Understanding rape survivors' decisions not to seek help from formal social systems

Health and Social Work, May, 2009 by Debra Patterson, Megan Greeson, Rebecca Campbell

The average age of this subsample of 29 adult rape survivors was 32.48 (SD = 9.66), and most were racial or ethnic minorities: 52 percent African American, 31 percent white, 7 percent Latina, and 10 percent multiracial. Almost one-third (29 percent) were currently married, and 45 percent had children. Most women (83 percent) had a high school education, and 55 percent were employed. There were no significant demographic differences between this subsample of victims with no formal systems contact and the other survivors in the study. Most survivors who chose to not contact any formal social systems were assaulted by someone they knew (acquaintance, date, partner) (83 percent), which was also the case for the rest of the sample; however, there were significantly more cases of nonstranger rape in the no systems contact subsample [[chi square](1, N = 102) = 5.24, p < .05]. Forty-four percent of the survivors who had no contact with formal social systems were not physically injured in the attack, and most did not have a weapon used against them (62 percent). Similarly, most of these survivors were not under the influence of alcohol (62 percent). On average, the rape had occurred 8.23 years prior to participating in the interview (SD = 8.78). There were no significant differences between this subsample and the other survivors in the sample with respect to these assault characteristics.

Procedures

Interviews were conducted in person, with a mean duration of two hours (SD = 49.53 minutes; range = one to four hours). Each participant was given $30, public transportation tokens to reimburse her for transportation expenses, and a packet of community referrals for victims of violence. The tape-recorded interviews were conducted by the faculty principal investigator (PI) and a team of 11 female graduate and undergraduate research assistants who received course credit for their participation in the project (see Campbell et al., 2004, for details regarding interviewer training and supervision). The procedures used in this study were approved by the Michigan State University Institutional Review Board.

Measures

In the interview protocol, survivors were asked if they had any contact with the legal, medical, mental health systems or rape crisis centers for postassault assistance. When a survivor said that she did not have contact with a system, she was asked four follow-up questions: (1) why she decided not to seek assistance from that system; (2) whether there were things that prevented her from seeking assistance from that system; (3) whether anything could have been done that would have made it more likely that she would have turned to that system for help; and (4) looking back, whether she thinks it was a good or bad choice not to seek help from that system and why. The survivors in the focal subsample answered these questions about each of the four systems. The verbatim transcriptions from these questions were the primary data sources for analysis. Supplemental data sources were also consulted, including the audiotapes of the interview, full transcripts, and the PI's field notes from the entire project.