Doyle Pruitt, associate professor and director of the Master of Social Work program, had a manuscript accepted into the Journal of Sexual Aggression. This article, “When the Perpetrator Is Family: Grooming, Abuse Severity, and Trauma Outcomes in Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse," reports findings from Pruitt’s research on the impact of the relationship a child had with an offender and the type of sexual grooming the offender used against the child on future outcomes.

The findings highlight the importance of accounting for the relational context of child sexual abuse when assessing risk, intervention needs and survivor outcomes and can be used in prevention and intervention work with both vulnerable children and adults who cause harm.