Abstract

This chapter provides a review of the health impacts of sexual violence on women’s lives. Sexual violence is common and widespread, and affects not only women’s mental health, but also their physical, sexual and perinatal health. Sexual violence is often viewed as a single incident, yet many women face multiple or cumulative traumas throughout the course of their lives, including sexual assault, physical violence, and child sexual abuse. Sexual violence may occur as part of an everyday social climate that acts to facilitate or condone violence against women, or may take place in conflict situations, where it is encouraged by an ideology of militarized masculinity.