"Making Out Like a Virgin: Sex, Desire, and Intimacy After Sexual Trauma" is a collection of essays by survivors who have experienced many different kinds of sexual violence. This book fills an important gap in literature by and for survivors about healing from sexual violence across the lifespan.
Many of the essays explore the experiences survivors have with their sexuality decades after the assault. The authors write about sexuality from a variety of perspectives including essays…
In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included Findings on Victimization by Sexual Orientation. These findings are the first of their kind, and they have opened the door for advocates and agencies to have more conversations regarding the needs of their respective communities.
The purpose of this review is to show how advocates can utilize these findings and make services more accessible. We focus particularly on the Bisexual population.
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Without My Consent, a nonprofit organization that seeks to combat online invasion of privacy and empower individuals to stand up for their privacy rights, recently released the findings of its survey about online harassment. Although this survey focused on online harassment in general, a large focus of the organization's work is nonconsensual pornography, sometimes referred to as "revenge porn."
Without My Consent's definition of this…
Keane, Guest, & Padbury (2013) explored issues of sibling sexual abuse in their recent article. According to the authors, there must be a balance of concern for victims of sibling sexual abuse, as well as those who offend. They rejected the feminist framework that prioritizes victim rights (specifically in the instance of youth offending) in order to look at it from a developmental framework.
Adult theories of offending are located in research that suggests the…
The Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (WCSAP) recently had the privilege of working with the Washington State Supreme Court Gender and Justice Commission, judicial officers, and the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) to develop the first edition of the "Sexual Offense Bench Guide for Judges."
The purpose of a bench guide is to educate judicial officers (judges or commissioners) who decide particular types of cases about the law, and also about the…
Based on data from the first-of-its-kind national survey, this report reveals devastating statistics about the frequency of blatant discrimination and outright violence against transgender people in schools, the workplace, healthcare, the criminal justice system, and social services.
The report also paints a picture of the incredible resiliency and strength of individuals, their families, and the community. Despite pervasive and repeated bias, discrimination, and violence, survey…
This issue of the Digest focuses on research about children and teens that have come into contact with the criminal justice system because they are victims of crime. We know that one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. When these crimes are reported, those individuals typically become involved with the criminal justice system.
As advocates, we recognize that the justice system can be complex, confusing, and often unpredictable. These concerns…
The research presented here has several implications for service providers. Our first aims are always to support the safety and self-determination of child sexual abuse survivors in foster care and their foster and adoptive parents. Since many of our interactions are likely to be with the parents, it is important that we explain the dynamics and effects of sexual abuse and situate problematic behavior as a normal response to trauma.
Service providers can explain the importance…
This "Research and Advocacy Digest" explores sibling incest dynamics and victimization effects. It features an enlightening expert interview by John Caffaro, who provides a quality overview of sibling incest trauma and shares considerations for advocates and clinicians providing services to sibling incest survivors and their families.
Historically sibling incest has been scarcely studied. It has been unrecognized, overshadowed by parent-child incest research, or dismissed as normal…
The articles and featured interview in this issue explore long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) to adult survivor wellbeing and functionality.
Upon filtering through the research and critically thinking about reported effects to survivor well-being and functionality, three challenges become quite apparent. These include,
