Rates of Revictimization
January 2005: Current and past staff of the Female Growth and Development Study celebrate 20 years of ongoing research.
Prior victimization is among the most commonly cited risks for female victims of intimate partner violence and rape. Maltreated adolescent females are at a 3-5-fold greater risk for subsequent physical and sexual victimizations in comparison to normative rates for their non-maltreated peers.
A primary objective of the longitudinal study was to track patterns of victimization (or subsequent victimization or revictimization for abused subjects) throughout development. Controlling for age, minority status, and SES, analyses performed on the data from the Time 4 assessment showed that abused participants reported significantly more incidences of revictimization that were subsequent to their referring sexual abuse. Abused subjects reported twice as many subsequent rapes or sexual assaults, 1.6 times as many physical affronts including intimate partner violence, almost four times as many incidences of self inflicted harm (defined as self mutilation, suicide attempts, and other self injurious behaviors), and over twenty percent more cumulative subsequent lifetime traumas as compared to their same-aged peers.
These data provided some of the most convincing prospective evidence supporting the notion that prior sexual victimization is a major risk-factor for several types of revictimization later in life. Further, these analyses suggest that multiple forms and incidences of significant revictimization begin to manifest even as early as adolescence for females who were abused as children.
Because of the unique design of our longitudinal study, and due to the high retention rate, we are not only in a position to report problems that exist within distinct developmental stages, but are able to test models that identify factors earlier in development that have an impact on later problems. Being able to identify mediating factors in the prediction of later dysfunction, and identifying variables that serve to moderate the effects of childhood abuse on later functioning, constitute the first steps in designing and implementing effective interventions. For example, when examining predictors of revictimization, sexual and physical revictimization were both predicted by posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociative tendencies, and sexual distortion variables earlier in development.
Future Directions
The link between childhood maltreatment and subsequent victimization is not well understood. Drs. Noll and Putnam are in the process of designing and piloting a violence prevention program for maltreated adolescents with a long-range goal of packaging the program for dissemination, first to other sites for a multi-site RO1 RCT, and then to Child Advocacy Centers and other agencies that evaluate and treat victims of childhood maltreatment.
Relevant Publications
Noll JG. (2005). Does childhood sexual abuse set in motion a cycle of violence against women? Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20(1), 455-462.
Noll JG, Horowitz LA, Bonanno G, Trickett, PK, Putnam FW. (2003). Revictimization and self-harm in adolescent and young adult females who experienced childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(12), 1452-1471.
Trickett PK, Noll JG, Reiffman A, Putnam FW. (2001). Variants of intrafamilial sexual abuse experience: Implications for long term development. Journal of Development and Psychopathology, 13(4), 1001-1019.
Funding Sources
(Noll) Co-Principal Investigator Sexual Abuse of Females: Effects in Young Adulthood, awarded by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF), 90CA1686, $750,000 direct and indirect costs, period covered October, 2001 - December, 2004.
