ANROWS has released this research report as part of the What works: Overviews of reviews series. This study outlines the state of the evidence from existing systematic reviews in relation to the effectiveness of crisis and post-crisis interventions for victims and survivors of sexual violence. It found that the most evaluated crisis response interventions were sexual assault response teams and sexual assault nurse examiner programs, and while there is emerging evidence that these are effective across several outcomes, the evidence base is limited and the quality of the evidence overall is poor. Evaluations of post-crisis responses were found to be similarly small and lacking methodological rigour despite some evidence of improved mental health outcomes.
