This article is focused on examining social and contextual factors related to HIV-risk behavior for women. Specifically, this article has three main purposes: to review the literature on selected social and contextual factors that contribute to the risk for the heterosexual transmission of HIV and AIDS, to review and conduct a meta-analysis of HIV-prevention interventions targeting adult heterosexual populations, and to suggest future directions for HIV-prevention intervention research and practice. Results suggest that the HIV-prevention interventions reviewed for this article had little impact on sexual risk behavior, that social and contextual factors are often minimally addressed, and that there was a large gap between research and the practice of HIV-prevention intervention.

The purpose of this article is to examine the literature on violence against women and employment. After a brief discussion of the definition and consequences of intimate partner violence, the article reviews the research and related literatures to describe the (a) types of job interference tactics used by abusers, (b) employee-level consequences of partner violence, (c) victimized employee responses to intimate partner violence, (d) organizational-level consequences of partner violence, and (e) employer responses to intimate partner violence. Future research directions and workplace implications are discussed.

A significant proportion of survivors of rape do not utilize formal services to cope with the aftermath of rape. Understanding victimization experiences in environments that differ on resources, such as rural versus urban areas, may be an important dimension to consider in understanding barriers. Thirty women (18 rural and 12 urban) were recruited from rape crisis centers to participate in focus groups. Study results suggest that (a) survivors of rape experience many barriers to service utilization, (b) there were some differences in barriers to service utilization that were mentioned only in rural areas and some that were mentioned only in urban areas that may suggest that community context is important to consider in understanding barriers to service use, and (c) barriers to health and mental health services overlap with barriers to criminal justice system services.

Violence against women has been studied in thousands of research articles and books across multiple disciplines. The extraordinary range of subtopics alone makes it difficult for clinicians, teachers, and researchers to form a coherent picture of the phenomena. Women and Victimization: Contributing Factors, Interventions, and Implications comprehensively examines and integrates a vast research literature on the antecedents and consequences of victimization among women. The book draws together research from over 2,000 sources as it explores mental health, substance abuse, social, and cultural factors relating to victimization as well as internal factors such as risk appraisal processes. In addition, the book reviews research on the effectiveness of clinical and legal interventions for women with victimization. Going beyond just a literature review, this book gives readers a comprehensive course in many aspects of adult victimization. Using a heuristic model to help draw together the wide range of findings, the authors explore research literature on adult victimization to summarize what is known presently. The authors also suggest directions for future research and for research on intervention outcomes. Women and Victimization is an excellent resource for clinicians, researchers, teachers and trainers, students, and persons with an interest in victimization policies.

Although the literature indicates that there is an association of victimization with substance abuse, there has been limited research focused on understanding and synthesizing the factors that have been identified as contributing to victimization and substance abuse and on interventions designed to address these contributing factors. The purposes of this article are to (a) review the literature on factors related to victimization and substance abuse, (b) review interventions and outcomes, and (c) discuss clinical implications for interventions and research. Results suggest that there is a high rate of co-occurrence of victimization and substance abuse among women, that the factors contributing to victimization and substance abuse are complex, and that there is a lack of treatment models addressing victimization and substance abuse.