. And then that also affects them emotionally and their ability to continue to function.”
Tips and ideas for journalists covering sexual violence
- For reporters exploring solutions to stopping sexual violence, the CDC offers an extensive report on prevention strategies for communities and states. One angle to explore is the cost-effectiveness of prevention, according to Peterson, whereby the economic costs of preventing sexual violence may be well-offset by long-term economic societal savings.
- Don’t overlook the opportunity to share the victim’s or survivor’s experience. “There tends to be this focus on the accused and his cost and how his life has changed and we need to stop saying the accused is the focus,” Karns says. “We need to continually go back to the victim and say, ‘We know this person has been injured, how does that play out?’”
- Most lawyers are not trained to incorporate victims’ rights in their defense strategies — examine the effects that lack of training has on how lawyers represent sexual violence clients. “If they were to put questions on the bar exam about victims’ rights, we would start to see training around victims’ rights and better practice around victims’ rights,” Karns says. “Say there were another tort case, malpractice or a car accident, [lawyers] know exactly how to value that. They don’t do that in this area.”
- The Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and RAINN offer tips for journalists interviewing survivors and victims of sexual violence. The Society of Professional Journalists offers a case study on naming victims of sexual violence.
There are numerous legal and other support services for victims and survivors of sexual violence, including SurvJustice, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and RAINN.
For more information on covering sexual violence, read about a study that links journalists’ coverage of sexual assault with the prevalence of rape in society and how seriously police take reports when victims come forward.
*A project of the Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center and the Carnegie-Knight Initiative, Journalist’s Resource is an open-access site that curates scholarly studies and reports.
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