Customer Reviews

Just Before Dawn: Trauma Assessment and Treatment of Sexual Victimization

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Based on good research and many years of experience in treating victims of sexual abuse, this book punches holes in many of the myths surrounding sexual abuse. For instance, there are many common and erroneous ideas about why some people who are sexually abused are more damaged by it than others. Hindman explains what the real factors are in the degree of trauma a victim suffers, and what therapists and other collaterals can do to minimize this trauma.
There is the myth that people who have been sexually abused are likely to be abusive themselves. Hindman's research shows that people who have been sexually abused are not much more likely to abuse their own children than are the general population.
There is great material for people working with the family system. It explains why so many women who were sexually abused as children end up with their own children being abused.
There are many horrifying stories of how perpetrators keep their abuse secret for many years and abuse child after child. This information will be useful to social workers in child protection services.
I would be very careful about recommending this book to clients, as many of the case studies are upsetting. For therapists, it is a must read.
The style of Hindman's writing is a bit unusual, but easy to read for the most part. My only real complaint with the book is that is has no index.

This is a must read book for therapists & other practioners working with victims and perpetrators of sexual assault. The information methodically addresses how victims are traumatized and how perpetrators can work toward restitution for victims. Hindman presents a historical review of sexual assualt treatment and the system's response to victims, the effects upon victims and their families, and current findings for victim counseling.

My daughter was sexually abused from the ages of three to five years old. This book was recommended by her therapist--who it is obviously written for. I felt it was written on a technical level, and not a personal level. It may be appropriate for some. However, if you are looking for help on how to cope with this horrible situation, or to at least hear from someone who has been there...this book doesn't give any comfort. It seems to be targeted for therapist, not those that are trying to deal with a horrible situation and are deperate for help.

I found Just Before Dawn to be a book that was very helpful in dealing with my clients who are survivors of sexual abuse. This book should be required reading for anyone who is studying to be therapist or counselors. It removes a lot of wrongful thinking as to who the true victim is and how professionals should remain as objective as possible in working with sexual abuse victims.

This book is THE book to study on PTSD and complex PTSD. I used it during my graduate internship at a woman's prison when suddenly I had all of these clients with PTSD. I refer to it still today.

This book is self-published malarkey. The author owns the publishing company. She bills herself as an expert researcher who is shining the light of empirical inquiry on an area fraught with myth and prejudice. Yet the author is so naïve about the research process that it would be funny if the topic weren't so serious.

Her sample is not randomly collected, but she asserts that her "findings" are generalizable to the whole population of victims of childhood sexual abuse. She also makes up her own very dubious measures instead of using valid and reliable instruments. For example, to measure substance abuse she codes each participant as either a) not receiving therapy, b) receiving outpatient therapy, or b) inpatient therapy. This is a horrible way to collect data about substance abuse because there are a number of factors that may influence whether or not a person seeks or receives therapy. It is especially horrible given that valid and reliable measures of alcohol abuse can be easily obtained and administered.

She also offers no information about how she coded her "instrument". As an undergraduate student, I coded for a number of studies. We always had at least two students do the coding, and we calculated our reliability--and we reported it. This author did none of this.

At several points, she calls her descriptive statistics (X percent of participants report having or being Y) correlations. It's typical for beginning students to confuse correlation with causation. But I have never heard of a person confusing descriptions with correlations. The fact that X percent of victims report problems in their intimate relationships does mean that that victimization is correlated with problems. Of course it doesn't mean that it isn't correlated, either. You'd have to actually run the data to find out. Or in this author's case, you would have to take an entry level research methods class, purchase some statistical software, learn how to use it, and then run the data. Given her poor sampling procedure and lack of reliable and valid measures, even running the data wouldn't answer the question.

I don't even have the energy to discuss how correlations can mean that changes in A cause changes B, or that changes in B cause changes in A, or that changes in a third variable causes changes in both A and B, or that it is just a spurious finding. Oh boy...... it's just too awful to go on.
Don't buy it.