Disclosure Patterns of Black Female Sexual Assault Survivors

• NCJ Number: 192310
• Journal: Violence Against Women Volume: 7 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 1254-1283
• Author(s): Patricia A. Washington
• Date Published: November 2001
• Length: 30 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Drawing on interviews conducted with 12 Black women who had experienced various forms of sexual violence, this study examined disclosure patterns of Black female sexual assault survivors.

Abstract

Specifically, the study determined how survivors' awareness of their social location as Black women influenced the likelihood of their reporting sexual victimization to family members, friends, criminal justice personnel, and/or helping professionals. The research was conducted from May 1993 to February 1994. Only 5 of the 12 survivors disclosed their victimization immediately following or within 24 hours of experiencing sexual assault. All five disclosed to family members or close friends. In addition, one of the five sought immediate outside assistance (legal and medical), and another sought assistance from a college infirmary 4 to 5 days after experiencing date rape. The remaining seven survivors either never told anyone about their victimization (until volunteering for this study) or waited to disclose some 3 to 25 years after being victimized. The five survivors who disclosed their victimization in the immediate aftermath of sexual violence were selective about whom they told. Some of the factors that impeded disclosure reporting by these Black women were inadequate or inappropriate sexuality socialization that rendered survivors unable either to define or to articulate their experiences of sexual victimization; adherence to a Black cultural mandate that compounded survivor's natural reticence and fueled their proclivity for self-blame; and acceptance of a strong black woman and weak white woman dichotomy that not only forced survivors to live up to an unattainable standard but deprived them of health resources. Respondents were nearly unanimous in their belief that the criminal justice system was actively hostile to them as individuals and as members of a broader racial community. Perceived failures on the part of rape crisis agencies or battered women's shelters were under the category of errors of omission rather than as actively hostile or consciously racist. 1 table, 5 notes, and 54 references