HJAR Sep/Oct 2024

DIALOGUE 18 SEP / OCT 2024 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS has been victimized once, that they are experiencing sexual assault again … so multiple sexual assaults? Editor Yes, my understanding is many sexual assault victims are assaulted several times in their life. Wyandt-Hiebert The reason I was asking for clarification on the question is because that's one way of looking at that question and the other way is the revictimization of how our society puts them through trauma over and over again. Editor Let's talk about both of those. Wyandt-Hiebert Sure. Let's tackle the first one, the first part in regard to sexual assault. Once an individual is victimized by sexual violence, they are at increased risk for subsequent incidents of sexual violence. Part of that has to do with folks not getting the help that they need early on and are still victimized by that. For some individuals, in an attempt to try to take control of their lives, you'll see this happen too, where somebody will become what would be presumed to be sexually promiscuous. Saying, "Oh, OK, well, I didn't have control over that, but I'm going to take back control by being sexually promiscuous now and I'm doing all kinds of stuff," when really their true intention never would've been to do that. It's a way of trying to take back control. There are different ways of revictimiza- tion happening. Sometimes an acquaintance or partner doesn't just stop at victimizing them once. It happens again and again. When an individual is in an abusive rela- tionship, even if that relationship breaks up, without getting help to deal with the vic- timization that they have dealt with, it's not uncommon for individuals to unintention- ally find themselves in another unhealthy relationship. Part of that is because their self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-worth has been broken down so much by their for- mer abuser that it just becomes a part of who they are in that sense. least half of those if we could get everybody in the room at once. Part of being trauma informed is being sensitive to the fact that this individual is telling [their story] over again and creat- ing an environment that feels a little bit safer and giving them choices, something as simple as saying, "Have a seat wher- ever you would like," with various seating options available. For example, I have one room set up here in my office where I have some soft, couch-like chairs on one side of the room and a small table and chairs on the other side. Wherever that individual feels comfortable sitting, it's their choice. Giving those little kinds of options, hav- ing variable lighting options ... I'll usually start off with some low lights. “Do you want more lights, or are you OK with this?"Those small ways of giving control, in a sense, can help decrease the potential of a revictimiza- tion when a person is telling the story again. "Would you like a glass of water, or can I get you something to drink?" They really have very little control over the system and what happens with the system, so in a trauma- informed environment, we can try to soften the environment to make it a little bit more comfortable so they're not feeling as revic- timized. That's more sensitive to the fact that the trauma has been experienced. The other way that individuals are revic- timized is through our society, through our culture. As I mentioned before, the court of public opinion is so quick to jump to ques- tions like, "What was she wearing?" That's such a prevalent question to the point that a colleague and I created an art installation 10 years ago that's become a worldwide phe- nomenon now. Many people have heard of the “What Were YouWearing?”survivor art installation. It's been on every continent except Antarctica. So, if you know of any- body going to Antarctica, we'll send them with an exhibit so we can say it's been on that continent as well. It's been translated to … I forget how many different languages now. The simplicity of that exhibit and the simplicity of that question, "What were There are many different factors that can go into play as to why when one is a vic- tim of sexual violence, they are at increased risk for subsequent sexual violence. We just know it's a risk factor that if one has been sexually assaulted before, they're at an increased risk for additional sexual assault down the road. We see that with other things, too. For example, if one abuses a substance, they're an increased risk of abus- ing other substances as well. This isn't lim- ited to just sexual assault. Prior experiences do increase people's risks at times. Now, with revictimization, even if it's a single victimization of sexual assault, we see with that single incident where a person is revictimized from a sense of a community, cultural, and systemic perspective. If an individual does make a report, they have to tell that story over and over and over again. It’s reliving that trauma over and over and over again, and that's difficult. That's part of the way our system is set up. If you have a forensic exam, you tell it to the person who's doing the forensic exam. You tell it to the ini- tial officer that shows up to take the initial police report. Then, usually another day or two later, you end up telling it to a detec- tive. Usually, the detective will reach back with follow-up questions, and you end up talking again about it. If a victim advocate is pulled in at some point, sometimes there's a retelling of that story if they weren't part of an initial conversation. If [the victim] is seeking counseling, there's the retelling of the story in counseling. If they have other options available to them, for example, on a college campus with the Title IX process, there's the retelling of it there to the Title IX officer taking the report. Then, maybe it goes to the prosecutor's office or the Title IX coordinator's office. You have to retell it again to them. If it ever makes it to court or to a hearing, then you have to tell it again. That's just the norm. Then we wonder why people don't make reports. That's one of the reasons — because of the way we systemi- cally have to revictimize the individual by telling the story over and over and over and over again. We could probably eliminate at