Recovery from Sexual Victimization: Toward Developing a Recovery Capital Framework

There is a need for a comprehensive theoretical framework of recovery from sexual violence (SV) that acknowledges different domains of recovery resources, variability among survivors, and multiple recovery pathways. To achieve this aim, the present paper explored the concept of recovery capital. A comprehensive review of the SV recovery literature identified resources that were classified under four domains of recovery capital: individual (e.g., coping strategies, socioemotional skills, embodied resources), tangible (e.g., ownership of financial assets or access to familial financial support), social (e.g., social support; online support; prosocial behaviors, voluntary interaction with the offender; involvement in the criminal justice system), and cultural (e.g., rejection of societal “rape myths,” spirituality). This study extends the recovery literature by presenting an integrative framework to address SV recovery as a multifaceted phenomenon, and it underscores the importance of studying the intersectionality and lack of resources in recovery from SV. This framework also delineates recovery pathways and mechanisms that reside outside of the traditional treatment services, indicating a need to enact and integrate natural recovery resources. Thus, it both suggests new avenues for empirical research concerning recovery and enriches interventions based on strategies that survivors use to recover.