| Summary: | This study was undertaken to investigate factors facilitating and hindering a victim's decision to report a sexual assault to the police. Further objectives were to use the findings to assist in the design of effective intervention methods by sexual assault treatment centers and community education projects, and to present significant findings useful for community policing and other criminal justice initiatives. Survey data for this study were collected from female victims of nonincestuous sexual assault incidents who were at least 14 years of age and sought treatment (within one year of being assaulted) from the Sex Abuse Treatment Center (SATC) in Honolulu, Hawaii, during 1987-1992. Data were collected on two types of victims: (1) immediate treatment seekers, who sought treatment within 72 hours of an assault incident, and (2) delayed treatment seekers, who sought treatment 72 hours or longer after an assault incident. Demographic variables for the victims include age at the time of the assault, marital status, employment status, educational level, and race and ethnicity. Other variables include where the attack took place, the victim's relationship to the assailant, the number of assailants, and whether the assailant(s) used threats, force, or a weapon, or injured or drugged the victim. Additional variables cover whether the victim attempted to get away, resisted physically, yelled, and/or reported the incident to the police, how the victim learned about the Sex Abuse Treatment Center, whether the victim was a tourist, in the military, or a resident of the island, the number of days between the assault and the interview, and a self-reported trauma Sexual Assault Symptom Scale measure.
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