Psychological trauma and its influence on genuine and false complaints of sexual assault

Events that cause fear leave effects, both physical and psychological. In the last 20 years, it has been recognized that criminal assaults are also fearful events which, like war atrocities and civilian disasters, can have profound effects upon the psychological health of victims. In this paper, some of the research describing the psychological effects of crime will be reviewed, with particular emphasis on allegations of sexual assault. The impact of trauma on crime victims in relation to the prosecution process will be discussed, including the relevance of trauma to the issue of false allegations of sexual assault. The paper will conclude with some recommendations for research.