Talking About Sexual Assault

Sarah E. Ullman, PhD, is a professor of criminology, law, and justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her doctorate in social/developmental psychology from Brandeis University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles.   Dr. Ullman's research interests focus on violence against women, in particular the sexual victimization of women in adulthood, including the impact of rape on women's mental and physical health, which can include posttraumatic stress disorder, suicidal behavior, problem drinking, and mental health services-seeking. She has studied women's resistance strategies and self-defense training in rape situations and the role of alcohol in sexual assault incidents.   Dr. Ullman recently completed a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of survivors of sexual assault that examined how social reactions from formal and informal support sources affect women's coping and recovery from sexual assault, including their posttraumatic stress disorder and substance abuse outcomes. She has also interviewed both survivors and service providers (advocates and clinicians) about their disclosure and help-seeking experiences and is developing an informal support network intervention for survivors and their social network members.  

Acknowledgments

Introduction



The Social Context of Talking About Sexual Assault
Theories of Rape and Women's Disclosure
Why, How Often, and to Whom Do Women Disclose, and What Factors Influence Whether Disclosure Is Healing?
Social Reactions and Their Effects on Survivors
Advocates' and Clinicians' Experiences Helping Survivors
Conducting Interviews With Survivors of Sexual Assault
Challenging the Rape Culture: Recommendations for Change

Further Reading

References

Index

About the Author