A representative sample of 2,004 adult women were interviewed about victimization experiences and mental health problems. After classification of the women into victimization groups, the occurrence of three mental health problems was compared across type of crime. Rates of "nervous breakdowns," suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts were significantly higher for crime victims than for nonvictims. Victims of attempted rape, completed rape, and attempted sexual molestation had problems more frequently than did victims of attempted robbery, completed robbery, aggravated assault, or completed molestation. Problems were not mediated by income and were affected only marginally by age and race. Nearly one rape victim in five (19.2%) had attempted suicide, whereas only 2.2% of nonvictims had done so. Most sexual assault victims' mental health problems came after their victimization. Findings suggest that crime victims are at risk for the development of major mental health problems, some of which are life threatening in nature.

A community sample of 391 adult women was screened for a history of sexual assault during childhood and assessed for lifetime and current mental disorders using a structured victimization history interview and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. One third of the women had been victims of rape, molestation, or sexual assault not involving physical contact prior to the age of 18 years. Child rape victims were more likely than nonvictims to have ever met DSM-III diagnostic criteria for a major depressive episode, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia, and sexual disorders. Molestation victims were overrepresented on major depressive episode, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and sexual disorders. Noncontact child sexual assault was not a significant risk factor for any disorder. Child rape and molestation victims were more likely than victims of noncontact assault to have had crime-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Mental disorder lifetime prevalence risk ratios for child rape and molestation victims versus nonvictims ranged from 1.5 for major depressive episode to 6.7 for obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We interviewed a community sample of 391 women to obtain a thorough history of lifetime victimization experiences, including experiences such as childhood and adult sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary. In order to assess current psychological functioning, participants were administered the Derogatis Symptom Checklist-90 Revised, the Modified Fear Survey, and the Impact of Event scale. Results indicated that childhood sexual abuse victims could be distinguished from nonvictims by a pattern of elevated anxiety, heightened interpersonal sensitivity, increased anger problems, more paranoid ideation, and increased obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The age at which the sexual assault took place was found to be related to current adult functioning, with women assaulted in adolescence displaying more elevations in hostility, interpersonal sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, anxiety, and paranoid ideation than nonvictims. Women sexually abused in early childhood displayed only elevated anxiety symptoms as adults, although they also revealed significantly more psychological symptoms on a global mental health measure than did nonvictims. In addition, revictimization was found to be strongly related to increased symptomatology.

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