Community contribution

Of the “hundreds of studies” Thomas Giuffra claims to have read, how many specifically support his assertion that friendly, apparently enthusiastic communications following an alleged sexual assault are manifestations of denial? And which studies establish the denial–shame–acceptance sequence he has proposed? We have assembled a team of counselors, rape specialists, law enforcement professionals, attorneys, a prosecutor, and two rape survivors to prepare a paper examining the literature on Rape Trauma Syndrome in light of the claims Giuffra made during his Fox News interview. Several points are already clear. Giuffra has stated that he has reviewed hundreds of studies and that none contradict his position. This is false. Rape Trauma Syndrome is expressly addressed in the court rules. Under [u]Rule 7.10[/u], which draws from the New York Court of Appeals decision in [u]*People v. Taylor*, 75 N.Y.2d 277 (1990)[/u], expert testimony on Rape Trauma Syndrome may be used only to explain certain post-event behaviors; it cannot be used to prove that a rape occurred. There is a substantial body of research that contradicts Giuffra’s claims; we will address it in detail in the forthcoming paper. The quantitative evidence on “unacknowledged rape” (the category most relevant to his argument) is limited. In [u]Littleton, Layh & Rudolph (2018)[/u], for example, only 104 women who met the researchers’ criteria for having been raped were studied. Of those, **17%** were classified as being in denial or as unacknowledged victims. Among that 17%, the percentage who maintained friendly communications with the perpetrator was less than **1%**. These cases are extreme outliers across the literature. While terms such as DARVO have gained cultural visibility, their prevalence as a social or media trend does not equate to a dominant, biologically grounded, or statistically typical response to rape. The quantitative literature more consistently associates post-assault reactions with disgust, timely reporting or accusation, and the absence of ongoing friendly contact with the perpetrator. Every ambulance chasing lolwyer will try to use DARVO denial excuses, but the reality is the percentage is so small that the tally of lawsuits filed using denial and DARVO excuses by lolwyer Thomas alone is so astronomically impossible based on the studies he himself likely quoted. Marginal, fractional, only a single digit or less, percentage of rape victims enter the denial stage immediately. In the vast majority of the studies on the topic of rape trauma and behavior The majority recognized they were raped and this is attributed to: family stability, morals and ethics, financially sound (attorneys, medical, etc are a cost that prohibits many victims of rape from reporting)... in short if you are raised in a wealthy stable home you are more likely (indeed almost 98% likely) to recognize you have been raped and will act to report it immediately. *"Common knowledge"* is almost always incorrect. Our experts are finalizing their findings for a future blog post. We will publish the full report prepared by the assembled team as soon as it is complete.