Heavy alcohol use is associated with a range of negative health outcomes, and some individuals who experience traumatic events, such as sexual assault, use alcohol to cope with mental health symptoms following the trauma. This study explored the association between alcohol variables and physical health in collegiate women who experienced a sexual assault. As part of a larger study, a sample of 250 collegiate women who experienced a sexual assault since the age of 14 completed an online questionnaire that included questions about alcohol use (frequency, quantity, and frequency of binge drinking), motives for alcohol use, and physical health. Correlations among study variables were computed to examine the associations between alcohol variables and physical health. Only drinking to cope with negative emotions showed a significant association with physical health, indicating that among collegiate women who experienced a sexual assault, those who frequently use alcohol as a coping mechanism more often report poorer physical health. This finding aligns with prior research on drinking motives and may suggest that identifying alternative coping strategies may be important for some sexual assault survivors. Contrary to expectations, other alcohol variables (i.e., frequency, quantity, binge drinking, and other drinking motives) were not significantly correlated with physical health.

Background: Approximately one in five women in the United States experience childhood sexual abuse or rape as an adult. Healthcare providers are often not equipped to address the long-term effects of sexual trauma and its impact on one's health. Research Question: How can healthcare providers lessen service barriers for SA survivors? Method: This qualitative study employed convenience sampling from clinics that offered family medicine, urgent care, gynecology, or obstetrics. Participants included 11 physicians, physician assistants, and nurses. A semi-structured interview guide was used to explore health providers' perspectives and current practice procedures regarding treatment for sexual assault survivors and the barriers they face in treating this population. Data analysis involved a constant comparative method for identifying, organizing, describing, analyzing, and reporting themes within the data set. Results: The findings indicated three key barriers to providing care for female SA survivors: 1) personal/professional discomfort in discussing the topic of SA, 2) lack of knowledge and training on trauma-informed care, and 3) lack of time spent with each patient. Discussion: Recommendations for healthcare providers include 1) universal trauma-informed care training to better serve and support sexual assault and other trauma survivors, 2) revision of intake forms to include questions on sexual trauma history, and 3) inclusive services such as spending extra time on procedures, talking gently with the patient, and providing resources for mental healthcare services. Implications: Sexual assault survivors are less likely to be triggered or retraumatized by trauma-informed healthcare providers. Thus, they do not avoid annual physicals, medical tests, or setting up appointments when not feeling well, thereby enhancing their health outcomes.

Children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities are sexually abused or assaulted at a rate seven times greater than those without disabilities (Shapiro, 2018). There is a lack of education and prevention programs specifically for this vulnerable population. The purpose of this study was to explore parental perceptions about the need for sexual violence prevention education, based on their child's disability type, severity, and communication level. A 33-item online survey was completed by parents of children with intellectual disabilities (n=61). The majority of parents valued the social validity of providing sexual violence prevention education. A child's disability type did not impact their parent's perception of the need for education. As the severity of a child's disability increased, parents indicated that their child was lacking adequate knowledge about sexual violence prevention. Children with lower levels of communication fluency did not understand sexual abuse and assault prevention. Common parental themes of fears about their child's involvement in sexual violence prevention education included their child's inability to understand or curriculum content and the manner in which education would be provided. Findings inform care providers about the importance of including all children with disabilities in sexual violence prevention education.

Sexual violence towards women on a college campus have remained an issue the past few decades, with about one out of every four female students becoming a victim of it (Rosoff, 2018). Coupled with high rates of binge-drinking on college campuses (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2021), it can be argued that now, more than ever, that attention needs to be drawn to how females can try to be aware of strategies to help combat such predators. Previous research also shows a link between functionally inhibiting drugs referred to as "roofies" that can be slipped into the drink of an unsuspecting victim (Crawford & Birchmeier, 2008). Based on the researchers' understanding of previous studies, there is a gap in knowledge in how frequently these roofieing events occur in situations that do not lead to sexual assault and look different behaviors study participants may be implementing to protect themselves. Researchers were able to recruit 156 participants to compare the relationships between a group of 128 participants who had not experienced non-consensual drug intoxication before and 28 participants who had in their perceptions and behaviors of binge-drinking and alcohol use disorder, risk-taking and risk assessment, safeguarding against alcohol and drug intoxication, and perceptions of participants towards non-consensual drug intoxication. Independent sample t-tests of each variable demonstrated that there was a relationship between being non-consensually drugged and risk-taking and risk assessment behaviors, but no relationship was found between non-consensual drug intoxication experience and binge-drinking, safeguarding against drug and alcohol intoxication, and perceptions towards non-consensual drug intoxication.

Introduction: The number of reportings on sexual abuse (SA), sexual violence (SV) cases covered in the media has risen a significant amount with most cases involving women and children. The aim of the study is to explore the questions: Are people aware of sexual abuse and sexual violence in the media? What are the predictors of awareness of sexual abuse and sexual violence? Does the awareness of sexual abuse and sexual violence in the media affect the actions of the individuals? Methods: A representative survey of the German-speaking resident population (2020) on physical and mental well-being was used. The participants (N = 2,503: females = 50.9%) were between the ages of 14 and 97 (M = 49.81). The German version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, The General Habitual Well-Being Questionnaire and questions about own experiences of sexual harassment on the internet, experiences of domestic sexual abuse and different socio-economic variables were used. The outcome variables regarding the awareness of SA and SV in the media, different types of scandals (church, pedophile, USA), #MeToo-debate and the change in actions were used. Frequency analyses and binary regressions were conducted. Results: One thousand five hundred and fifty-five (62.6%) respondents answered yes to being aware of SA and SV in the media. The results show that females, aging, number of children in household, Protestant and Catholic religion, school graduation, own experience(s) of sexual harassment on the internet, own experience(s) of SA in childhood, and Adverse Childhood Experiences have a significant higher association to the awareness of SA and SV in the media. German nationality and Muslim religion have a significant lower association. The variables that most commonly affected the awareness of SA and SV, scandals, debate and the individual actions were age, own experiences of sexual harassment on the internet and the Protestant religion. Conclusion: Advertising more support centers, hotlines and linking this information to sexual abuse cases covered in the media should be considered. Media bystander interventions could be helpful to train people to react appropriately. Further investigation that considers the different types of media and its influence on the awareness of SA and SV is needed.

The typical differential extraction procedure utilized by the forensic science community to extract male deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) from the sperm cells of the perpetrator separately from female DNA from the epithelial cells of the victim is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. This has contributed greatly to the backlog of unanalyzed sexual assault evidence collection kits (SAECK) seen in many laboratories today and has encouraged research in new methods that are more efficient and more effective in achieving better sperm DNA recovery. The Cotton Lab has developed a Temperature-Controlled Differential Extraction (TCDE) procedure geared towards attaining better sperm recovery and better distribution of male DNA in the sperm fraction (SF) to generate a single source or distinguishable male profile. The TCDE protocol is a direct-lysis procedure that utilizes highly temperature-controlled enzymes, or enzymes that are active at or near their optimal temperatures. This procedure has been previously shown to decrease extraction time significantly and to extract samples that are suitable for downstream analysis. This research specifically attempted to modify the TCDE procedure in the hopes of obtaining higher sperm DNA recovery and eliminating previous concerns of too much sperm being retained by the cotton swab material. It also compared a slightly modified TCDE procedure where the material fraction (MF) and SF are kept as separate fractions (the Separate Method) and a method that results in a recombined MF and SF (Recombined Method) to see if there was a greater distribution of the total male DNA eluted into the SF. Preliminary experimentation with swabs prepared with semen was performed to help make effective modifications. Then, vaginal swabs from eight different female donors were prepared with semen to mimic forensic casework samples and extracted using the Separate and Recombined Methods for comparison of the two extraction methods. Despite unusual epithelial cell lysis results for some samples, the quantitation of the fractions by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) showed that for approximately half of the samples extracted using the Separate Method, a majority of total male DNA was eluted into the SF. For these samples, a single source or distinguishable male profile can be generated. However, it was also demonstrated that even with good separation, a very small proportion of the female DNA in the SF still overwhelms the male DNA that is present in much smaller amounts, particularly for the Recombined Method where there are only two fractions. Though further experimentation is necessary, these modifications proved effective in achieving high sperm recovery in the SF and generating a distinguishable male profile when extracting samples using the Separate Method. This research has confirmed that the TCDE procedure can be faster and less labor intensive while still producing clean DNA profiles in downstream analysis, and thus has the potential to be implemented in forensic laboratories after some of the concerns are addressed.

Sexual assault on college campuses is a pervasive issue that continues to affect women from a variety of backgrounds. Unfortunately, the narratives of women of color, especially black women are often marginalized even though data shows that they tend to be more susceptible to sexual assault. Using survey questions concerning traditional gender roles, and situations of sexual assault (while considering race and gender), this study will measure the attitudes of 300 college-aged individuals. Data will be analyzed using an ANOVA test to study the combined effects that race and gender may have on the respondents’ perception of victims. Historically, African American/black women have faced unique stereotypes about their sexuality that dehumanizes and normalizes sexual aggression towards them. This study aims to explore perceptions about sexual assault as it relates to college-age black women and expand the scope of research currently being done on victimization.

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