The authors asked college students to rate the importance of a list of barriers to reporting rape and sexual assault among male and female victims. The authors' findings indicate that barriers prevalent 30 years ago, prior to efforts by the rape reform movement, continue to be considered important among college men and women. The barriers rated as the most important were (1) shame, guilt, embarrassment, not wanting friends and family to know; (2) concerns about confidentiality; and (3) fear of not being believed. Both genders perceived a fear of being judged as gay as an important barrier for male victims of sexual assault or rape and fear of retaliation by the perpetrator to be an important barrier for female victims.

This mixed-methods study explored the recovery process and outcomes for 37 women formerly in an abusive intimate partner relationship. Standardized measures of current psychosocial functioning indicated participants were largely asymptomatic for posttraumatic stress disorder and had relatively strong resilience. Qualitative analysis revealed how social and spiritual support was instrumental to participants' recovery, growth, and resilience. Implications for helping professionals include gaining a more comprehensive understanding of recovery from domestic violence. This type of knowledge may contribute to interventions that build on women's strengths and resourcefulness.

Domestic violence is a crosscutting issue that affects clients seeking social work services. The criminalization of domestic violence refers to efforts to address domestic violence through the passage and enforcement of criminal and civil laws. This article reviews the social science, legal, and criminal justice literature regarding interventions used to stop domestic violence. The theoretical foundations and effectiveness of police interventions, the use of protective orders, prosecution and victim advocacy, court responses, batterers' intervention as a condition of probation, and coordinated community responses to domestic violence are examined. Implications for social work practice are given, along with basic information for assisting clients who are victims of violence in their own homes.

The authors conducted thirty-two in-depth interviews with 20 rural, low-income, women residing in the United States, who were pregnant (n =12) or three months postpartum (n =8) and had experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Using purposive sampling and the grounded theory method, the authors generated a conceptual model of coping. The urge to protect the unborn baby was the primary influence for participants’ decisions about separating from or permanently leaving an abusive relationship. Implications include universal screening for IPV in child-bearing women, inquiry into maternal identity development during pregnancy, and improved resource access for rural, low-income women.

This article details the recovery process, including posttraumatic growth, for 15 adult daughters of battered women. Using qualitative inquiry, participants' recovery was found to involve a cognitive restructuring of childhood misconceptions of themselves, their parents, and the trauma itself. Key to this transformation process, and consequently allowing for posttraumatic growth, was an interwoven process of meaning-making including two specific elements of understanding: the cause and effect of domestic violence and the significance of suffering from such exposure in childhood. Distancing from their parents, education on domestic violence, accessing therapeutic/support services, and having a spiritual connection contributed to enhanced insight and wisdom. Implications include providing professionals with conceptual insights regarding how to identify and support adult daughters' lifelong recovery and growth. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE• Professionals working with adult survivors of childhood exposure to domestic violence should facilitate opportunities to explore how such individuals make meaning of their experiences.• Consistent with a strengths-based resiliency approach, professionals should look for ways to help clients recognize their abilities to learn and grow from negative experiences.