Military Sexual Trauma: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

Military Sexual Trauma: Current Knowledge and Future Directions showcases the work of several prominent military sexual trauma (MST) researchers, scholars, and clinicians from across the United States. A review of existing research and original empirical findings converge to indicate that MST contributes to a range of physical health problems, complex posttraumatic responses, and other mental health consequences above and beyond the effects of other types of traumatic experiences. This collection also presents evidence suggesting that MST is often difficult to identify both within the individual military member and within the military population as a whole. Recommendations are offered for addressing this problem. In addition to the research review and empirical findings, an evolutionary framework for understanding sexual assault of women in the military is presented. Taken together, this collection of works may inform MST intervention and prevention efforts.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Journal of Trauma & Dissociation.

Carolyn Allard, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego and Program Director of the Military Sexual Trauma Clinic at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. Her research interests include modulators of the relationship between prior trauma and posttraumatic distress following later trauma, revictimization, and treatment outcomes.

Melissa Platt, MA, MS is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon. She is a member of Jennifer J. Freyd’s Dynamics Lab focusing on interpersonal trauma. She is particularly interested in posttraumatic shame and its consequences and treatment. Melissa obtained her MA in counselling psychology from Boston College.