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IMMEDIATE HELP & SUPPORT

If you need immediate information you can call one of these 24-hour toll-free hotlines.

  • Rape Abuse & Incest National Network
  • 800-656-4673
  • Childhelp USA
  • 800-422-4453
  • National Domestic Violence/Abuse Hotline
  • 800-799-7233

Available in English, Spanish and German, with other languages coming.

Why don’t many people fight or yell when they’re being raped?

Why are memories of sexual assault so often fragmentary and confusing?

Is the brain’s response to attack essentially the same – controlled by the defense/fear circuitry, running on reflexes and habits – during sexual assault, physical assault, and military combat?

The answers have big implications for people who’ve been sexually assaulted, for those who investigate and prosecute such crimes, and for everyone else who knows or works with someone who’s been sexually assaulted.

The answers, it turns out, are the same in every culture. Around the world, the most common responses of people during sexual assaults are basically the same.

Evolution sculpted them into our brains long before we were sophisticated enough to create cultures, long before we began to misunderstand and misjudge sexual assault survivors with culture-based expectations of how women and men “should” respond during assaults and remember them later.

These are issues that I address as a consultant and trainer, and here I provide answers via videos, writings, and handouts.

Sexual Assault and the Brain Blog

Animated & Training Videos

This page has two collections of videos: short animated videos and videos of me teaching. All explain how stress and trauma during sexual assaults can impact experience, thinking, behavior, and memory processes.

One-Page Handouts

PDF FILES

These handouts help with learning and applying knowledge about sexual assault and the brain. To get the most from them, read my writings and watch my in-depth video (below). See also longer handouts for investigators and victim advocates at the bottom of this page.

Key Information for Investigators, Attorneys, Judges, and Others – Lots of key points packed into one page on (1) common brain-based effects during assaults and (2) “cautions, vulnerabilities, and needs.”

Common Sexual Assault Behaviors: Reflexes & Habits – High-level overview of common – but still commonly misunderstood – reflex and habit behaviors.

How Brain‐Based Behaviors Tend to Unfold Over Time – Useful for thinking about typical sequences. See also my brief video on this handout.

Potential Overlaps of Dissociation with Freezing, Habit Behaviors, and/or Extreme Survival Reflexes – This Venn diagram clarifies how dissociation may or may not overlap with reflex responses and habit behaviors.

All Four Handouts in one PDF

How Reliable Are the Memories of Sexual Assault Victims?

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

If I were permitted to provide my invited expert testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with Dr. Blasey Ford and Judge Kavanaugh, these would have been my remarks, which apply to memories of military combat and other traumas too. Also published on my blog (above).

Why Many Rape Victims Don’t Fight or Yell

PDF

Published by The Washington Post in 2015, this brief essay explains basic brain responses to being attacked, including sexually.

Online Courses

Interactive

Free courses with text, audio, video, and other interactive features. Currently, “Neurobiology of Sexual Assault Trauma,” with three modules: Introduction, When Attack Is Detected, and Reflexes and Habits. More ways to learn about why people react to and remember sexual assaults in the ways they do, including why “reflexes and habits” is a much better way (than “fight, flight, [whatever]”) to understand people’s responses, and how this knowledge can enhance our abilities to understand and support survivors.

Training Bulletins

PDF Files

I wrote these training bulletins with the Director of Research and CEO of EVAWI, whose mission is to “inspire and educate those who respond to gender-based violence, equipping them with the knowledge and tools they need to support victims and hold perpetrators accountable.”

Important Things to Get Right About the “Neurobiology of Trauma”

Part 1: Benefits of Understanding the Science

Part 2: Victim Responses During Sexual Assault

Part 3: Memory Processes

More

Handout for Interviewers

PDF

This provides detailed information for those conducting investigative interviews with people reporting sexual assault. It includes sections on brain-based effects on memories, fundamental interviewing principles, and techniques for improving interviews and the evidence collected. Before using this handout, watch my YouTube video, "Neurobiology of Trauma and Sexual Assault."

Handout for Victim Advocates

PDF

This provides options for answering sexual assault victims' common questions with brain-based explanations, which can increase understanding and reduce shame and self-blame. Before using this handout, watch my YouTube video, "Neurobiology of Trauma and Sexual Assault."

Neurobiology of Sexual Assault: Two-part Webinar Series

EVAWI

In these two 90-minute webinars, I cover the same material as my longest YouTube video (above), but in greater depth on memory issues in part 2. These webinars are available for $49 from EVAWI’s webinar archive.

Part 1: Experience and Behavior

Part 2: Experience and Memory

For information about having me provide a presentation or training, email me at [email protected] and put “Presentation/training” in the subject line.