“What Will My Friends Think?” Social Consequences for Danish Victims of Sexual Assaults in Peer Groups

ABSTRACT

Being exposed to sexual assaults has numerous psychological and social consequences, which may interfere with the adolescent’s still-ongoing development. This article focuses on social consequences for adolescents exposed to sexual assault by someone from their peer group.

Participants were 148 in number and 15–18 year olds (M = 16.34 years, 90.5% female) from Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault’s “Youth Programme.”

A mixed methods design combined extensive survey data collected from the 148 adolescents and five case stories. Almost half of the assaults (47.4%) were committed by someone from the victim’s social circle who was not a family member. Only 30.5% of these victims reported the assault to the police. Fear of social consequences was the main reason for not reporting. The majority of the participants described failure to thrive in school in the aftermath of the assault, for example, because the assailant attended the same school. Result furthermore showed how social relations can be complicated due to an assault and subsequent reactions, which can result in isolation for the victim and exclusion from their peer group.

Sexual assaults in peer groups have great impact on the victim’s well-being. Understanding and support from peers is of the utmost importance. Implications for practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Adolescents
• reactions to sexual assault
• long-term consequences of sexual assault
• social relations
• failure to thrive in school
• isolation
• exclusion
• reporting to the police

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank all the adolescents who participated in the Youth Programme. Furthermore, we would like to acknowledge our clinical colleagues in Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault.

Declaration of interest

The authors hereby state that they do not have any financial conflicts of interest. The study is part of a larger project that has been approved by the institutional board/the information system manager authority at Rigshospitalet.

Ethical standards and informed consent

The procedure for the standardized data collection was sent for approval to the Regional Committee on Health Research Ethics. The Regional Committee did not have any objections to the project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Line Engel Clasen

Line Engel Clasen, cand.psych.aut., PhD, is a clinical psychologist and research center coordinator at Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. She received her master’s degree in psychology and PhD in developmental psychology from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Anne Bruun Blauert

Anne Bruun Blauert, cand.soc., is a social worker and was at the time the article was written employed as research center coordinator at Centre for Victims of Sexual Assault, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. She received her master’s degree in social work from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Svend Aage Madsen

Svend Aage Madsen, cand.psych., PhD, director of the research center at Department of Psychology, Play Therapy and Social Counselling, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen Denmark. He received his master’s degree in psychology from Aarhus University and his PhD from Copenhagen University, Denmark.