Discusses the establishment of a course on the victimization of women in order to facilitate dialogue on the subject and to lay the groundwork for a sexual assault center. Describes course composition, expectations, format, syllabus, group projects, and reading lists. Emphasizes feminist sociological theories of female victimization. Includes a…

Researchers describe here the traumatic stress reactions of a group of fifth-grade children to the sexual assault of their classmate. The children's "secondary trauma"--trauma caused by empathizing or identifying with the victim--presented a distinct yet variable etiology. The authors offer suggestions for working with child secondary…

College students (157 men and 158 women, mostly white middle-class) rated their agreement with statements reflecting myths about male rape. A majority disagree with all the myths, most strongly with the myth that rape is not traumatic for men. Results are discussed in terms of societal attitudes. (SLD)

This article describes the development and pilot testing of a curriculum to teach rape prevention and self-defense skills to visually impaired women. As a result of the course, five visually impaired women improved their physical self-defense skills, self-confidence, and problem-solving ability in hypothetically dangerous situations. (Author/DB)

Studies evaluating interventions designed to reduce rape-supportive beliefs are examined to identify effective strategies. Searches were conducted on several databases from 1980 to present. Results indicate that human-sexuality courses, workshops, video interventions, and other formats appear to be successful strategies, although these…

A study of 15 Russian juvenile male rape victims found their level of post-traumatic stress correlated with the temperament dimensions of harm avoidance and reward dependence. The total level of post-traumatic stress reaction was negatively correlated with parental emotional warmth and positively with paternal rejection. (Author/CR)

Discusses the use of pamphlets to influence behavior and to enhance programs. Provides descriptions of 13 youth-oriented prevention materials that seek to provide information about sexuality. Pamphlet topics include abstinence, pregnancy, legal responsibility for fathers, birth control, HIV and safe sex, alcohol, drugs, sexually transmitted…

Assessed junior high students' perceptions regarding nonconsensual sexual activity. Surveys indicated 35% had had sexual intercourse; 19% reported feeling pressure from their friends to have sex; 17% had been sexually coerced by an adolescent, 7% by an adult; 6% reported having sexually coerced someone else. Students demonstrated low knowledge…

Suggests the ultimate competition for writers of contemporary adolescent fiction is life--the world that children inhabit is getting stranger and stranger. Discusses parents' and adolescents' different reactions to the novel "Boys Lie," which addresses the issues of rape and sexual harassment. Presents reactions to the speech and the responses of…

Courts have shown themselves increasingly willing to hold institutions of higher education responsible for rapes that occur on their campuses. In some instances, federal law now mandates a duty to help prevent these campus crimes. Provides a general campus security checklist. (82 footnotes) (MLF)

Critically reviews current rape prevention education programs, focusing on common techniques and the assumption that change in rape-supportive ideologies will decrease the actual incidence of sexual aggression. Identifies many issues that must be addressed through rigorous experimentation so that the promise of rape prevention can be realized…

Studies beliefs about dating violence in a sample of 298 undergraduate and graduate students. After reading 15 vignettes, respondents were asked to rate how violent and abusive a depicted incident was, what they thought was likely to happen to the relationship in the future, and what should happen following the incident. Incidents varied along…

The current study examined the impact of complainant sexual history evidence on mock jurors' judgements in a sexual assault trial. One hundred and sixty-nine undergraduates listened to an audiotape of a sexual assault trial in which the sexual history between the complainant and defendant was systematically varied to include either sexual…

Only a few studies have examined the characteristics of sexual assault based on the tactics used by the perpetrator. In this study we compared the experiences of women who were forced to engage in vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse due to verbal coercion, physical force, or intoxication. Random-digit dialing was used to obtain a sample of 272…

To examine the utility of a self-report scale of sexual assault trauma, 223 female victims were interviewed with the 43-item Sexual Assault Symptom Scale II (SASS II) at 1, 3, 7, 11, and 15 months postassault. Factor analyses using principal-components extraction with an oblimin rotation yielded 7 common factors with 31 items. The internal…