Background Late disclosure ornon- disclosure during HomeOffice interviews is commonlycited as a reasonto doubt an asylum seeker’s credibility, butdisclosure maybe affected byother factors. Aims To determinewhether andhow sexualviolence affects asylum seekers’ disclosure of personal information durin

Declaration of interest None. Fundingdetailed in Acknowledgements. To be granted asylum under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the asylum applicant has to show a ‘well-founded fear of being persecuted in his or her country of origin for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion’ (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 1992). Since there is often little documentary evidence about the asylum seeker, credibility of the individual is key. Late disclosure, or description of incidents in later interviews of which no mention was made in the first, is commonly cited as a reason to doubt an asylum seeker’s credibility (see Asylum Aid, 1999). It is understandable that the addition of new evidence could be seen as evidence against the claimant’s honesty. However, this assumption may fail to take into account other reasons for not disclosing at the outset. To date, there has been no empirical study on what affects asylum seekers’ disclosure during legal interviews. Many refugees who come to the UK have experienced or witnessed torture and organised violence (Burnett & Peel, 2001). Disclosure is specifically an issue with torture survivors owing to their difficulties of trust in other people (particularly those in authority) and their avoidance of painful memories (Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, 2002). A meta-analysis revealed increased prevalence rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in refugees resettled in Western countries (Fazel et al, 2005). Symptoms of PTSD may be activated during the Home Office interview as a result of being reminded of the traumatic event, which in turn might reduce a person’s ability to give a coherent account and might lead to nondisclosure. There is also evidence that different trauma types are associated with different PTSD patterns. Two studies found a significant relationship between sexual torture and the avoidance criteria of PTSD (Ramsey et al, 1993; Van Velsen et al, 1996). Van Velsen et al (1996) speculated that the intimate nature of the sexual attack and associated negative emotions, such as feelings of humiliation and shame, are likely to be critical elements leading to subsequent avoidance behaviour. However, this has not been specifically tested. Refugees and asylum seekers often come from cultures with different attitudes towards sexuality. Sexual violence and rape are often taboo subjects and can bring about feelings of shame. Women who have been subjected to sexual assault may be shunned by their community and family if they admit to this and therefore may not disclose it in their asylum interview (United Nations, 1997; Burnett, 1999). Men also tend to underreport experiences of sexual violence (Peel et al, 2000). Feelings of shame have been mentioned in the literature as a factor affecting disclosure (Hill et al, 1993) and there have been several empirical studies demonstrating the relationship between shame and disclosure (Swan & Andrews, 2003; Hook & Andrews, 2005). There is also increasing evidence that shame may be linked to the course or onset of PTSD (Andrews et al, 2000; Leskela et al, 2002). The study of different trauma types by Van Velsen et al (1996) suggested including a measure of dissociative phenomena in future research, as dissociation might be closely related to PTSD avoidance symptoms. Indeed, dissociative experiences are commonly reported by individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD (Ozer et al, 2003). Carlson & Rosser-Hogan (1991) found high levels of association between traumatic experiences and the severity of both traumatic stress and dissociative reactions in a group of 50 Cambodian refugees. However, dissociative responses not only occur as an aftermath of a traumatic event, but can also be experienced at the time of the trauma (peritraumatically; Weiss et al, 1995). Dissociative reactions might be activated during an anxiety-provoking event, such as the Home Office interview, which might affect disclosure. The first aim of our study was to investigate the impact of sexual violence on refugees’ and asylum seekers’ reported post-traumatic stress symptoms, shame reactions, dissociative experiences and difficulties in disclosure during Home Office interviews. The second aim of the study was to explore more systematically the factors involved in refugees’ and asylum