This course, Sexual Violence: Understanding Victimization, provides
an overview of sexual violence’s effect on victims—its prevalence, factors that
contribute to the prevalence and how it can impact victims’ health. It explores how victims’ needs are often influenced by
their traumatic response and reactions to the violence perpetrated against them
and ways to support victims in healing from the trauma. It discusses gender bias and its connection to
gender-based violence, in particular sexual assault. It
looks at the phenomenon of victim blaming when a sexual assault occurs, why it
is a common reaction, how it affects victims and what can be done to reduce the
level of victim blaming in communities. Lastly, this course offers basic
information about sex offenders not only to dispel common myths associated with
sexual assault, but to allow professionals to better advocate for victims on
both individual and systematic levels.
