Brutal Gang Rape In Brazil

One in six American women, and one in thirty-three men are murdered by serial killers. The government has announced an even more horrifying fact: One in nine underage girls were killed as well. Society has rushed to arms to imprison the killers and attempt to recover from this horrible tragedy -- wait. I apologize; this is the wrong crime. These are the statistics for rape according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network). The public immediately takes on a different outlook. Rape is much less damaging than murder, right? After all, surely the victims deserved it. They were drinking or dressed wrong. If they didn’t want to be raped they shouldn’t have been walking alone at night. It must have been the victim’s fault. There are countless websites and classes which teach women how not to be raped; they shouldn’t drink, shouldn’t take public transportation, and should return to their homes and lock their doors by nightfall. If the victims had only followed these rules, they would have been safe.

For years girls and women all around the world have been victims of rape culture and misogynistic views. Everywhere males are told that they are not in the wrong if a girl is dressed a certain way because she is “asking for it”. This is shown through public figures, social media and is even an issue in third world countries. Our society has deemed it socially acceptable to blame women for being rape victims if they aren’t dressed according to mankind’s standards.

This essay will discuss the ways in which gender influences patterns and processes of victimisation, identifying key victimological perspectives and typologies. It will consider key authors in the discipline and offer definitions of terms used. The essay will identify three issues which may impact on gendered victimisation before acknowledging the argument that radical victimology offers a more balanced approach to gendered victimisation than positivist or critical viewpoints.

Another negative effect of gender inequality is the increased fear of violence for women. Women are often portrayed as weak and helpless beings that can easily be taken advantage of. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states that, “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence –yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned” (Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Violence against women in the form of rape, spousal abuse, child abuse or spousal killing has become routine behavior over the years, so it rarely even makes the news anymore. “Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data”( Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Women are often blamed and questioned about their actions if they become the

Mandell argues that regardless of class, race, age, sexual orientation, woman are subject to male violence. Nothing can protect women in a patriarchal society. Violence against women ranges from verbal and physical abuse to sexual abuse, rape, pornography, battering and rape. (Mandell, Fifth Edition) Violence against woman is common and persistent. Thirty years ago, most forms of violence against women were hidden under a cloak of silence or acceptance. SOURCE Although, years later, it became apparent that violence against woman occurs on a massive scale; that no woman is immune. She emphasises that women are targets to be victimized. Men are socialised to objectify woman, legitimate aggression, and blame woman for their own victimization. ‘Where woman dominate, men have to resort to greater use of force to remain dominant’. (Mandell, Fifth Edition) They set the glass just high enough, so women cannot reach to break it, keeping the male in the dominate position.

Rape is a crime in which one person forces another person with threats, physical force or deception to have sex or sexual contact. In many cases rape is often through penetration, but victims are submitted to rape under different circumstances, such as oral sex, therefore rape has many muddled definitions. The various definitions of rape is a consequence of different cultural backgrounds and stereotypes. Sexual assaults have an effect on everyone either directly or indirectly, especially when victim blaming. Rape is not biased, for it can occur to any person despite their age, gender, religion, education level, sexual orientation or ethnicity. “According to the Department of Justice the average number of rape cases reported annually is approximately 89,000, but many victims are fearful to report their case to the police, for they do not want to be blamed for their assault.” (The Offender 's) Victim blaming in rape cases is a direct correlation to stereotypes. Some stereotypes that affect victim blaming is sexual orientation, promiscuity, gender roles, and race. “These contributing factors are stemmed from the much larger problem of society 's idea of gender and race stereotypes.” (Gill)

One in five women and one in seventy-one men will be raped in their lifetime. This type of statistic is nauseating. Senator Sanders states in his article “Man-and-Woman”, “Many women seem to be walking a tightrope now. Their qualities of love, openness, and gentleness were too deeply enmeshed with qualities of dependency, subservience, and masochism.” Within this article, sexual abuse and gender normalities are the big topics. Some men see women as an object or a toy that they can play with. However, women are needed so much more than just to fill the desires of a man. Another problem that not only grown women, but young girls face everyday is the event of cat calling. The Huffington Post’s Joan Marie states, “The first time I was catcalled, I was ten, at a family friend’s barbeque in a swimsuit, It was a drunk dad, who thought he was funny.” The woman in this article explains that she still remembers every inch of her body feeling hot with shame as everyone at the party looked at her. Women are blamed for these types of incidents. The man should have been the one who was ashamed, as a father of a child close to her age. Women continuously blame themselves for the traumatizing things that are said and done to them. Furthermore, there needs to be more support for women and help them to understand that they have a right to their body and it is not something to be ashamed

Often times men and women are given tips to ensure their safety such as walking in pairs, wearing appropriate attire, and carrying pepper spray. A common myth surrounding rape on campuses is that the perpetrator is often a stranger that is waiting for the opportune moment to take advantage of a young scandalously clad woman walking alone in the dark to her dormitory. This is often not the case since the majority of perpetrators know the victim. The fact that there are flyers and pamphlets available on most campuses for preventative measures that women can take to prevent themselves from being rape victims testifies to a society in which a woman’s safety is her responsibility and there are few preventative measures that are taken from having men grow up as sexual predators. One woman argues that this is because “rape culture reflects a society or community grounded in patriarchal privilege and gender inequity” (Gordon 116). American history tells a tale of a culture that was built on patriarchy, and feminists may argue that America is still highly patriarchal and this contributes greatly to rape culture. As a matter of fact, cross-cultural studies have supported that there are cultures in the world that have an extremely low incidence of rape. One anthropologist studied this data and came to the conclusion that “the specific gender dynamics in matrilineal cultures reduce the significance of man's

Freda Adler once said, “Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused.” Women should not have to go thru so much pain and agony, and our voices should be heard and expressed throughout the countries. After watching India’s Daughter, a young college student that just wanted to live her dream to become something great, her life span was short lived due to 6 men raping her, by pulling her intestines out, and thrown off a moving bus.

In 2010, a fourteen year old girl was raped multiple times over a nine month period by her forty-nine year old teacher. After taking the case to court, the victim was promptly labeled as much as a provoker of her rape as her teacher was. The girl´s rapist was sentenced to only thirty days in jail and her dead body was discovered in her room nearly three years later after she committed suicide. An estimate of one in six US women have experienced rape in some way, shape or form (3). People, predominantly women, spend their lives in fear. Refusing to walk home alone at night, being cautious about entering elevators with others and even being too scared to say no when asked on a date by someone are all impacts by this epidemic. Even worse, when

There are still countries who do not have laws against rape and marital rape, which reinforces how women are view as secondary citizens. “There are 127 countries that still don’t have laws against marital rape – 2.6 billion women live in a country where their husbands can legally rape them” (Logan). Imagine being a women who is in a marriage, who is legally allowed to be raped and degraded by their husbands with no justice by the law. “In countries such as Libya and Afghanistan, female victims of rape are punished by law, and sometimes even maimed, disfigured, or killed by a family member for “dishonoring” their family name” (Logan). Which means even if the woman tries to run away from her husband, or even if she is able to escape her husband and divorce him, her family could disown her, or if captured by officials- or even her family, she could be killed for it.

Also, “Feminist researchers have criticised the above approaches, suggesting that examining victims’ behaviour for its role in the perpetration of a crime may constitute blaming the victim, thereby holding them responsible for their plight.” (Spalek, B 2006). Feminist would also criticize the way in which the positivist approach uses victim perception to address rape victims. They would argue that this leads to victim blaming and lack of trust within the criminal justice system, this could then results in secondary victimisation.

Often times I find myself wondering if it’s safe to be a woman in the world today. I hear the stories of rape and unwanted sexual contact from the women around me, and I find myself wondering if I’ll be next. The problem is that rape isn’t about just sex, it’s about the repercussions on the women, and about societies that find themselves watching war bring about the destruction of their morale by violating their women. Rape is about the non consensual ways in which people force themselves on others, and it’s about culture that fosters the idea that women’s voices are somehow less powerful than men’s. But Even still, it’s about the way people refuse to speak out against it, and the way it

One might often ask what importance is there to fight against rape. Statistics have shown that the pillage of a person’s personal space have been steadily increasing since before the 1950s. Every two minutes, there is at least one American being sexually assaulted. (www.rainn.org ‘Sexual Assault Statistics”) these are just two of the millions of statistics that have been taking away many people’s privacy, natural rights, and their trust in others. Instead , due to rape culture women are commonly taught that ‘boys will be boys” or [concerning being bothered or harassed by the opposite sex] “ that just means they like you!” rape culture not only teaches women that its normal to be sexually assaulted , but it teaches them not to bother to correct the rapists, just to take it. In news, press reporters mourn the athletic career of two highschoolers’ who raped and nearly killed a 15 year old girl rather than mourning the victim. The only way to stop these situations from ever happening again is to stop

“People dominate animals, men dominate women.” Each is a relation of hierarchy, an inequality, with particularities and variations within and between them. (Cite Orange book pg. 92.) For centuries, women have been viewed and used as a man’s “property”, whether it is being used for sexual satisfaction or for the sake of bearing children and taking care of the home. Men are typically perceived as head of the household and whatever they say goes; anything to satisfy their hunger for power and control. Have women ever had a say about what they want to use their bodies for? Laws against rape may have changed over time, but men’s consistent aggressive behavior unfortunately, has not.