Who would you tell?- by Courtney

Day in and day out, I watch sexual assault survivors walk into our agency.  It is hard to miss the loneliness and fear hiding under their eyes but also the relief when they meet their counselor at the door – knowing support is there.      

                If you were a victim of sexual assault, whom would you disclose your experience to; your friend, the police, your sibling, a counselor, or perhaps no one at all?  While I feel like I am sure who I would turn to if ever in this situation, I was curious to learn more about whom college women majorly confide in after experiencing the painful and life-changing experience of sexual assault.  It is definitely a difficult situation to even imagine myself in, but it is also impossible not to wonder about as I watch those that lives been completely changed by sexual assault seek support from a counselor, who could be the only person they have disclosed to.

                To learn more about whom victims disclose their experience with, I turned to a study that examined 300+ undergraduate college women from the ‘Violence Against Women’ journal (To Whom Do College Women Confide Following Sexual Assault? A Prospective Study of Predictors of Sexual Assault Disclosure and Social Reactions, 2012).  According to the authors of this article, while rates of sexual assault are extremely high on college campuses, sexual assault remains the most underreported violent crime.  College women rarely report these crimes to police or campus officials, and they are more likely to disclose their experience with an ‘informal support provider,’ such as a friend.  Of all of the informal support providers (mother, siblings/other family members, female peers, male peers), female peers are overwhelmingly chosen as the informal support provider for sexual assault victims to disclose to.

                Prior to even reading this article, I would lump myself in the majority of women that would disclose to a female peer before disclosing to anyone else, even before my mother and my boyfriend. Parallel to this study and like a majority of college women, my peers are most likely to provide emotional support and a non-judgmental response if I would disclose to them.  While I feel extremely blessed to know that I have a support system that I would be able to disclose to, I know that this is not always the case.  However, while still a “formal” support provider, working with counselors that specialize in caring for sexual assault survivors has made me realize that counselors can be an essential support provider for survivors that perhaps have no one else to turn to.