Trauma of Sexual Victimization: Feminist Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice   [open pdf - 262KB]

This article on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) discusses the feminine perspective and research contributions on sexual trauma among women and girls. From the article: "Twenty years ago, rape was thought of as a rare event, incest as a culturally universal taboo. Public and professional awareness have undergone dramatic transformation in the course of just two decades (Briere, 1992). Today, the literature is replete with research examining the scope and trauma of sexual victimization. We have chosen to focus on feminist contributions to understanding the sexual victimization of women and girls. We have abstracted our own most recent books (Herman, 1992; Koss & Harvey, 1991) and a number of works that together highlight twenty years of feminist inquiry. Readers interested in male victims are referred to a recent review by Watkins and Bentovim (1992)."