Rape Trauma Syndrome: A Review of a Behavioral Science Theory and Its Admissibility in Criminal Trials
![handle is hein.journals/amjtrad23 and id is 601 raw text is: Rape Trauma Syndrome:
A Review of a Behavioral
Science Theory and its Admissibility
in Criminal Trials
Arthur H. Garrisont
Introduction
Rape is a traumatic event in which the life of the victim is disrupted
and the victim is left with feelings of fear and violation. In 1974, Drs.
Ann Burgess and Lynda Holmstrom coined the term Rape Trauma
Syndrome (RTS) to explain the reactions and coping mechanisms that
rape victims may use to deal with the violation of a forcible rape.' Since
its development, RTS has been discussed and reviewed in both the
behavioral science and the legal literature.2 The latter has focused on the
introduction of RTS in criminal trials in an effort, among other reasons,
to prove the guilt of the offender and to rehabilitate the victim when the
defense asserts that a rape did not occur due to consent.3 The behavioral
sciences literature has also reviewed the various reactions and coping
options that have been used by victims of rape.4
t B.S. (1990), Kutztown University of Pennsylvania; M.S. (1995), West Chester
University ofPennsylvania. Arthur Garrison is the Criminal Justice Planning Coordina-
tor for Research and Program Evaluation at the Delaware Criminal Justice Council and
formerly the Criminal Justice Program Coordinator at Springfield College.
'Ann Wolbert Burgess & Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, Rape Trauma Syndrome, 131
AM. J. PSYCHIATRY, Sept. 1974, at 981.
2 Lynda Lytle Holmstrom & Ann Wolbert Burgess, Assessing Trauma in the Rape
Victim, 75 AM. J. NuRsING, Aug. 1975, at 1288 [hereinafter Assessing Trauma]; Ann
Wolbert Burgess & Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, The Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward,
73 AM. J. NURSING 1741 (1973) [hereinafter Emergency Ward]; Ann Wolbert Burgess
& Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, Recovery From Rape and Prior Life Stress, 1 RES. IN
NURSING & HEALTH 165 (1978) [hereinafter Prior Life Stress].
3 Ann Wolbert Burgess, Rape Trauma Syndrome, 1 BEHAV. Sci. & L. 97, 109
(1983).
4 See Prior Life Stress supra note 2.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/amjtrad23&div=48&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Rape Trauma Syndrome: A Review of a Behavioral Science Theory and Its Admissibility in Criminal Trials
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