The impact of secondary victimization in victims of sexual violence: a systematic review

Abstract

Many victims of sexual violence experience additional harm to that produced by the crime experienced when they are contact with the legal system. This is known as secondary victimization, and includes inadequate treatment by police, judges, and lawyers, among others, as well as structural aspects of the system itself. The aim of this systematic peer review was to examine the existing literature regarding the impact that secondary victimization can have on victims of sexual violence, focusing on the psychological impact, while using manual searches as well as Rayyan to review the results of searches in three databases (EBSCOhost, Dialnet and Scopus). After screening these articles, the number of studies analysed for this review was reduced to nine, including three qualitative and six quantitative studies. The first result of the screening was the scarcity of studies about secondary victimization. In addition, the results showed that the occurrence of secondary victimization and its negative psychological impact tends to be greater in victims of sexual violence. Finally, they also revealed that secondary victimization can cause other consequences, such as a decrease in the number of criminal complaints of sexual crimes and a loss of trust in the legal system.