This guide offers the survivors of rape and their friends and relatives a body of knowledge drawn from social workers and social scientists on the short-and long-term effects of rape. It includes details of AIDS, date rape, rape crisis programmes, rape shelters and other social resources.

Addressing both the short and long-term concerns of the rape survivor, Benedict draws on the vast, largely unpublished knowledge that rape crisis workers and social scientists have gathered during the few recent years that rape has been taken seriously and survivors have been heard.