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Reactions to sexual assault can vary greatly, as each victim deals with victimization in their own way.
However, specific behavioral, physical, and emotional symptoms and reactions are often associated with
sexual assault.
Behavioral Changes
A plethora of immediate, short-term, and long-term behavioral changes are linked with experiencing
sexual assault and coping with its aftermath. Examples of these changes can include, but are not limited
to:
Self-harming behaviors—increased drug and alcohol use, self-mutilation, and suicidal thoughts and
attempts;
Physiological changes—sleep disturbances such as insomnia or excessive sleeping, changes in
eating patterns that can lead to weight gain/loss, bulimia, and anorexia, bed wetting and incontinence,
aversion to touch, and change in patterns of hygiene (e.g., feeling the need to frequently bathe or not
wanting to bathe at all); and
Changes in social interactions/behaviors—withdrawal or self-isolation, changes in dressing
patterns (e.g., wearing many layers of clothing or dressing provocatively), aggressive or disruptive
behavior, regressive behavior, sexually inappropriate behavior and sexual promiscuity, excessive
attachment, and avoidance of certain individuals or places.
Physical Consequences
As perpetrators are often successful in using coercion, intimidation, and the threat of force to facilitate
sexual assault, excessive force is generally not the norm. As a consequence, victims may have few
visible physical injuries. However, some who experience sexual assault are physically injured. Male
victims in correctional environments may be more prone to physical injury than females.
Increased
physical injuries may occur when victims experience multiple sexual assaults and/or multiple
perpetrators.
Obvious acute physical injuries require immediate medical attention.
Other physical consequences of sexual assault, such as pregnancy (for female victims) or exposure to
HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), may not be suspected or detected until days or even
weeks after the assault. Incarcerated victims of sexual assault have a heightened risk of contracting
Drawn from West Virginia Sexual Assault Free Environment Partnership, WV S.A.F.E. Training and Collaboration Toolkit: Serving
Sexual Violence Victims with Disabilities (West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information Services, Northern West Virginia Center for
Independent Living, & West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, 2010), pp.B2.2-3.
For example, following an assault, a male victim may become aggressive against his perpetrator or others, in an attempt to regain
his sense of masculinity and social standing. He may “hook up” with a sexual partner in exchange for protection against others in
the facility. Abner, Browning, & Clark, Preventing and Responding to Corrections-based Sexual Abuse (2009), p.18.
A Bureau of Justice Statistics inmate survey found that among persons who reported inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization in jail,
37 percent of males reported being injured, compared to 8 percent of females. In prison, males and females were almost equally as
likely to report injury (21 percent and 17 percent respectively) during sexual victimization. Among victims of staff sexual misconduct
in jail, 17 percent of males and 8 percent of females reported being injured during the incident. Among victims of staff sexual
misconduct in prison, 9 percent of males and 19 percent of females said they had been injured. As cited in Beck, Harrison,
Berzofsky, Caspar, & Krebs, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09. Another study of incarcerated
men found that more than half of all sexual assaults resulted in physical injury, with those assaulted by inmates somewhat more
likely than those assaulted by corrections staff to be injured physically. As cited in N. Wolff & J. Shi, Contextualization of Physical
and Sexual Assault in Male Prisons: Incidents and Their Aftermath. Journal of Correctional Health Care, 15(1) (2009), pp.58-82.
C. Struckman-Johnson, D. Struckman-Johnson, L. Rucker, K. Bumby, & S. Donaldson, Sexual Coercion Reported by Men and
Women in Prison, J. Sex Res., 33(1) (1996), pp.71-72. Note that results from this state prison inmate survey indicated that, on
average, prisoners who said they were sexually coerced experienced nine episodes of pressured or forced sex, and more than one
fourth of the male victims were forced to have intercourse with two or more perpetrators. As cited in R. Dumond, The Impact of
Prisoner Sexual Violence: Challenges of Implementing Public Law 108-79—The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, Journal of
Legislation, 32 (2006), p.6.
In addition to anal or vaginal tearing from forced penetration, physical injuries sustained during sexual assault have been reported
to include bruises, scratches, swelling, cuts, lacerations, knife or stab wounds, black eyes, sprains, bleeding, broken bones,
concussions, knocked-out teeth, internal injuries, and other minor and serious physical damage. As cited in J. Mariner, Rape
scenarios, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2001), National Prison Rape Elimination
Commission, Report, 129; Beck, Harrison, Berzofsky, Caspar, & Krebs, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by
Inmates (2008-09); and A. Beck & C. Johnson, Sexual Victimization Reported by Former State Prisoners, 2008. (Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2012).