Social Reactions and Women’s Decisions to Report Sexual Assault to Law Enforcement
Publication Date
4-2020
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Sexual assault, Social reactions, Reporting, Criminal justice system, Law enforcement, Community-based providers, Informal social supports
Abstract
Following sexual assault, little is known about how the social reactions women receive from informal supports and community-based providers relate to decisions to report to law enforcement. Among 213 diverse women who had disclosed a recent sexual assault to a community-based provider, 56% reported to law enforcement. Law enforcement reporting was associated with more positive (tangible aid) and less negative (distraction, being treated differently) reactions from informal supports and more tangible aid and less emotional support from community-based providers. Tangible aid from community-based providers predicted law enforcement reporting over the subsequent 9 months among women who had not initially reported.
Copyright Date
4-3-2019
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the authors and SAGE Publications. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
DePrince A. P., Wright N., Gagnon K. L., Srinivas T., & Labus J. (2020). Social reactions and women’s decisions to report sexual assault to law enforcement. Violence Against Women, 26(5), 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801219838345
Rights Holder
Anne P. DePrince, Naomi Wright, Kerry L. Gagnon, Tejaswinhi Srinivas, Jennifer Labus, and SAGE Publications
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
Language
English (eng)
Publication Title
Violence Against Women
Volume
26(5)
First Page
399
Last Page
416
ISSN
1552-8448
PubMed ID
30943114
Recommended Citation
DePrince A. P., Wright N., Gagnon K. L., Srinivas T., & Labus J. (2020). Social reactions and women’s decisions to report sexual assault to law enforcement. Violence Against Women, 26(5), 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801219838345