Overview

This database contains an overview of the 36 studies included in the map of evidence which elicited the views and experiences of people seeking or providing specialist adult services in the UK.

We included studies where the population of focus covered people of any gender, aged over 16 years old, who had experienced sexual violence or abuse at any point in their life.

The studies have been organised into two broad sets: those that explored services to address sexual violence specifically (targeted, n=26); and those that explored how general services, such as maternity or healthcare, could be adapted to support people who have experienced sexual violence (adaptations, n=10).

Using this map

There are various ways to view the map content. Take a brief moment to familiarise yourself with the various options.

1) View and filter the appearance of the map

The size of the bubble reflects the number of citations within each cell.

It is possible to filter the view of the map by clicking on the 'Filters' tab and selecting one or more sub-groups within the following categories of study participants: 1) professional staff; 2) victim-survivors only; and 3) both professionals and victim-survivors. The settings can be changed using the filtering selection mode and clicking 'update'.

2) Explore citations within the map

Click on the cell of interest to view a list of citations represented in that cell.

You can also click on a column or row header to view all the citations relating to that row or column. For example, for all the records of studies which address the subpopulation of victim-survivors who have additional disadvantage click on the row heading titled, 'Targeted: other disadvantage'. For studies which focus child sexual exploitation click on the corresponding column header.

To view the full set of reviews, click on the 'View Records' tab on the banner above the map.

Within the 'View Records' tab it is possible to filter the citations in two ways:

1) The filters on the left side correspond to the individual rows and columns in the map and the user can select or de-select these to view the citations that correspond to these cells.
2) The options on the top right banner enables the user to search by word or phrase in the title, abstract or author fields of the review citation.

Review scope

Citations were collected to identify what evidence exists on the effectiveness and appropriateness of specialist adult services for people who have experienced sexual violence and abuse, since 2009, and published in English.

Alongside the UK views studies, we also identified 106 evaluations and 21 systematic reviews as part of the evidence map, details of which are presented in the main report.

As this was a preliminary mapping exercise, we did not examine the quality of the evidence.

The literature search was undertaken in six electronic databases: ASSIA, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Epistemonikos, MEDLINE and PsycINFO alongside online sources including the websites of sexual violence charities and organisations. We also undertook reference harvesting and contacted experts in the field. The search was conducted in April 2019.

Suggested citation

Sarah Lester, Claire Khouja, Meena Khatwa, Gary Raine, Rebecca Rees, Irene Kwan, Kath Wright, Pauline Meskell, Amanda Sowden, James Thomas(2022) Adult specialist services for victim-survivors of sexual violence and abuse: A systematic map of evidence London: EPPI Centre, Social Science Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, University College London.

Funding

This review was commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (PRP) for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). It was funded through the NIHR PRP contract with the EPPI Centre at UCL (Reviews facility to support national policy development and implementation, PR-R6-0113-11003). The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the DHSC.

The London-York NIHR Policy Research Programme Reviews Facility is a collaboration between the following centres of excellence:
  UCL Institute of Education
  EPPI-Centre (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre)
  London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

Funder involvement

This work is part of an ongoing programme of work funded by DHSC. Throughout the review, DHSC policy team members were consulted to understand the context of the issue under study, and to identify the focus and scope of the analysis.

Conflicts of interest

There were no conflicts of interest in the writing of this report.

Contributions

The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the EPPI-Centre or the funders. Responsibility for the views expressed remains solely with the authors.

(c) Copyright

Authors of the systematic reviews on the EPPI-Centre website http://eppi.ioe.ac.uk hold the copyright for the text of their reviews. The EPPI-Centre owns the copyright for all material on the website it has developed, including the contents of the databases, manuals, and keywording and data-extraction systems. The centre and authors give permission for users of the site to display and print the contents of the site for their own noncommercial use, providing that the materials are not modified, copyright and other proprietary notices contained in the materials are retained, and the source of the material is cited clearly following the citation details provided. Otherwise users are not permitted to duplicate, reproduce, re-publish, distribute, or store material from this website without express written permission.