Rape prevention and risk reduction: Review of the research literature for practitioners
Citation:
Lonsway, K. (2009, January). Rape prevention and risk reduction: Review of the research literature for practitioners. Harrisburg, PA: VAWnet, a project of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence/ Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Available online at: http://www.vawnet.org
Abstract:
For many professionals working in the field of sexual assault, one of the most pressing questions is: “What can we do to prevent it?” Practitioners have been designing and implementing rape prevention programs for decades, and researchers have been evaluating them for almost as long. The purpose of this article is to summarize the answers we have so far, because the good news is that we have learned some important lessons along the way regarding the prevention of adult and adolescent sexual assault. (The prevention of child sexual abuse will not be addressed in this article). For the purposes of this review, the terms “rape” and “sexual assault” will be used interchangeably. However, it won’t take long for many readers to realize that there are far more questions than answers. The second purpose of this article is to provide concrete guidance for practitioners on how to design, implement, and evaluate rape prevention programs in the real world where we don’t have all the answers from research conducted so far.