Female Victims of Physical and Sexual Violence: Differences in Seeking Standalone Services Post-Victimization

Background: Violence against women is a significant problem globally and in the United States.  Compared to men, women are much more likely to be victims of sexual and intimate partner violence, putting women at risk for short- and long-term physical and psychological health consequences.  Effective formal services decrease physical and psychological symptoms among female victims, and law enforcement, health care, or victim services may serve as entry points for victims seeking assistance.  Researchers have identified numerous demographic, interpersonal, and incident characteristics as inhibitors or facilitators to formal assistance.  This study explored such characteristics as predictors of formal help-seeking among female victims of physical and sexual violence.  Standalone health or victim assistance and standalone law enforcement assistance were examined based on the aforementioned predictors. Limitations noted in prior work in the field were addressed by examining multiple types of formal help-seeking strategies and distinctions in those help-seeking strategies based on whether a physical or sexual victimization was reported. 

Method: Five years of data (2008-2013) from the National Crime Victimization Survey were used for this study, with specific attention to interpersonal questions that were incorporated in 2008.  The sample was comprised of females aged 18 and older that reported a sexual or physical victimization and sought one or more types of formal assistance.  Demographic predictors of type of formal help-seeking included age, education, marital status, and race.  Interpersonal predictors included distress level, reported problems with family or friends, reported problems at school or work, psychological symptoms, and physical symptoms.  Incident predictors included type of victimization, injury, weapon, and victim-offender relationship.  Descriptive, bivariate, and binomial logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Results: Women reported using standalone law enforcement assistance more often than standalone health or victim assistance services.  Incident and interpersonal level variables were stronger predictors than demographic level variables.  Higher education levels, reported problems at work or school, a higher number of physical symptoms reported, and presence of an injury were associated with health or victim assistance.  Strong effects were found for type of victimization with victims of sexual and victims of sexual violence much less likely to seek law enforcement assistance than victims of physical violence.  Weapon use by an offender was significantly associated with law enforcement assistance.    

Conclusion: Findings from this study depict incident and interpersonal characteristics as key components for understanding the type of formal assistance sought by female victims of physical or sexual violence.  Help-seeking varies in important ways in that differing help-seeking strategies were used depending on the type of victimization and acknowledgement of physical symptoms.  Continued study in this area should include incident and interpersonal characteristics and seek to separate findings based on type of victimization instead of broadly categorizing violence against women.  Additional implications discussed include the strong connection between self-reported symptoms and use of services, theoretical distinctions in the  seeking  criminal justice versus health-based services, and methodological considerations for future measurement of predictors and help-seeking categories.