Impact of Sexual Violence
As with any experience of trauma, the impact of sexual violence on an individual will be unique to them.
Factors that may influence how a person is impacted by sexual violence include:
- Personality
- Support networks
- Culture, including exposure to rape culture and victim blaming
- Life experience, including any past experiences of trauma
- Past experiences of grooming, coercion, silencing and/or manipulation
Other factors that will also influence how a person is impacted by experience/s of sexual violence are:
- A person’s relationship with the abuser
- Any grooming, coercion, silencing and/or manipulation connected with the abuse
- The sexual violence involved e.g. rape, sexual assault by penetration or sexual assault with levels of physical violence
Some people who experience sexual violence will seek support in the immediacy, while others may not feel able to speak about their experiences for weeks, months or even years. The response a person receives when disclosing experience/s of sexual violence can be a key factor in the immediate, short and long term impact on a person’s life.
The following gives examples of the range of impacts a person may experience in the immediate, short and long term. This list is not exhaustive and is given to show a range of impacts a person may experience throughout their journey of recovery.
Impacts on the physical self – directly linked with sexual violence incident
- Epilepsy
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Gynaecological problems
- Physical injuries
- Sexual Transmitted Infections
- Spontaneous vaginal infections
- Stroke
- Unplanned pregnancy
Impacts on the physical self – linked with emotional & psychological impact
- Avoidance of mirrors
- Compulsive behaviour, including Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Drug or alcohol use, including prescription and/or over the counter medications
- Eating Distress, including Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa
- Heightened or distorted trauma response
- High risk-taking behaviour
- Security seeking behaviours
- Self-harm
- Self-neglect
- Suicide attempts
Emotional & Psychological Impacts
- Ability to build positive relationships, including the ability to trust others
- Alienation from the body
- Anger issues, including inability to recognise, own or express anger and/or fear of actual or imagined anger
- Anxiety
- Boundary issues, including distorted sense of own or others’ boundaries
- Depression
- Dissociation, either for a short period of time or a whole period of a person’s life, especially in childhood. In some cases this can lead to Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Distorted body image and/ or need to manipulate appearance
- Fear for own safety and that of others, including their children
- Fear of rejection and abandonment
- Flashbacks – visual, auditory or sensory
- Guilt, shame and self-blame
- Hypervigilance
- Isolation
- Issues with sleep, including insomnia
- Low self-esteem and self-worth
- Minimisation and denial of abuse
- Need to be invisible or perfect
- Nightmares and/or night terrors
- Panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Self-sabotage
- Sexual issues
- Suicidal ideation
- Swallowing and gagging sensitivity
- Trusting indiscriminately
- Vulnerability to being re-victimised
The lists above are examples of the range of impacts a person may experience in the immediate, short and long term. The lists are not exhaustive and are given to show a range of impacts a person may experience throughout their journey of recovery.
