April 21, 2021 Call with Dr. Lisa Rocchio • Dr. Rocchio's training is over the course of her career, not just in graduate school. The topics included traumatic stress (the effects of trauma), and clinical as well as forensic psychology. • Dr. Rocchio has written about, presented, and conducted numerous trainings on the assessment and treatment of trauma. • Dr. Rocchio also trains psychiatric residents at Brown in treating trauma survivors. • Dr. Rocchio's testimony is based on her education as well as her training, experience, and research. • Saying that victims are "susceptible" puts the onus on victims. It is more accurate to say that individuals or victims are "targeted." • Sexual abuse of minors frequently occurs through the use of manipulation or coercion in the context of an established relationship that is developed over time rather than through the use of forcible rape. • It's not fair to say that the presence of women can "especially" facilitate the sexual abuse of minors. Abusers might use all sorts of other people. • Victims are often subject to a strategic pattern of behaviors that can take a variety of forms and function to obscure the nature of the abuse and to build trust and attachment with their abuser. That relationship of trust and attachment, in turn, can prevent victims from being aware that what they are experiencing is abuse and can prevent disclosure. Minor victims may therefore not identify what's happening as abusive at the time or during the course of the abuse and may not recognize the consequences of that abuse until adulthood. • Most sexual assaults go unreported and disclosures are often made long after the incident. Nondisclosure, incremental disclosure, and secrecy are common among victims of sexual abuse for a variety of reasons, which can include fear, shame, humiliation, fear of not being believed, and fear of retaliation. • Re memory: memory for and disclosure of traumatic/abusive events is imp