Eritrean asylum seekers have suffered severe trauma en passage via the Sinai Peninsula en route to Israel. This study seeks to understand the meaning of these experiences to these women. In depth interviews were conducted with 14 Eritrean women using qualitative methods in accordance with grounded theory. While the study found that these women reported traumatic experiences and suffered considerable distress as a result of their experiences, their general resilience and coping were central to their narratives. Both their distress and their resilience were mediated in tenns of their perceptions of the cultural stigma and existential plight associated with the trauma they had experienced and the aftennath they were living through. The presence of cultural stigma tends to increase distress, while their absence tends to reduce distress. Separately, the study showed that regardless of the relative severity of their distress, the women used a number of coping strategies which were also culturally mediated and enhanced the women's resilience. These included silence regarding their experiences, social support, reliance on religious bel iefs, adaptive avoidance and psychosocial assistance. The study concluded that constructing a theory of how the women perceive cultural stigma was crucial to an understanding of the psychological impact of rape for Eritrean asylum seekers. The study also concluded that the acknowledgement of the coexistence of the distress of rape with great resilience was essential to providing effective assistance. The implications of these conclusions are that psychosocial assistance among members of this population should be focused on resilience based mental health efforts. These efforts would be best supported by access to rights by state institution support of resilience (through provision of shelter, healthcare, and economic empowerment) in order to promote the mental health of Eritrean women who have been raped and tortured in the Sinai desert.

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Despite the vast amount of research attention examining sexual violence against women, and an increase in research around abuse of older people over the last two decades, sexual violence against people aged 60 and over remains under-researched. As the world population continues to rapidly age, there is a pressing need to address this gap in research in order to inform policy and practice in preventing and responding to sexual violence. This thesis contributes to three existing, but currently distinct, fields of inquiry: elder abuse; domestic violence against older women; and sexual violence against older women. A multi-methodological multi-stage approach was adopted to examine the extent and nature of sexual violence against older women in the UK and the characteristics of victims, perpetrators and incidents through analysis of police data gained through Freedom of Information requests. Interviews with 23 practitioners working in sexual violence organsiations and 4 working in age-related organisations shed light on some of the challenges older survivors may experience when accessing support services, the key support needs of older survivors and the extent to which practitioners felt comfortable in meeting those needs. Gaps in current service provision were also explored. In the final stage, three women survivors of sexual violence since the age of 60 shared their stories, in particular the physical and emotional impacts sexual violence had on them and providing accounts of their experiences of accessing support services. Their thoughts on issues with current support provision and existing gaps were also shared. This thesis considers these findings collectively to examine for the first time the extent, nature and impacts of sexual violence against women aged 60 and over.

This thesis aimed to assess the hypothesis that women have evolved a rape avoidance mechanism that is particularly active during ovulation when chance of conception is highest. It assessed whether fertility-related differences in response to risk were specific to rape risk, or generalised to all threats. This is not known from previous research. In Study 1, fertility did not influence handgrip strength or subjective responses to scenarios that varied in the risk of rape. However, in Study 2, women increased their handgrip strength when fertile compared to nonfertile in response to all potentially threatening scenarios involving men, but not the female-perpetrated assault scenario, which involved danger but no immediate risk of rape. Women also felt at higher risk of rape and male-perpetrated assault when fertile compared to nonfertile. In Studies 3 and 4, fertility influenced attention to potential reproductive threats (angry versus neutral male and female faces), but not general threats (fear-relevant versus neutral animals). Against expectations, women were faster to detect neutral faces when fertile compared to nonfertile (Study 3). In Study 4, fertile women were slower to fixate on angry compared to neutral faces, but spent a higher proportion of time fixating on angry versus neutral faces. In Study 5, women were slower to categorise rape-related stimuli when fertile compared to nonfertile, while fertility did not influence categorisation of stimuli associated with robbery or consensual sex. In Studies 6 and 7, neither fear of crime nor perceived risk of victimisation differed in relation to fertility. Therefore, overall, the findings suggest fertility does not influence responses to threats in general, with some evidence that the mechanism is specific to situations with increased possibility of rape. However, hormonal influences on responses to risk appeared to manifest in visceral responses (e.g., physiology, attention, cognitive biases) rather than conscious feelings (e.g., fear).

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This study was based on subjective attitudes towards wife rape of 85 women and detailed interviews with 20 of them. It aimed to measure the relation between traditionalism and use of the term wife rape, awareness of wife rape and of its criminalisation; and to understand women's experiences and subjective definitions of wife rape and their coping strategies. Once wife rape was problematised, definitions varied. Women holding more traditional attitudes (informal settlement women) were less likely to define the wife's experience in a vignette as wife rape than women holding less traditional (shelter women) and non-traditional attitudes (Network identified women). Additionally, women holding more non-traditional attitudes were more likely to define the event as wife rape than were other women. Similar intergroup differences in traditionalism on awareness of wife rape and its criminalisation emerged. The line between sexual violence and violent sexuality was a thin one at times. / M.A (Pshychology)

This study was based on subjective attitudes towards wife rape of 85 women and detailed interviews with 20 of them. It aimed to measure the relation between traditionalism and use of the term wife rape, awareness of wife rape and of its criminalisation; and to understand women's experiences and subjective definitions of wife rape and their coping strategies. Once wife rape was problematised, definitions varied. Women holding more traditional attitudes (informal settlement women) were less likely to define the wife's experience in a vignette as wife rape than women holding less traditional (shelter women) and non-traditional attitudes (Network identified women). Additionally, women holding more non-traditional attitudes were more likely to define the event as wife rape than were other women. Similar intergroup differences in traditionalism on awareness of wife rape and its criminalisation emerged. The line between sexual violence and violent sexuality was a thin one at times. / M.A (Pshychology)

The aims of this thesis were to investigate the impact of media on Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA), and to explore the attitudes of Greek-Cypriots toward victims of rape. The systematic review of the existing literature explored whether seven types of media affect individuals’ RMA. The findings show that RMA of male participants exposed to experimental stimuli was significantly higher than male participants exposed to neutral media. This trend did not hold for females. Chapter Three presents a critique of the RMA scale used in the empirical study: the Acceptance of Modern Myths about Sexual Aggression scale (AMMSA; Gerger et al., 2007). The chapter presents methodological issues of existing RMA measures, discusses the rationale for the development of the AMMSA and presents its main strengths and limitations. Chapter Four aimed at examining the RMA of Greek-Cypriots and their attributions of blame in situations depicting sexual violence. The results indicate that males endorse more RMA and tend to attribute more blame to the victim and less to the perpetrator. Older participants and participants not acquainted with victims of sexual assault scored higher on the RMA scale. The final chapter summarises the findings and discusses implications for practice and recommendations for future research.