Asking For It By Louise O Neill

There is presently much controversy regarding acquaintance rape victims and their level of culpability. Benevolent sexists promote the belief that these individuals can actually be blamed for their experiences because they adopted behaviors that were sexually immoral and that influenced the perpetrators to go through with their plans. Barbara Masser, Kate Lee, and Blake M. McKimmie's article "Bad Woman, Bad Victim? Disentangling the Effects of Victim Stereotypicality, Gender Stereotypicality and Benevolent Sexism on Acquaintance Rape Victim Blame" attempts to provide more information in regard to how particular factors might influence acquaintance rape victims.

The introduction of Nils Christie’s ‘Ideal victim’ theory (1986: 18) refers to victims of crime who can attain the status of a legitimate victim in the eyes of the public. Christie outlines a criteria which needs to be followed in order to gain this full status of a ‘legitimate victim’. Christie’s ‘ideal victim’ however is not the same as a legal victim and often real victims of crime deviate far from the concept of the ideal victim (Beck & Janbakhsh 2010). This therefore means that using Christie’s ideal victim theory to give someone the title of a legitimate victim is often detrimental. Male victims of sexual assault often deviate from the ‘ideal victim’ criteria set out by Christie, this means that when they encounter the justice system, their experiences are often marginalised or discounted entirely.

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

The Steubenville and Glen Ridge rape cases are two very similar cases. The perpetrators were football student athletes with promising futures and the victims were teenage girls whose capability of consenting to the acts done to them were questioned. One of the victims was seventeen-years old and had an intelligence quotient of 64 and the reading comprehension of a second grader. The second victim was sixteen-years old and was publicly assaulted while she was completely intoxicated. This paper will discuss each victim and their perpetrators, as well as the trial sentencing and prosecution. It will explore the different reactions from the community and the debate over the victim’s responsibility leading towards the incident. In both rape

‘Sexual Violence is more than just a crime against individuals. It threatens our families; it threatens our communities. Ultimately, it threatens the entire country’ (qtd. in Burleigh pg. 2). In the article, “Confronting Campus Rape” written by Nina Burleigh; a writer, journalist, and professor at Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, describes what students are doing to force universities to take a stronger stand against campus sexual assault. Moreover Burleigh describes what the government is doing to make a difference on the issue. This includes laws that have created consequences for the assaulter and laws that protect the victim. According to Burleigh, a young woman called Laura Dunn was sexually assaulted on campus. Dunn was a student of UW. On April 4th, 2014, Dunn lost her virginity to two UW athletes. That night, Dunn was attending a party at the university. Dunn was enjoying the party and lost count of her alcohol intake. Dunn remembers being led out by two older teammates, who she knew. Dunn was very intoxicated, enough to stumble on her way back to what she thought would be another campus party, as one of the athletes helped her walk. The athletes led Dunn to one of their apartments where she found herself on a bed with both of them on top of her. Dunn was so intoxicated that she couldn’t help but to drift in and out of conscious leaving her unable to stop the two men. Dunn began to feel sick and was led to the bathroom by one of the athletes, where he penetrated her from behind while she was throwing up. That was a date Dunn would never forget. Dunn like many other women at the UW have been sexually abused by other students. Although Dun’s incident is shocking, it is not uncommon for women to be sexually assaulted on campus. A woman at the  university of Wisconsin is more prone to being sexually assaulted than any other woman in the country because of alcohol intoxication; this is a problem that must be resolved.

According to Nancy Chi Cantalupo, writer in the University Chicago Law Journal, “twenty to twenty-five percent of college women are victims of attempted or completed nonconsensual sex” (Burying Our Heads 207). In October 2014, an eighteen-year-old freshman at Old Dominion University was sexually assaulted. She reported her case to the ODU Police Department where she was treated as a suspect rather than a victim (Jane). The university police department denied this young woman of many things such as a medical examination right away, food, drinks and even did not allow her to use the bathroom (Jane). These factors caused her to suffer multiple injuries mentally, emotionally, and physically (Jane). Many cases of on campus sexual assault has come

America stands by traditional notions where rape culture is the norm and revolves around society. In particular, when a woman is raped, their actions prior to the incident are usually accounted for their fate of being sexually assaulted. Lately in America, there has been a controversy over women being victim blamed by legal authority in rape cases. These women are slut shammed for allegedly “asking for it” by being intoxicated and having the intention to “have fun”. Because of these accusations of allegedly seeking to engage sexually, rape victims are blamed for initiating the sexual act. An ongoing controversial rape case is the Stanford rape trial of Brock Turner, where the victim was sexually assaulted while unconscious near a dumpster. Turner was convicted for sexual assault, however was only incarcerated for three months. This has recently caused uproar due to justice and retribution not being equally served. The incident occurred near a university campus party; where alcohol was involved and memory loss was present. In addition, she was rushed to the hospital as a rape victim and was examined. Despite complying to use a rape kit and be evaluated, the victim’s accountability is undermined by the leniency of treatment in rape charges. When examining linguistic features of both parties’ written statements, several factors can be analyzed such as each participant’s stance and the credibility of their accounts. In addition, when dissecting a victim’s written account,

Another problem directly linking and contributing to the problem of the number of reported cases , is the small amount of cases that successfully prosecute the accused. In a recent report, statistics show that only 10 per cent of 7000 sexual and indecent assaults reported to the police resulted in the accused being found guilty. In another statistic, Shadow attorney-general Chris Hartcher says, “only 1 percent of offenders get a jail sentence and it puts victims off coming forward to report rape.” Through the statistics, victims can only see the law as it promoted, the unjust and the little security of a successful conviction, giving them more of a reason to not report their cases. With the little percentage of a conviction, the law shows that the situation is as it is, due to the many unattended flaws. Flaws such as the undefined meaning of consent and the laws blindness towards the experience victims have encountered. With the combination of all these factors, it is only natural that a victim does not feel the need to report their case as nothing but a more disturbing experience will be its outcome.

Sexual assault is not just a crime against an individual, it affects families, the community, and society as a whole. In recent years, our society has shifted to one of rape culture and rape myth. Rape myths are erroneous, stereotypical, and prejudicial beliefs about rape victims and reasons of sexual assault. Rape myths can impact survivors of assault, as well as the behavior and effectiveness of family, friends, medical and social services, and law enforcement (Rape Victim Advocates, 2016). Rape impacts our society by attacking the cohesion and mutual protection that makes a society. When we allow such crimes to go without the most vigorous and vigilant investigation and punishment, we allow for whole segments of society to be diminished, we are sending the message that society is okay with rape (Abbey,

In Daniel Luzer’s article titled “Is Alcohol Really to Blame for the Prevalence of Sexual Assault on College Campuses?” published on November 18th, 2013 by Pacific Standard, the reality about sexual assault is shared. While in college, many teens are reporting more sexual assault cases on campus, but is alcohol really to blame? Due to the consumption of alcohol, behavior changes occur for both men and women. Many believe girls are at fault for putting themselves in the position to be assaulted because of their decision to drink. On the other hand, people also blame the boys for their drunken violence towards girls while intoxicated. Alcohol is not the only misdemeanor in this case. Throughout history, changes are occurring in teens’ social

One in four college-aged women has experienced rape or attempted rape, although 95% of attacks go unreported.” According to a survey from the American Association of University Women, the results showed that there are 3% of women in the colleges across the country have been raped or have suffered attempted rape. While only 2% of incapacitated rape survivors report assault. There are several reasons why many women do not report being raped or sexually assaulted. Many female college students buy into myths about rape and sexual assault causing them to believe that it was their fault and that they were somewhat responsible for what happened. Most victims usually blame themselves, so they choose not to come forward, some others are scared that law enforcement won’t believe them, while others are simply embarrassed, or they might be afraid their attacker might retaliate. A friend of my friend, she has been sexually assaulted after deinking, but sadly as a victim of a rape, she was too scared to step forward and she didn’t even report the rape to the law enforcement because she thought it was her fault to drink alcohol. She was also too embarrassed and uncomfortable to talk about the rape and answer any questions. Even she chose to drink alcohol, what happened is not her fault. Because whatever the reason is, no woman should blame herself for being raped or sexually

During the investigation, women were re-victimized by the police once their sexual assault complaint went through the criminal justice system, which is known as ‘judicial rape,’ due to the narratives surrounding rape myths (Ehrlich, 2012). False accusations of rape are filed for three main reasons, which are to “create an alibi, to get revenge and to elicit sympathy or attention” (DuBrois, 2012, pg. 205). Women were thought to be responsible for their own safety and protecting themselves from sexual assaults (Randall, 2010). Women are impacted disproportionately by poor quality or non-existent investigations when filing sexual assault claims due to gender bias (DuBois,

Sexual violence is a significant social and cultural problem within America and all over the world. Within the United States nearly 1 in 5 women – or nearly 22 million – have been raped in their lifetimes. Arrest rates for sexual assault cases are low as they are hard to investigate because of the effects of the trauma itself. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, approximately 12% of the 283,200 annual rape or sexual assault victimizations from year 2005-2010 resulted in an arrest at the scene or during a follow-up investigation. Findings from the same survey revealed that more than one-third of women reported experiencing a sexual assault at some point during their lifetime. Within American society, rape constitutes an experience

For most individuals, the thought of blaming the victim of a tragic experience for their own pain and suffering, seems preposterous. However, ascribing at least some of the blame to the victim is not uncommon (Niemi & Young, 2014). Victim blaming refers to individuals finding reasons to hold the victim of an incident responsible for the crime that took place (Hayes, Lorenz & Bell, 2013). For victims of sexual assault, who may already be experiencing self-blame and distrust of others, being blamed adds insult to injury (Harber, Podolski, & Williams, 2015). According to Harber et. al, victim blaming can also have long-term effects on victims, such as, increased anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In an effort to increase support and resources for survivors of sexual assault researchers must determine why individuals are prone to blaming the victims rather than the perpetrator of a crime.

In the United States rape completely toxic and it’s a dangerous myth. On college campuses where drinking is prevalent, most victims don’t report their assault to the police because of the fear of being blamed for the incident. “A recent National Crime Victimization report showed that only 55% of sexual assaults reported in their survey were reported to the police” (Hayes, Abbott, Cook 2016). Hayes goes on to explain that rape myths are defined as “attitudes and false belief held