Marginalized Women – Women with Past Sexual Assault Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 602: Primary Care of the Childbearing and Childrearing Family Practicum

Marginalized Women – Women with Past Sexual Assault

In the U.S. alone, one in five women will have been raped at some point in their lives (Parrish-Sprowl, 2015). At least one in three women will have had some form of experience with contact sexual violence during their lifetime (Parrish-Sprowl, 2015). As devastating as these statistics may be to read, it is an ongoing issue, which affects more women than one could imagine. Sexual assault is defined as any act of abuse-related sexual activity, which also includes rape, attempted rape, and other unwanted sexual touching (Smith & Gilreath-Osoff, 2018). Women who are of reproductive age are at risk for unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections/diseases, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Healthcare providers should be properly educated about the effects of sexual assault, and how it can affect the victim both physically and mentally.

Background and Significance

It has been reported that there are an estimated 1.3 million rape cases against women annually (RAINN, 2018). That number is a rough estimate, which can be much higher due to the fact that more than sixty percent of sexual assaults against women go unreported to authorities annually (Tennessee et al., 2017). In Indiana for the year of 2017, there were a total of 2,625 reported rape cases (Indiana Department of Correction, 2019). That is an average of about 7 rapes occurring every day. This number has increased by fourteen percent from the prior year. Indiana is placed in the upper middle portion of all states for its rape cases. According to the World Health Organization, one in three women across the world have become victims of physical/sexual assault in their lifetime (2017). Many of these cases arise from intimate partner violence, which is any form of sexual assault that is committed by someone in a relationship with the victim. Women have been reported as being most likely to experience intimate partner violence as compared to men. Coming from a lower socioeconomic status, having a lower education, having had a parent with a history of abuse, and having the attitude of violence acceptance are all factors which increase the incidence of persons being exposed to sexual assault.