There was actually period in too many television shows in the past decade where 'sexual assault' was used as 'character development'. Shonda Rhimes, the leading female TV writer, made it a critical point for multiple characters on Private Practice, made it the backstory of Mellie Grant on Scandal and put it at the center of Annalyse Keating's story in How to Get Away With Murder. Indeed, it was the center of the major storyline. Annalyse had married the therapist who she had seen for counseling because of her assault and at least two other major characters on the show suffered from sexual assault as well. I had many illogical reasons to dislike SHondaland, this was the one I held her in the most contempt for.

There was actually an article about this in The New Yorker called 'the Trauma Plot' in regard to so much television. Now I agree that so much of Peak TV has been misogynistic by nature in regard to female characters and I do agree the women should be allowed to be as ruthless as the men are. But by giving such a pat background as if 'oh her assault explains everything', I never went along with that and I didn't much care for it with males (Ray Donovan was sexually abused by a parish priest for years and that was given as the reason why he was unfeeling towards everybody around him and so capable of violence.)

I think we're finally started to get the point where we don't need this kind of horrible trauma to be an impetus for this at least in television and when it comes up it's never the full story. In Will Trrent (the seires) Angie Pulaski has been molested repeatedly as a child and it has made her life a mess but her trauma is treated on the same footing as Will because they went through the same cycle of foster homes and both were subject to the same pattern of abuses. Both of them going through emotional scarrring events and both of them have become functioning if flawed professionals as a result. Many of their better dramas (and comedies) are female centric and trauma isn't always the impetus. (Well, Yellowjackets but that's a DIFFERENT kind of story.)

Just my two cents. Hope it helps