A few reasons a person may not report a rape includes: denial, fear of the legal system, fear of retaliation, guilt and blame, personal matters and victim-offender relationship. Due to denial, victims do not report rape because they may not be sure if it was rape. In order for a victim to come to the decision of reporting rape he or she needs to realize it was rape. Some victims do not realize it was rape due to the issue of less violence (Burgess et al., pg.376). The victims who report their rapes are the ones who acknowledge it was rape and the rape that occurred was more violent (Burgess et al., pg.376). In other words, the rapes that included more violence included acts such as being held down, slapped around and seriously injured while on the other hand less violent rapes may include verbal abuse so victims may not acknowledge this is still rape even if they were not seriously injured (Burgess et al., pg.376).
In addition, fear of the legal system is another reason of not reporting rape. The legal system can alter the victim’s decision to
…show more content…
Retaliation can include sharing personal photos with others, spreading rumors that will affect her in the future, etc. (Burgess et al., pg.339). The guilt and blame is a factor that contributes to not reporting rape. Research conducted by (Frese, Moya, & Megias, 2004) suggests women feel guilty and blame themselves because they believe it was their actions or their attire that contributed to the rape (Burgess et al., pg.377). Their guilt and blame may also come from friends and family, their friends and family may ask questions that may have to deal with the people who were invited or if the victim was drinking with someone he or she knew or did not know. The victim begins to believe it is their fault and maybe if they take certain actions, the rape would not have occurred (Burgess et al.,
This type is the most common type that is not reported right after it happened because of the status of the person who did the rape or because of other types of fear. In this case, Beau was a football player for the University and he seemed untouchable because of the praise they received. Something we see that Allison did well was that she went to get a rape kit right after the incident happened, so they were able to prove that rape did in fact
However, even though they are usually not the ones at fault, nothing is ever said about the event. In a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, it was found that 75 to 77 percent of sexual assaults, attempted rapes, and completed rapes were never reported (“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). Furthermore, the blame of the whole event was never put on the person responsible. Instead, the victim was blamed for not denying the advances, or for not making themselves clearer in their intents(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”). This huge chip to carry often leaves the victims feeling isolated, scared, full of shame, depressed, and with a low self-esteem(“Sexual Assault and Rapes”).
Rape myths are at the center of the problem of how rape and sexual assault cases are looked at, and treated as in society. Rape myths vary, some excuse the rape, others try to minimize the severity of the situation, while others doubt the act even happened in the first place (Levit and Verchick, 196). Some examples of rape myths include: a victim was “asking for it,” a victim’s previous sexual history, regretful sex is not rape, a woman’s “no” means “yes,” and women lie about rape all the time. Rape myths are targeted towards women, not the rapist. Despite, rape myths being proved false by empirical evidence, they are still prevalent in society.
This is another reason why the case may have resulted the way it did, but that doesn’t stop people from fighting back. Not only is substance abuse and statistics a big factor, but barriers to reporting is a main component that correlates with the case. “Recent research has found that 40% of college students believed that a woman was responsible for being raped if she was intoxicated at the time of the assault” (Schwarz, Jill, et al., 2). These statistics lead many woman who are assaulted to stay silent about it. It is also known that some girls stay quiet about their assault because it is believed to be misunderstanding or it is the “norm”.
Sexual assault remains the most underreported crime for teens as well as adults, (Why Don’t They Tell? In the award-winning novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson writes about a character named Melinda Sorinado who was raped in the summer of freshman year and during freshman year we read about her dealing with the trauma she experienced. “Its choppy, nonlinear narrative gradually reveals that shortly before the first day of school, Melinda went to a party, where she was raped by a handsome, popular senior… But also, I had been sexually assaulted a month before ninth grade started,” (Interview with Author). Due to him being so popular, she didn’t tell anyone, some of the reasons that may have happened could be.
They tend to seek help in their campus administrators and they do not provide resources, support that will help the victims, instead, they ask blaming questions. The administrator is more interested in what the victim was wearing and how drunk they were. Victim blaming is when a victim of a crime is held responsible or blamed for the harm being committed. These victims are quickly blamed for their offender's actions and live in fear of running into their offender again on campus. Approximately about 88% of women do not report; victim blaming has caused a silent effect in which women are embarrassed by reporting.
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
Saying that a victim was asking for it due to their clothing, spreading the myth that only “weak” men get raped, or otherwise labelling the victim are all examples of victim blaming. According to Amnesty International, about 33% of people believed that the victim was at fault if they had been flirting with predator beforehand. This belief stems from the common misconception that sexual assault is always about sex. As stated by Cambridge for Consent, “Sexual assault is not solely about sex- it is a crime relating to power, violence, and control.” Victim-blaming is unacceptable and absurd because if victims had truly been “asking for it,” it wouldn’t have been
As a response to the systemic, widespread and massive rape campaign carried out against Bosnian Muslims and Croat women and girls during the 1992 to 1995 Bosnian War, the 1993 United Nations Security Council Resolution 827 (UN Security Council, 1993), as a preamble to the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), contains the first ever documented UN reference to rape committed during armed conflict or rape as a violation of international humanitarian law (Schott, 2011, p. 5). The United Nations has identified four types of war rape. These four types include opportunistic rape, which is random; political rape, which defines the woman as property and frequently incorporates public rapes as a means
An incident occurring between Kaitlynn Kelly and Calvin Smith is a prime example of the court system’s failure. Kaitlynn met Calvin one night and invited him up to her room for casual sex. Once she noticed that her roommate was in the room asleep, she withdrew her consent and said they would just lay there and go to sleep. As Kaitlynn slept, Calvin began to rape her and woke her up in the process. [1] She became upset with him.
There needs to be more of an understanding from the communities, friends, and family, of the effects of sexual violence. The victims need understanding and not ridicule. Rejection can lead to many other problems. Some of the community believes the women now have a sickness which is a fear that lingers inside the victim. Many husbands do not want to be intimate or even touch their wives after a rape occurs.
I hope that during my undergraduate years at George Mason University I will be able to investigate the problem affecting many colleges that is date rape drugs. Rape on college campuses is a horrifying epidemic that our country is facing. According to healthresearchfunding.org “Up to 90% of college campus rapes occur through date rape incidents.” Almost every day on the news there is a new story about a woman who was a victim of rape or sexual assault, and most of the time the perpetrator gets away hands free. A major reason why date rape drugs are commonly used is because they are easily slipped in to drinks at college parties and are undetectable by the victim.
“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time.
According to RAINN, many relatives of the victim can feel “responsible” for what occurred. Also, a victim can become self-harming, abusive of substances, and suicidal (RAINN). This affects friends and relatives of the victim as they will never have
Sexual assault is a form of forced sexual violence. The term sexual assault can be defined as an act in which a person sexually violates a victim without the victims consent. This is one of the most common problems faced by many schools in South Africa, the problem of sexual assault amongst learners in South African school. Sexual assault is an unlawful act, which the perpetrator can be sentenced to jail for practicing it. Sexual assault can be in a form of fondling of unwanted sexual touching, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts such as oral sex or penetrating the victim’s body and torturing a person in a sexual manner.