The Steubenville rape case, like other high-profile sex-assault cases, has been a moment for victims nationwide to come forward. Some are emboldened, others feel re-traumatized.
This file photo shows activists from the online group KnightSec and Anonymous protesting at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio, earlier this year. Two high school football players are now on trial on charges of raping a drunk 16-year-old girl.
Michael D. McElwain/Steubenville Herald-Star/AP/File
EnlargeIn the first two days of this week?s rape trial in Steubenville, Ohio, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center received more calls than in any other two-day period in its history.
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?It?s stirring up emotions for a lot more people, because you can?t run away from the media coverage,? says the center?s spokeswoman, Sondra Miller.
The juvenile court case, in which two teenage boys are accused of raping an incapacitated teenage girl after a party, has garnered national attention ? alongside other stories this week about sexual assaults in the military and a settlement in Los Angeles over abuse by Catholic priests.
The saturation coverage impacts people in different ways ? sparking everything from anger and fear to inspiration and a determination to help others.
?If you?re a survivor [of sexual assault or abuse] and you?re seeing those messages over and again, it can certainly trigger you ? bring back flashbacks, anxiety, and so forth,? Ms. Miller says.
For others, ?seeing the Steubenville case spurs them to action,? she adds. Calls from people wanting to volunteer have surged.
Support centers stand ready to help people who decide to come forward ? often telling their story for the first time ? in the wake of such high-profile cases.
The intense coverage of the Sandusky abuse case at Penn State resulted in a 300 percent increase in calls from men to the Cleveland center, and led to the creation of a male support group, possibly the only one of its kind in Ohio, Miller says.
For people who are already in support groups or receiving treatment, cases of sexual assault in the media can intensify their struggle ? but can also help them recognize their own resiliency, counselors and medical practitioners say.
?Anything they?ve done to try to help push away the self-blame ? will end up resurfacing,? says Martha Peaslee Levine, a professor at Penn State. She cites examples such as eating disorders, substance abuse, and cutting.
Dr. Levine, who is director of a campus medical-center program that treats eating disorders, estimates that people receiving services at the center talked about painful memories of abuse about three times more than normal during coverage of the Sandusky case.
Some people feel angry when they see someone on trial for sexual assault, because they were not able to get their own case prosecuted, says Eric Stiles, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and a former support-group counselor who now works with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC).
Others admire the accusers for coming forward and say that they wish they?d had the courage to do that.
?Inevitably the groups would come around to the idea of loss, and then it would turn into resiliency: what makes a survivor stronger. Not all individuals call themselves survivors, but they would come back to, ?How did I survive this? What are my strengths?? ? Mr. Stiles says.
Journaling, art, and meditation are some of the ways survivors have found helpful in coping with trauma and tapping into that resiliency, says Levine.
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