This study examined the relations between perceived social support (PSS), negative social interactions (NSI), self-blame, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and gender in adult sexual assault survivors. Participants (N = 315) were recruited from introductory psychology courses at a Midwestern university and from Amazon Mechanical Turk, and had to report at least one sexual assault experience since the age of fourteen in order to be eligible. After being screened for eligibility, participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires online, and received either course credits or a small monetary sum for their participation. As hypothesized, self-blame partially explained the relation between PSS and PTSD in the total sample, and partially explained the relation between PSS and PTSD. Similar results were found for NSI. These two models were not equivalent by gender, as expected. Post-hoc analyses suggest that PSS may have more influence on PTSD for women than for men, and vice versa for NSI. Additionally, self-blame was a significant predictor of PTSD in men but not in women. Clinical implications and future research directions are discussed.

A truly modern approach to criminological and forensic psychology, this engaging text explores all aspects of the field, from defining forensic psychology, through the psychological explanations of crime and specific crime types, to the application of psychology in detection and investigation, the court room, and prison. This new edition has been fully updated to include more coverage of social and developmental factors impacting crime, female offenders, and crime in times of crisis, along with a brand-new chapter on stalking and harassment. The inclusion of topical issues such as white supremacy and the #MeToo movement places this book fully in the moment and explores issues that affect us all. With detailed case studies of real-life crimes throughout, this text is a perfect companion to your studies of forensic psychology at any level. Helen Gavin was, before retiring in 2023, Subject Lead in Criminal Psychology at the University of Huddersfield.

The relationship between the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) and the development of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been well-established in the literature (Basile, Arias, Desai, & Thompson, 2004; Coker, Smith, Thompson, McKeown, Bethea, & Davis, 2002). However, researchers have called for more complex statistical models capable of identifying and analyzing the pathways potentially linking IPV and PTSD. Research indicates that IPV victims report lower levels of perceived social support than non-IPV victims (Bengtsson-Tops & Tops, 2007) and that, as a result, victims are at greater risk of developing PTSD (Ozer, Best, Lipsey, & Weiss, 2008). Drawing from the stress buffering hypothesis (Cohen & Willis, 1985), which states that social support acts as a buffer, protecting an individual from the negative effects of a stressful event, the current study analyzed the moderating role of perceived social support in the relationship between IPV and PTSD. It was hypothesized that the positive relationship between IPV and PTSD would be stronger among individuals perceiving lower social support. It was also hypothesized that characterological self-blame and self-esteem would mediate the moderator effect of perceived social support. The hypotheses were tested by distributing questionnaires to 132 adult female participants recruited at a substance abuse treatment facility and a private university. The results indicated that IPV was positively associated with PTSD, and perceived social support negatively predicted PTSD. Further, perceived social support moderated the positive relationship between IPV and PTSD. At the extreme levels of perceived social support, the positive relationship between IPV and PTSD was stronger among individuals perceiving low levels of social support than among those perceiving high levels of social support. However, at the moderate levels of perceived social support, the positive relationship between IPV and PTSD was stronger among individuals perceiving high levels of social support than among those perceiving low levels of social support. Lastly, the results showed that self-esteem mediated the observed moderator effect of perceived social support. Possible explanations for the apparent shift in the direction of the moderation as well as the clinical implications of the findings, limitations of the current study, and directions for future research are discussed.

This paper presents an assessment of how moderating variables may reduce PTSD symptoms for females who have experienced sexual assault. The study examined whether higher levels of assertiveness, religiosity, and perceived social support would result in fewer PTSD symptoms for female sexual assault survivors. Moderation analysis was used to determined if any of the moderator variables significantly reduced PTSD symptom severity for these women, thus leading to potential evidence based treatment for female sexual assault survivors. Implications and suggestions for future research will be provided. Keywords: sexual, assault, PTSD, moderators, women.

This second edition provides a comprehensive, social ecological review of women's rape and sexual assault disclosures and how support providers can better respond to them and challenge rape culture. Women who have been raped and sexually assaulted are often retraumatized by negative social reactions from family and friends, healthcare professionals, institutions, and society at large. Sarah Ullman educates supporters on more appropriate responses that empower survivors and help them heal. Drawing on interviews with survivors and support providers, she offers powerful, provocative insights to therapists, other frontline workers assisting survivors, researchers, and students. She reviews transtheoretical research on why, how often, and to whom women disclose; the impact of social contexts on disclosures; and social reactions from informal support networks and professionals in a variety of institutional settings. New to this edition is updated research addressing social media, social phenomena like the MeToo movement, and informal supporters' experiences with survivors. While most research still focuses on White, heterosexual, and cisgender women, emerging findings on LGBTQ+ individuals, cis males, people of color, and people with disabilities are reviewed where available.

We examined the relation between experiences of stranger/street harassment and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among 367 young adult women. We also examined novel explanatory (i.e., self-blame, shame, and fear of rape), risk (adherence to traditional feminine norms of sweet and nice and sexual fidelity), and resiliency (feminist identification) factors in predicting PTSD symptoms via a moderated mediation model. We found that stranger harassment was both directly and indirectly (via more self-blame, greater shame, and more fear of rape) related to more PTSD symptoms. In addition, we found that the direct effect of stranger harassment on shame and the conditional indirect effect of stranger harassment on PTSD symptoms were contingent on sexual fidelity such that these relations were stronger among women with high levels of sexual fidelity. Furthermore, the direct effect of stranger harassment on self-blame and the conditional indirect effect of stranger harassment on PTSD symptoms were contingent on feminist identification such that these relations were stronger among women with low levels of feminist identification. Our results underscore the potential negative impact of stranger harassment experiences on women's mental health and the importance of targeting self-blame, shame, fear, and gender-related norms and attitudes in intervention strategies.