Child Sexual Assault (CSA) in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is a complex issue that cannot be understood in isolation from the ongoing impacts of colonial invasion, genocide, assimilation, institutionalised racism and severe socio-economic deprivation. Service responses to CSA are often experienced as racist, culturally, financially and/or geographically inaccessible. A two-...

I n recent years, the problem of drug and alcohol facilitated sexual assault has been receiving increased attention in Australia from sexual assault service providers, police, and law reform bodies. However, media interest in this issue has largely been restricted to the specific problem of “drink spiking”, and generally understood to involve the covert addition of an illicit substance to a dri...

Sexual assault results in important consequences for victims. An inadequate social support may have an impact on the victim's psychological condition and interfere with her adjustment. The purpose of the present article is to describe different support reactions linked to sexual assault and their impact on the psychological condition of the victims, the posttraumatic symptoms and the recovery. ...

A national conversation has emerged regarding the prevalence of and strategies for addressing sexual assault on college campuses. Sexual assault includes rape, sexual coercion, being forced to penetrate someone else, and unwanted sexual experiences including those without physical contact [1]. We are now familiar with the statistic that one in five women will experience sexual assault in colleg...

Approximately 70000 reports of sexual abuse in children and adolescents are substantiated each year. Many of these cases present to the emergency department for assessment. Knowledge of which cases require emergent evaluation is essential. This article will provide a description of the steps in the assessment of acute sexual assault in children and adolescents including components of the patien...

Many of the problems faced by rural communities in responding to sexual assault mirror those that confront victims and service providers who live in cities. However, issues of isolation, the levels of rural conservatism, and the denial of sexual assault within rural communities remains distinct. Rural women continue to suffer the impact of sexual assault in ways that uniquely compromise their c...

This study investigated whether attitudinal variables, such as benevolent and hostile sexism toward men and women, female rape myth acceptance, and tolerance of sexual harassment are related to women labeling their sexual assault experiences as rape. In a sample of 276 female college students, 71 (25.7%) reported at least one experience that met the operational definition of rape, although only...

Issues. There is controversy regarding the extent to which alcohol plays a causal role in sexual assault perpetration. Approach. This paper critically reviews the relevant alcohol administration and survey research literature. Key Findings. Alcohol administration researchers have randomly assigned male participants to drink conditions prior to exposure to an acquaintance rape scenario.As compar...

Adolescents are at high risk for sexual assault, but few of these crimes are reported to the police and prosecuted by the criminal justice system. To address this problem, communities throughout the United States have implemented multidisciplinary interventions to improve post-assault care for victims and increase prosecution rates. The two most commonly implemented interventions are Sexual Ass...