Sexual Assault Incident Characteristics and Confidante Responses

• In Event: Third Party Observers: Effects and Victimizations

Abstract

This project examines how college-aged recipients of sexual assault disclosure formulate reactions and choose whether and what types of advice to offer sexual assault survivors based on various characteristics of both the assault itself and the nature of the disclosure. Research has repeatedly confirmed that sexual assault survivors most often first disclose their victimizations to friends. Confidantes’ reactions to sexual assault disclosure can influence survivors’ subsequent decisions, such as whether to report their victimizations to police, to seek medical or psychological help, or even to disclose again in the future. Although much is known about survivors’ disclosure decisions and their interpretations of confidantes’ reactions and advice, there is a dearth of research focusing on the recipients of disclosures, particularly in terms of how they formulate reactions, how they determine whether advice is warranted, and how they then decide what advice to offer survivors. This project’s mixed-methods approach aims to address this significant gap by focusing exclusively on the recipients of sexual assault disclosures; in particular, I examine how differing assault, victim, and perpetrator characteristics are interpreted by confidantes, as well as how these interpretations are then translated into specific types of advice.

Author

• Nicole V. Lasky, University of Cincinnati