The report provides an overview of the four research reports of the sexual violence research project "Strong and Safe Communities – Effective Interventions for Adult Victim/Survivors of Sexual Violence‟ (2009).
Purpose
Restoring Soul: Effective Interventions for Adult Victim/Survivors of Sexual Violence is the overview report resulting from a two-year research project led by the Ministry of Women‟s Affairs in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and New Zealand Police.
The report integrates the findings and identifies major themes that emerged from four interrelated research streams. It considers the implications from a research perspective. The focus is on 'what works' for adult survivors of sexual violence.
In this report:
- an 'adult' is defined as a person aged 16 years or older at the time of the assault
- 'sexual violence' refers to rape and unlawful sexual connection
- 'victim/survivor' is used interchangeably with 'victim' and 'survivor'
- 'perpetrator' refers to an individual who engages in sexual violence; for cases that enter the criminal justice system we refer to the 'accused', 'suspect' or 'defendant'.
The objective of the project was to generate data that:
- identify ways of improving the safety and well-being of adult survivors of sexual violence
- provide a strong evidence base for policy and operational responses.
The research had a particular focus on groups with the highest prevalence of sexual victimisation: New Zealand European, Māori and young women.