Sexual Assault Survivors’ Reporting Experiences: Secondary Victimization, Institutional Betrayal, Trauma-Informed Care, and Impact on Trust in Law Enforcement

Given the high prevalence of sexual assault in the United States and the significant distress it poses for victims, documenting interactions with law enforcement is particularly important for understanding the subsequent healing of survivors who report their assaults. Most survivors do not report sexual assaults to law enforcement, and those who do often indicate these interactions feel like a second rape. The purpose of this study was to more fully understand the nature of law enforcement acts from the perspectives of sexual assault survivors who reported their assaults. Participants were drawn from a mid-sized university in the southeastern United States ( n = 579). Among these, 157 had experienced sexual assault at some point in their lives. This manuscript describes the reporting experiences of the 11 survivors (of 157; 7%) who indicated that they had reported the assault to law enforcement. We assessed survivors’ perceptions of how law enforcement interacted with them, whether law enforcement met or failed to meet their needs, as well as whether or not they experienced instances of victim blaming, institutional betrayal, and trauma-informed care. Findings indicate that most survivors experienced potential acts of institutional betrayal, particularly acts of omission wherein law enforcement failed to meet identified needs. Furthermore, most survivors reported receiving victim-blaming reactions and potential secondary victimization during their interactions with law enforcement. On average, survivors’ reporting experiences were associated with a decrease in trust in law enforcement and a lower intention to rely on police in the future. This study provides additional documentation that continued efforts to implement trauma-informed responses to sexual assault disclosure are essential and concludes with a discussion of strategies for promoting trauma-informed criminal justice responses to survivors of sexual assault.