The impact of Covid-19 on recovery after sexual violence and abuse: Voices of help-seeking survivors and those individuals working within specialist support services in England
| Published date | 01 January 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02697580241284308 |
| Author | Emma Sleath,Eleanor Lutman-White,Grace Carter,Sarah Brown,Lorna O’Doherty |
| Date | 01 January 2025 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580241284308
International Review of Victimology
2025, Vol. 31(1) 135 –155
© The Author(s) 2024
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DOI: 10.1177/02697580241284308
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The impact of Covid-19 on
recovery after sexual violence
and abuse: Voices of
help-seeking survivors and
those individuals working
within specialist support services
in England
Emma Sleath
University of Leicester, UK
Eleanor Lutman-White
Coventry University, United Kingdom
Grace Carter
Coventry University, United Kingdom
Sarah Brown
University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; University of the West of England, United Kingdom
Lorna O’Doherty
Coventry University, United Kingdom
Abstract
We examined the impact of Covid-19 on service delivery within specialist sexual violence services
and the healing journeys of survivors of sexual violence and abuse through the experiences of 22
professionals and 221 service users in England. The pandemic posed challenges across all sectors
and economies across the globe, but practices and innovations that emerged at that time could
enhance future services and user experiences. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes
Corresponding author:
Emma Sleath, School of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leicester, Astley Clarke Building,
University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, United Kingdom.
Email: emma.sleath@leicester.ac.uk
1284308IRV0010.1177/02697580241284308International Review of Victimology X(X)Sleath et al.
research-article2024
Article
136International Review of Victimology 31(1)
within the data. Overall, the negative impacts of Covid-19 outweighed the positive changes:
survivors reported increased feelings of depression, anxiety, and worry, exacerbated by isolation
and lost connections with friends and family, and access to strategies for managing their mental
health. Difficulties/delays in accessing support, service provision, and disruptions to rapport, trust,
and safety were widespread in participants’ reports. Conversely, for some, requirements to remain
at home provided safety from the world, and space for healing, and even prompted survivors of
non-recent abuse to seek help. Remote service delivery was beneficial where clients could be ‘at
a distance’ in discussing sensitive issues. Together with insights from professionals about their
own isolation, blurred boundaries, and concerns regarding client confidentiality and engagement,
this research highlights an agile sector responding to an unprecedented situation. Moving forward,
survivors’ preferences for flexible/remote support must be integrated into everyday delivery.
Keywords
COVID-19, pandemic, sexual violence, telehealth, video-conferencing, depression
Introduction
Sexual violence continues to represent a significant global public health issue, of which the sub-
stantial, lifelong, negative physical, mental health, and social impacts have long been recognised
(World Health Organization (WHO), 2013, 2018). Support and a range of interventions for victims
and survivors in the aftermath of sexual violence and abuse can be effective in reducing post-
traumatic stress disorder and symptoms of depression and anxiety (O’Doherty et al., 2023), ena-
bling victims and survivors to re-engage with many aspects of their lives (Brown et al., 2022).
Despite this, victims and survivors often struggle to access appropriate support and interventions
throughout their lives (Brown et al., 2022; Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse, 2022),
with agencies and services that are over-stretched and under-resourced (e.g. Rape Crisis, 2021).
Furthermore, inadequate responses to sexual violence are pervasive across legal systems. For
example, in England and Wales, there have been significant declines in the charging of rape cases,
prosecutions, and convictions (HM Government, 2021). Consequently, victims and survivors of
sexual violence and abuse have little confidence in what formal responses they might receive (e.g.
in supporting a police investigation) (Molina and Poppleton, 2020; O’Doherty et al., 2022). How
victims and survivors are treated by professionals in the aftermath of sexual violence and abuse can
influence their psychological recovery (Ullman and Peter-Hagene, 2014). Experiences of insensi-
tive treatment often lead to feelings of powerlessness, shame, and guilt (Campbell, 2008) and the
long duration of criminal proceedings and lack of victims’ and survivors’ voices and perspectives
in legal proceedings can exacerbate physical, social, and mental health struggles (O’Doherty et al.,
2022). These challenges are echoed internationally, with a consensus that change is needed on a
global level (e.g. Sentencing Advisory Council, 2021). This background is the setting for the cur-
rent study, in providing an original investigation of the cumulative impacts that the global pan-
demic of COVID-19 had on victims and survivors of sexual violence and abuse, and on those
working within settings that provide support to them.
There were three lockdown periods in England between 2020 and 2021. It is now well-recognised
that lockdown periods, both nationally and internationally, resulted in increases in the incidence of
domestic abuse and escalated the risk to those already subjected to abuse (e.g. Kourti et al., 2023;
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