A Blog Post: The trauma that comes from reporting sexual assault
It has been shown that women who have experienced sexual assault represent the majority of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases (PTSD) in the U.S (Bartol & Bartol, 2021). Sexual assaults can have psychologically damaging effects on an individual. The lingering effects apart from PTSD include depression, anxiety, and even an increase in the contemplation of suicide. Apart from the act itself, sexual assault survivors that decide to report their case to law enforcement may experience a second victimization called the “second assault” (Rousseau, 2025). The “second assault” may even be more traumatizing to the individual than the act itself.
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to talk with a sexual assault survivor, who chose to remain anonymous, on her experience of recovery and reporting. For context, the type of sexual assault this individual endured is classified as date rape, which is a “sexual assault that occurs within the context of a dating relationship (Rousseau, 2025).” Date rape is the most common type of rape, with 80% of all cases being classified under this typology. Oddly enough, date rape cases are generally not reported and the rapists tend to not be prosecuted. That’s why it did not surprise me, unfortunately, when this individual said she did report her case to law enforcement, but wasn’t able to prosecute the defendant.
In trying to get justice for herself, she heavily experienced the “second assault,” and stated that “It was honestly more traumatizing than being raped. If I had the chance to redo it all, I would not have reported it. I would have just kept it to myself.” Victims of sexual assault often self-blame, especially victims of date rape cases. In date-rape cases, victims often feel like they are at fault for what happened. This is because of reasons such as the victim intentionally choosing to go on that date or meet that person, which all does not correlate with them giving sexual consent (Rousseau, 2025). This individual blamed herself for what happened. Even when her friends and family all believe that she wasn’t at fault, she struggled with this feeling for a long time. It was not until she received help from resources such as group through Rape Crisis Center (RCC) that she started to feel that she was not in the wrong. Though the incident happened years ago, she still to this day struggles with this feeling. These resources did help her find healthy ways to cope when these feelings arise and learn how to overcome these thoughts. Self-blaming thoughts are a major factor in the psychological damage that comes with being sexually assaulted (Bartol & Bartol, 2021). She stated “I blamed myself for it, and it would spiral. My thoughts would spiral so much to the point that there was a period of time that not living anymore didn’t seem too bad at all.” This shows how self-blame can exacerbate one’s psychological state.
How sexual assaults are reported differs from how other criminal cases are reported to the police. When choosing to report, the sexual assault survivors would first have to do a medical examination. The purpose of this examination is to establish any DNA evidence that shows that the survivor had been penetrated or harmed. This initial process alone is quite intrusive and may be traumatic to survivors. Next, the victims undergo a preliminary interview with the detective, where it is uninterrupted and the victim tells the detective the gist of what happened or whatever comes to the victim’s mind regarding the incident (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008). After giving the victim some time to rest, eat, and process what has happened, a more detailed interview would be conducted. This is where the detective would ask questions to try to get the needs of interviewing met. The needs include to “establish that the element of a sexual assault are met, evaluate the need for a forensic examination, identify the crime scene and any related evidence, witnesses, and the suspect(s), and establish the identity of the suspect, and contact information if known (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008).”
Interviewing a sexual assault survivor is quite difficult because there are many factors that the detective has to take into account and be mindful of. Detectives would have to be approachable, nonjudgmental, establish rapport, and be able to be mindful when wording questions with the individual. This is because talking about a sexual assault event is stressful and very personal, which may be humiliating to the individual, especially when the questions are asking about quite graphic details of the account to a stranger in uniform. The way detectives word questions can influence the extent to which the individual feels like they should blame themselves for the incident (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008). The interview would have to be conducted in a strategic way. Having multiple people interviewed would help limit the number of times the victim would have to recall the event over and over again, such as the detectives could interview responding police officers and forensic examiners in this process. Detectives should also avoid “handing off” the case to another detective in order to establish rapport (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008). Importantly, the purpose of any interview is never to revisit old information again but to obtain new information about the case in order to limit the amount of times the individual relives the event(s) again.
Sexual assault victims may have differing reactions to trauma, which could influence the way they interview. Their statements may be incomplete, inconsistent, or sometimes even false. This is due to the fact that trauma could make one have perceptual narrowing, loss of cognitive and motor skills, and incident amnesia (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008). Perceptual narrowing is when the victim focuses on one of the five senses and essentially ignores the others. An example of this is focusing on the weapon used in the incident but not knowing any information about the person holding it. The loss of cognitive and motor skills means that the victim may freeze up and not know what to do in that situation. The individual that I interviewed stated that she experienced a loss of motor skills, freezing up during the incident and not being able to stand up and walk out the door, which she says she struggles in being okay with/scolding herself for. Incident amnesia is when the individual doesn’t remember parts of the act or the act itself (Archambault & Lonsway, 2008). During her interview, she stated that she couldn’t remember the details that the detective wanted, because of the traumatic event and being under the influence. The detective encouraged her to try to remember. Her statements were inconsistent because she was struggling to remember. Out of instinct, she made a mistake by resorting to filling-in-the-blank during the interview, which may have held some false statements. This was a mistake because later in the process, the detective stated that she remembered too much information which indicated that she wasn’t under the influence enough to have it been prosecutable rape.
The process of interviewing sexual assault survivors is quite difficult for both the victim and the detective. The detective would have to know how to distinguish between the actual recall event and the effects of trauma. The detective would also have to establish a comfortable environment and a trusting rapport. The sexual assault survivor would have to be able to recall the traumatic events, reliving it and overcoming the effects of trauma at the same time. Simultaneously these parts would work together in order for the detective to piece together the best defense for the survivor.
References:
Archambault, J., & Lonsway, K. A., (2008). Incomplete, Inconsistent, and Untrue Statements made by Victims: Understanding the Causes and Overcoming the Challenges. End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI).
Bartol, C. r., & Bartol, A. M. (2021). Criminal behavior: a psychological approach (12th ed.). Pearson Education/Prentice Hall; Pearson.
Rousseau, D. (2024). Lecture Notes, Module Five. Forensic Behavior Analysis. MET CJ 725.