University of Nebraska-Lincoln psychology graduate student Samantha Pittenger created a new approach to studying the revictimization of child sexual assault victims, according to a UNL news release. As a student in the Child Maltreatment Lab, Pittenger began doing her dissertation research on child sexual assault.

Revictimization is defined by the Research Advocacy Digest as “the phenomenon in which individuals who have experienced child sexual abuse are at greater risk than others for adolescent or adult sexual victimization.”

Much of the research involving revictimization focuses on adults. Very limited research focuses on the children and the variables beyond the victim.

“There is a lot of literature that has established sexual revictimization as a problem,” Pittenger said in the release. “But most has really focused on adults. We know that people are reporting this as adults, but we need to understand more about what’s happening when they’re younger.”

Pittenger compiled more than 100 research articles showing revictimization in adults and teens. She organized her findings to help future researchers more closely examine how many variables interact to create the risk of revictimization. This theory has not been typically used to study child sexual abuse.

Pittenger’s research was published in the journal Aggression and Violent Behavior and showed external influences can raise the risk of child revictimization.

If research shows there is still a higher risk for later victimization, interventions should be considered.

“Before we can do that, we need to figure out what is going to work to keep that person safe,” Pittenger said. “That’s what we did with this review: looked at all of the different contexts that these kids live in and tried to determine what about those contexts might influence their ability to be safe in the future.”

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