Sexual Revictimization: The Relationship Among Knowledge, Risk Perception, and Ability to Respond to High-Risk Situations

• NCJ Number: 210196
• Journal: Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume: 17 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2002 Pages: 1135-1144
• Author(s): Elizabeth A. Yeater; William O'Donohue
• Date Published: November 2002
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compared the responses of previously victimized and nonvictimized women to a sexual assault prevention program.

Abstract

One of the most frequently utilized methods of decreasing the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses is sexual assault prevention programming. Evaluation data for these programs have been met with mixed results and findings suggest that the prevention of sexual revictimization is an area needing more attention. The current study used a training-to-criterion approach to compare how previously victimized and nonvictimized women responded to a sexual assault prevention program based on an information-processing model of social competence. Participants were 300 undergraduate women who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (N=151) or a control group (N=149) who offered data regarding their previous experiences of sexual assault; experimental participants completed the sexual assault prevention program while control participants did not. Research goals were to measure whether participants already knew information presented in the program; whether sexually revictimized control participants knew less information than nonrevictimized control participants; and whether sexually revictimized experimental participants took longer to be trained to criterion than nonvictimized experimental participants. Results of statistical analyses indicated that sexually revictimized participants did not take longer to train to criterion and knew as much material on Trial 1 of the prevention program as nonrevictimized participants. Moreover, participants reporting only one previous victimization experience took longer to be trained to criterion than revictimized participants. Future research should both attempt to replicate these findings and should compare the validity of various models of prevention programming. Tables, figures, references