A Qualitative Analysis of Sexual Victimization Narratives

The current study examined qualitatively 78 sexual victimization narratives to (a) investigate variability within Sexual Experiences Survey (SES) categories to determine whether these events shared contextual features, (b) investigate variability between SES categories to determine whether these events were contextually distinct, and (c) identify emerging contextual features of victimization experiences. Results revealed considerable variation in both within- and between-SES severity categories. Qualitative analysis also identified several emerging contextual features of victimization narratives, such as the after-party situation. Findings suggest that qualitative research may expose contextual variability in sexual victimization experiences not currently captured by quantitative measures of sexual victimization.