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

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Anticipating Rejection

Feelings of self-blame and shame are commonly experienced by rape survivors (Herman, 1992). For example, survivors reported feeling ashamed and embarrassed about the rape and did not want others to know what happened to them. These feelings prevented survivors from reaching out to formal social systems for help. In addition, survivors in this study frequently blamed themselves for the rape, which prevented them from seeking help, as illustrated by the following survivors:

   Like why ... why would I talk to somebody? I
   was at fault. I blamed myself so heavily and felt
   so guilty.

   Why I did not get help, from any of the mental
   health. Because ... I know ... I was also blame for
   some of what happened. Not totally, partially.

Survivors who blamed themselves believed that the formal social systems also would blame them. Furthermore, many survivors who blamed themselves thought they did not deserve to receive help from formal social systems. Therefore, survivors may not have sought services available to them to avoid being rejected as unworthy of assistance by system personnel.

In addition, survivors with nonstereotypical rapes (that is, rape in which the offender is known to the survivor and the rape does not involve a weapon) believed that formal social systems would not help them. Similar to most people, survivors frequently had stereotypical views of rape as brutally violent and resulting in severe physical and psychological injuries. Because survivors held these stereotypical views of rape, they did not believe their rape experiences qualified for help. Therefore, survivors did not seek help when their rape experience did not reflect the stereotypical perception of rape. For example, survivors expressed that they would have sought help if their rape had been more physically violent, resulting in visible injuries:

   It's like, you had to be really, really messed up.
   You had to be really like torn, and ripped clothing,
   and stuff like that. And I didn't really have
   anything like that.

   Cause I wasn't beaten bad.

Survivors described enduring injuries of soreness and internal pain but believed their injuries were not severe enough to seek medical treatment. Survivors also thought their psychological reactions to the rape were benign compared with their stereotypical perception of rape survivors having "nervous breakdowns":

   Some women, it seemed like they're totally
   devastated, you know. And I don't think it affected
   me that bad. I tried not to let it affect
   me like that.

   I don't have any problems sleeping at night or, or
   feeling ... going outside or anything by myself.

Survivors further noted that the rape did not "emotionally scar" them or interfere with their daily functioning and, thus, did not seek help. Survivors explained that the formal social system could not help them or would not respond positively unless their rape experience matched the stereotypical conception of rape. Therefore, survivors may not have sought help from these formal social systems because they anticipated that the system would neglect to help them. In retrospect, many survivors recognized the psychological and physical impact of their rapes. However, they still did not seek assistance, because they thought that formal social systems provided services to only those in crisis or for those who sought help immediately after the assault: