Stressors of Rape Crisis Work From the Perspectives of Advocates With and Without Sexual Assault Victimization History

Abstract

Rape crisis centers largely rely on volunteers for delivering emergency room advocacy to survivors of sexual assault. Volunteer advocates bear witness to trauma as part of their role, such as when listening to details of sexual assault. This exposure may negatively affect advocates long term, which may lead to secondary traumatic stress and vicarious traumatization, and possibly reduce their ability to provide quality services and remain in their role. In addition, some advocates may be survivors of sexual assault themselves. Survivors may differentially experience the toll of advocacy work. The present qualitative study sought to identify stressors that advocates face within their role, aspects of stressors unique to survivors who advocate, and the effects of stressors on advocates. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 18 current volunteer advocates, 11 of whom identified as survivors, from three rape crisis centers. Findings demonstrated stressors associated with self-evaluation; rules or expectations of the role (including the crisis nature of the role); witnessing lack of client support; helplessness around sexual assault as a systems issue; identifying with the client; witnessing the physical and emotional impact on clients; and being reminded of their own assault. Results also revealed how these stressors and advocacy overall influenced advocates. Unique aspects of stressors to survivors arose in the way advocates experienced the stressors. In addition, survivors exclusively described being reminded of past trauma within advocacy work. Findings have implications for supporting advocate well-being by better understanding the stressors that may lead to negative outcomes and informing individual coping, training, and overall organizational support of advocates. Such measures may ensure retention of volunteers and maintain quality advocacy services.

“Even crap can be fertilizer”: The experience of volunteering at sexual assault crisis centers for women survivors of sexual assault

“…The present study contributes to theoretical conceptualization in the domains of SA and recovery, in three important respects. First, it adds to the previous research by applying the theory of recovery (Herman, 1992) and vicarious victimization (Pearlman & Saakvitne, 1995) to the context of volunteering; examining the motivations and perceived benefits and risks of volunteering; and moving beyond the labeling of prosocial behavior as merely “positive” (Arias & Johnson, 2013; Frazier et al., 2013) or “negative” (Mihelicova et al., 2019) for survivors. To this end, it provides a multidirectional and more comprehensive understanding of the decision-making process, the facilitating mechanisms, and the perceived consequences of prosocial behavior for SA as a whole.…”

“…Furthermore, previous research has focused on paid professionals or advocates with a history of trauma (Wood, 2017), or on how trauma history informs their advocacy and professional work (Slattery & Goodman, 2009). However, it has not addressed the subject of volunteers (in particular, those with a history of SA), despite the additional risks to their recovery compared with paid professionals (Mihelicova et al., 2019). Accordingly, the present study focused explicitly on volunteers with SA histories.…”

“…Personal trauma history has been found to significantly predict increased vicarious traumatization among advocates who work with SA victims, and to adversely affect the provision of advocacy services for survivors of IPV (e.g., in terms of difficulty with boundaries and triggering) (Wood, 2017). In a study of 18 volunteer advocates at rape crisis centers, Mihelicova et al (2019) demonstrated that certain work-related stressors, such as being reminded of their victimization, were particularly salient for those advocates who identified themselves as survivors.…”

“…First, volunteers may be at greater risk of vicarious traumatization than paid professionals and advocates, because the role of volunteers is exclusively focused on crisis services, rather than developing professional long-term relationships with survivors. Furthermore, they usually lack formal mental health training and support, with the attending opportunities to develop coping mechanisms (Mihelicova et al, 2019). In a study among 101 SA and domestic violence counselors (volunteers and paid staff), Jenkins et al (2011) found that participants who had been motivated to volunteer by their own SA experiences reported a greater number of secondary traumatic stress symptoms, as well as positive changes, such as the ability to deal with their own trauma.…”

“…Despite the growing body of research on the significance of prosocial behavior to SA survivors, much of it does not examine the overall experience of volunteering and its risks and benefits to their recovery, but rather analyzes the issue solely in terms of the survivors' resilience (Crann & Barata, 2019) or the stressors they experience (Mihelicova et al, 2019). Furthermore, previous research has focused on paid professionals or advocates with a history of trauma (Wood, 2017), or on how trauma history informs their advocacy and professional work (Slattery & Goodman, 2009).…”