Influence of Sexual Violence Victim-Assailant Relationship on the Victim’s Traumatic Impact - Mediating Effect of the Myth of Sexual Violence - (in Korean)
Choo, Jihyun ] Korean Institute of Criminology
Kwon, Insook ] Myoungji University
By using survey dataset with 235 sexual violence victims, this study examins 1)how intimacy of sexual violence victim-assailant relationship effects victim’s traumatic impact and 2)how the experience of societal myth of sexual violence mediates this effect. The results shows that, the more intimate the victim’s relationship with the assailant, victims experiences more societal myth of sexual violence such as refusal or reproach of victim. And the experience of societal myth of sexual violence mediate the influence of the intimacy completely. This means that 1)the negative psychological impact of sexual violence which occurred in acquaintance is more serious in contrast to popular belief which regards unknown attackers and forceful assaults as more traumatic event and 2)due to the inconsistence of this stereotype, victims of known assailant experiences the myth of sexual violence much more, so that the severity of traumatic symptom is aggravated. From this analysis, we can understand importance of social factors such as myth of sexual violence on the negative psychological impact of sexual violence victim, not the event factors such as penetration, age, and the necessity of overcoming the myth of sexual violence to protecting and supporting the victims.
Key Words: sexual violence. myth of sexual violence, traumatic impact of sexual violence, victim-assailant relationship, mediating effect
Journal of Welfare for The Correction (2017), 48, 179-203