Encyclopedia of Psychology and Law

rape victims goes beyond the examination of support

seeking as a coping process. For example, one issue for

rape victims is whether and to whom to disclose the

assault. Although disclosing the assault may not neces-

sarily be for the purpose of seeking support, unlike

other events that are more public (e.g., bereavement),

victims only receive supportive or unsupportive reac-

tions from others if they disclose the assault to them.

The act of disclosing the assault or of seeking support

also should be distinguished from the supportive or

unsupportive reactions of others to the victim regarding

the assault. Thus, research in this area has focused on

whether and to whom victims disclose, what kinds of

reactions they receive, and how those reactions are

related to victims’ distress levels. This research sug-

gests that although most rape victims do not report the

assault to the police, most disclose to someone, such as

friends or family members. In general, victims indicate

that they received mostly positive and supportive reac-

tions from others. However, negative reactions, such as

being blamed or treated differently, also occur and

appear to be more common from formal (e.g., the

police, physicians) than from informal (e.g., friends,

family) support providers. Negative social reactions

tend to be more associated with distress than positive

social reactions are associated with well-being. Nonethe-

less, being believed and being listened to by others,

especially friends and family, is associated with better

adjustment among rape victims. Many friends and vic-

tims report that the assault had a positive effect on their

relationships (e.g., it brought them closer).

Attributions About

the Cause of the Rape

Individuals who have been sexually assaulted often

struggle to regain a sense of control over their lives.

One way to do this is to try to identify the cause of the

assault (i.e., make a causal attribution) and thus recog-

nize how the assault could have been prevented. For

rape victims, this may involve trying to identify what

they could have done differently to avoid being raped.

Much of the research on the relations among attribu-

tions and posttrauma distress has been guided by the

theory that behavioral self-blame, which involves

attributing the assault to one’s past behavior, is an

adaptive response to rape because it is associated with

the belief that future rapes can be avoided. In contrast,

characterological self-blame, which involves attribut-

ing the rape to some stable aspect of one’s self that

cannot be changed, is thought to be maladaptive

because it is not associated with a sense of future con-

trol. This theory has been described as dominating

research on attributions and adjustment for more than

two decades and as being widely accepted as having

implications for interventions with trauma survivors.

Although this theory suggests that behavioral self-

blame is adaptive, behavioral self-blame consistently

is associated with more, rather than less, distress

among survivors of rape. In addition, behavioral self-

blame generally is unrelated to perceived future con-

trol among victims of rape. In other words, behavioral

self-blame does not appear to foster the belief that

future rapes can be avoided, which was the proposed

mechanism for its adaptive value. Characterological

self-blame is also consistently related to higher distress

levels. Indeed, the two types of self-blame are highly

correlated with each other. Experimental studies sug-

gest that reductions in self-blame in treatment are asso-

ciated with reductions in PTSD symptoms.

Research on attributions has tended to focus on self-

blame, perhaps because of the predominance of the

aforementioned theory. However, other kinds of blame,

such as blaming the rapist or other external factors, tend

to be more common than self-blame. These other types

of blame also are associated with more distress. It

appears that focusing on the past and on why the assault

occurred is associated with higher distress levels. It is

less adaptive to focus on the past and on why the assault

occurred, or even on how future assaults can be

avoided, than to focus on aspects of the assault that are

currently controllable, such as the recovery process.

Patricia A. Frazier

See also Child Sexual Abuse; Rape Trauma Syndrome;

Victimization

Further Readings

Filipas, H., & Ullman, S. (2001). Social reactions to sexual

assault victims from various support sources. Violence

and Victims, 16,673–692.

Frazier, P. (2003). Perceived control and distress following

sexual assault: A longitudinal test of a new model.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84,

1257–1269.

Frazier, P., Mortensen, H., & Steward, J. (2005). Coping

strategies as mediators of the relations among perceived

control and distress in sexual assault survivors. Journal of

Counseling Psychology, 52,267–278.

152 ———Coping Strategies of Adult Sexual Assault Victims

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