Sexual violence disclosure and perceived helpfulness of formal support providers across gender, sexual minority, ethnic, and racial groups

Forty years have passed since the criminalization of sexual violence (SV) perpetration, yet due to pervasive inequities, this law has not been consistently applied across all segments of society. Alarmingly high rates of SV persist in the United States, and SV remains the most underreported crime in the nation, resulting in low prosecution and high recidivism rates of perpetrators. Traumatology literature suggests that certain sub-groups of SV survivors have a heightened risk for insensitive or overtly abusive treatment from individuals to whom they report the crime, including law enforcement, mental health, or medical professionals. However, methodological inconsistencies and non-representative samples generated disputes about the extent, claims, and disclosure of SV phenomena. Consequently, these inconclusive results have led to a general social fatigue and probable gross underestimation of SV reporting and disclosure, and the professional response. This study was a secondary data analysis of the 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The Ecological Systems Theory and an expansion of the Communication Privacy Management were used to form the conceptual framework. Four hypotheses predicted variability in SV disclosure and perceptions of the help-seeking experience with professional providers to whom SV survivors disclosed, based on several predictors, namely gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of the survivors. Analyses used linear mixed models. Results demonstrate that SV survivors who were male gender, non-White race, and lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual orientation each predicted lower rates of formal SV disclosure. Ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, educational attainment, economic status did not have a significant association with perceived helpfulness. Gender and race, albeit, less so, predicted perceived helpfulness of formal providers. However, an interaction was found between Hispanic respondents and greater odds of decreased levels of perceived helpfulness of police officers than of psychologists/mental health counselors. Results echo most assertions made over four decades ago, revealing that non-White SV survivors are significantly less likely to disclose their experience to professionals than White SV survivors. These findings conflict with more recent, methodologically problematic studies, which claim racial differences in SV disclosure patterns have essentially disappeared indicating a critical need for continued intervention and reform to remedy these disparities. Similarly, these results diverge from recent studies that maintain the SV disclosure experiences of LGB and heterosexual survivors are alike. Lower rates of SV disclosure in the LGB survivors signal a need for explicit inclusive training of law enforcement, healthcare workers, and mental health providers that will protect LGB survivors and those at risk, guide professional behaviors and responses to SV, and reduce stigma. Further, organizations with existing inclusion and equity policies must ensure that such policies are wholly adopted and integrated into their healthcare context. Large effect sizes between male gender and non-disclosure indicate the need to reformulate and disseminate male-targeted education on awareness, policy and practice initiatives. The results of this study will be shared with policymakers such that more robust support of SV-related preventive and response measures, by way of newly available Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) funding, can be created and disseminated in an equitable and inclusive manner to those least likely to come forward for help.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference