Why would those who have been sexually assaulted by someone close to them stay in touch with their abuser?

The question has come up in the weeks since it was revealed that the actress and director Asia Argento arranged to pay off the actor Jimmy Bennett last year, after he accused her of sexually assaulting him in 2013, when he was 17 and she was 37. They remained in contact, though not in a relationship, in the years leading up to and in the time after the alleged assault. Ms. Argento had known Mr. Bennett since he was a child, when they first worked together.

Ms. Argento herself entered into a relationship with Harvey Weinstein after she says he sexually assaulted her, when she was 21 years old and he was in his 40s. Despite that encounter, which she said caused “horrible trauma,” they were involved for years afterward, which included consensual sex.

“The thing with being a victim is I felt responsible,” she told The New Yorker last year.

Both Ms. Argento and Mr. Bennett faced questions about the truth of their claims because they waited to disclose the abuse or because they continued the relationships.