Pathways to Healing: A Mixed Methods Investigation of the Role of Justice in Healing of Mental, Physical, and Social Wounds of Sexual Assault Survivors

Background

Violence causes more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year and is one of the leading causes of death in all parts of the world for persons ages 15-44, according to the World Health Organization.

Being maltreated, being in violent interpersonal relationships, experiencing sexual violence, and/or living in violent neighborhoods create stressful and traumatic environments that can negatively affect an otherwise healthy individual.

The Institute on Urban Health Research and Practice (IUHRP) conducts research on the etiology, consequences and prevention of multiple types of violence, including youth violence, child maltreatment, community violence, sexual assault, and intimate partner/teen dating violence.

Previously, studies of the etiology of youth violence and child maltreatment have identified potentially modifiable features of urban neighborhoods to use in the design of prevention programs, and identified teen behaviors and attitudes to use in prevention of dating and intimate partner violence.

Violence prevention studies evaluate interventions and initiatives designed to prevent violence within an urban context, including prevention of teen dating violence among urban youth. IUHRP’s researchers use an ecological perspective to investigate environmental, social and individual determinants of violence in an attempt to better understand its causes and consequences, and to inform prevention efforts. Through this work, IUHRP strives to continually inform interventions that that ameliorate the consequences of the trauma of exposure to violence, as well as prevent interpersonal and community violence from occurring.

Publications:

Marine S, Scoglio AAJ, Molnar BE. Responder perspectives on justice and healing for sexual violence survivors. Psychology of Violence 2020. Published online 8/6/2020.

Scoglio AAJ, Lincoln AK, Kraus SW, Molnar BE. Chipped or Whole? Listening to survivors’ experiences with disclosure following sexual violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Published online 10/22/2020.

Goals

The multidisciplinary team of researchers (Health Sciences, Law, Criminal Justice) will establish a core team at Northeastern focused on sexual violence and justice. They will collect pilot data and test different methods of recruitment, retainment and assessment to prepare for research proposals to fund a longitudinal cohort study of the role of justice in the healing of sexual assault survivors.

Project Team

Beth Molnar - Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University

Dr. Beth E. Molnar
Principal Investigator
Northeastern University

Margo Lindauer

Margo Lindauer
Co-Investigator 
Northeastern University

CJ Cuevas

Carlos Cuevas
Co-Investigator 
Northeastern University

Susan Marine - Merrimack College

Susan Marine
Co-Investigator 
Merrimack College

Arielle Scoglio - Northeastern University

Arielle Scoglio
Study Coordinator
Graduate Assistant
Northeastern University

Sam Meeker - Northeastern University

Samantha Meeker
Graduate Assistant
Northeastern University