“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.

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