Rape: Scope, Impact, Interventions, and Public Policy Responses

There are many ways for women to be victimized by strangers and by people they know, but rape is the crime women fear most. The research on the frequency, psychological aftereffects, somatic consequences, and immediate as well as delayed interventions for rape is reviewed; a brief consensus of the literature within each of these areas is developed; and the implications of the research for public policy are considered. Among the suggested policy responses are improvements in the databases on rape frequency, increased attention to measurement, a higher priority for teaching about rape in the education of health care providers, increased funding and technical assistance to rape crisis centers, and more diversity of interventions and research on their effects.