Talking About Sexual Assault: Society’s Response to Survivors

Sarah Ullman, an expert and pioneer in the field of sexual assault recovery and the disclosure experiences of sexual assault survivors, has synthesized the state of research on sexual assault disclosure in her new book, Talking about Sexual Assault: Society’s Response to Survivors. The book is divided into seven chapters, each with a specific focus. The first four chapters focus on critically reviewing the sexual assault disclosure literature. The first chapter reviews the literature on societal attitudes toward rape and rape victims, including the literature on rape myths and individual difference variables that affect individuals’ responses to victims. The second chapter provides a brief overview of theoretical models for understanding rape and the rape disclosure and reporting process, including feminist and sociological theories. The third chapter reviews the literature on how frequently rape victims disclose, individual difference variables that affect victims’ likelihood of disclosing, and factors that affect whether victims find disclosure to be helpful. The fourth chapter reviews the most common types of helpful and potentially harmful reactions that victims receive when they disclose as well as the impact of these reactions on victims who receive them. In Chapter 5, Ullman discusses her interview study of the experiences of advocates and clinicians who work or have worked extensively with individuals who have experienced sexual assault. She includes a wealth of qualitative data collected from that study. Chapter 6 focuses on Ullman’s experiences conducting a qualitative interview study of the experiences of sexual assault survivors, including discussion of the issues likely to be encountered by individuals doing this work such as countertransference reactions. Unlike the prior chapters, this chapter includes discussion of Ullman’s personal experiences and reactions to doing this research. Finally, Chapter 7 delineates recommendations for taking further steps to change our culture, which continues to accept sexual violence against women. Because Talking about Sexual Assault comprehensively reviews and synthesizes the literature on this topic and the writing style is very accessible, chapters from this book are likely to be useful to a wide audience. For example, I believe that the content focused on sexual assault disclosure is likely to be a useful addition to undergraduate and graduate courses in women’s studies, psychology of women, and the psychology of trauma. Similarly, the final chapter, focused on ways to change society’s rape culture, is likely to generate lively class discussion. The chapter focused on the experiences of advocates and clinicians working with victims is likely to be valuable to those initiating this work and to assist them in preparation for the types of barriers and frustrations they are likely to encounter. This chapter would also be quite useful in developing interventions to assist individuals who conduct this work in order to reduce the rates of burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and turnover endemic in these settings. Similarly, the chapter focused on conducting research with sexual assault survivors is helpful to new researchers in this area, although it is likely unrealistic that most researchers would have the ability to pace their research in the way that Ullman was able to do (e.g., collecting data from only one or two participants per week). However, this chapter is still one of the few to discuss the impact of conducting research on sexual violence and to suggest ways to cope with doing this work, as opposed to focusing solely on the impact of conducting clinical work (e.g., therapy) with survivors. Overall, this book represents a clear contribution to the field that will be useful to many different groups. In addition to being a resource for educators, clinicians, and advocates, the final chapter is a call to arms for individuals who care about sexual assault. Indeed, there is so much work to be done in combating rape-supportive elements of our society, and the programs that are ‘‘on the front lines’’ desperately need more support and resources. However, the reality is that many more people need to be involved in this effort. To reduce the prevalence of sexual violence, it should be viewed as the serious public health problem that it is, thus highlighting the responsibility of all of society to change by providing emotional support for survivors, by donating time and effort to organizations for survivors, by protesting media portrayals that support the objectification and victimization of women, and by intervening when individuals are in danger of being victimized. Until that happens, unfortunately, sexual violence will continue to be a hidden epidemic. Sarah Ullman’s book represents an important step in bringing this problem into the light.