Commissioned by The Ministry of Women's Affairs This report is one of five from the Ministry of Women's Affairs' Sexual Violence Research Project.

This critical literature review provides international and New Zealand perspectives on good practice for services that respond to adult survivors of sexual violence. The first part of the review, focused on New Zealand, discusses incidence and prevalence rates, reporting and conviction rates, and describes the legal framework for sexual violation offences. Key issues with service delivery are discussed for different groups of victim/survivors. In reviewing what is considered good practice, the review distinguishes between the type and the principles of service delivery, and discuses the criteria used to identify a type of programme or principle of delivery as being 'good practice.' The second part of the review describes what is considered good practice across the four main service systems that victims come in contact with: medical, criminal justice, mental health and community support systems. The review identifies a variety of good practice programmes and principles of delivery, however the good practice highlighted relies strongly on overseas research. The authors identify those areas most critically in need of research attention. Use the Other reports link for other MWA reports about sexual violence and its work on increased safety for women.

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