Psychology of Violence, Vol 14(6), Nov 2024, 379-385; doi:10.1037/vio0000528
Objective: Despite decades of U.S. federal funding and sustained policy attention on gender-based violence, services for sexual assault survivors remain challenging to access and navigate. In addition, those who seek formal help from the criminal legal system and the medical system often feel retraumatized and blamed. Method: This article offers a critical review of U.S. policies and service programs for sexual assault survivors. Results: The U.S. antirape movement has focused primarily on helping individual survivors and instituting ameliorative fixes to make existing systems less painful. Research and practice must move beyond this systems-centered approach to create survivor-centered models of help and healing. Conclusions: Researchers can support the creation of survivor-centered models of help and healing by conducting formative research that illuminates what is truly healing for survivors and by engaging in community-based implementation research to build services that are responsive to those needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)