Rape Culture Essay

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.

Do you know anyone who has experienced rape or suspect, someone, to have gotten raped? Rape and sexual assault are solemn problems in our communities, either it is at school, at your job, or even at the comfort of your own home. Sexual violence is one the most under-reported crimes, which prevents supporters from assisting victims in need. “Socialization, miscommunication, and changing times are the main causes of rape.” (Source 3) The socialization aspects can vary from social neglect to peer pressure. 9 out of 10 rape allegations were made by women. “In America, 1 out of 6 women have been a victim of an attempted or successful rape in their lifetime.” (Source 1) From this static, 14.8% were completed rapes and 2.8% were attempted rapes. 60% of sexual assaults took place in the victim’s home, friend’s house, or neighbor’s. Rape and sexual assault should be taken seriously because it can occur in men, women, rich, or poor.

     There are two sides to a rape, the rapist and the victim. The victim is most of the time a woman but men are raped as well. It is a common myth that there is a type of woman that is more likely to be raped. This is indeed a myth, most of the time rape is a crime of opportunity, the victim is not chosen because of her looks or behavior, but because she is there (Benedict 2). The average rape victim is 18-39 years old and female, the average rapist is 25 years old and male. The effect of rape on a woman is an enormous one. The woman will come away from a rape with both physical and psychological damage. Eventually the physical wounds will heal, the psychological wounds will take quite some time before or if they ever heal (Grady 4). A sexual assault robs the woman of a sense of control; a feeling of loss of freedom is common among rape victims. To put her life in order she must regain this sense of control. Almost all rape victims suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder (Benedict 2). The first symptom is the reliving or re-experiencing of the

Attention Getter: What is rape? By definition provided by Justice.gov, “Rape is the penetration, no matter how slight, by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” A majority of rapes, go unreported for often times the offender is someone to victim knew. Transforming: A Rape Culture says that if the perpetrator was a spouse or lover seventy-five percent of the time the victimizations go unreported, seventy-one

One way rape victims are handled improperly through the criminal justice system is by victims characteristics. This may include the victim's age, job, risky behavior such as drinking or using drugs. When a victim portrays any of these characteristics, most times it is often thought of that they provoked the offender or made the opportunity easier. This attacks the reputation of the victim, most times this determines whether chargers will be filed or not. This is an accuse for people to blame the victim for her action.

The present study provides an examination of two variables which influence the attribution of responsibility to the perpetrator in the incident leading to date rape. Namely, it provides an opportunity to assess whether perpetrator's consumption of alcohol and his background has any effect on the placement of responsibility. The results support these focal hypothesis of the study that participants placed greater responsibility on the perpetrator when he was portrayed as delinquent and when the couple went to a bar than when they went to a cafe and the perpetrator was described as a valedictorian. Specifically, the analysis supported three main effects and two interaction effects as discussed below.

In American society 1 out of 3 women deal the issue of rape and are facing double-standards surrounding victim blaming. In contrast to men, women are often blamed for being in the wrong locations, being in the wrong type of clothing and around alcohol or drugs. Experts might say that the trend of blaming victimized women for crimes committed against them represents the overall issues of hatred towards the female gender in the United States. The crime of rape has been denied in our society throughout the many crimes that have happened over time. When a rapist is denied this instills negatively into the victim causing her to feel unimportant to society. In fact, adding the additional physical and mental trauma of not validating a victim experience lends to making her feel useless and unsafe. The blaming of rape victim before, during and after the act of sex marginalizes their status in society.

Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety” (Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, and the Facts). The idea of rape culture is brought out on college campuses by: victim blaming, sexual harassment, explicit jokes, making false rape statistics, gender violence in movies and on television, assuming only ‘slutty’ women get raped, and teaching ladies to avoid being raped altogether (Rape Culture, Victim Blaming, and the

Rape victim’s no longer live a normal life as the rape stays with them forever. We need to all work together as a whole. Rape and sexual violence prevention need the vital involvement of society in the forms of the government, education, social and health services, and various community organizations. These diverse sectors impact risks towards sexual violence in different contexts, which is why each of them are needed (Stop SV: 33). In order to achieve safety as a whole, the whole community needs to be involved. A common misconceptions among society is that rape is the victim’s fault. Society needs to wrap their heads around the fact that rape is not women’s faults. Women do not encourage or provoke men to rape them. The vast majority of rapes are planned and not just a spur of the moment act based on lust. The only one who holds responsibility for rape is the rapist. The predominant factor in determining when a rape will occur is opportunity (Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office). There are no ifs, ands or buts -- rape is the rapist’s fault. Women are being blamed for crimes against them. Instead, they should be empowered. Empowerment can lead into confidence, which can sometimes be someone’s most powerful weapon. When victim’s resist, attackers are more likely to let them go. In fact, most of the time they do. Granted, teenage girls are more likely to resist than

In addition, rape myths originate from a wide range of cultural stereotypes, for instance gender roles, the acceptance of interpersonal violence and the misunderstanding on the nature of sexual assault (Burt, 1980: p. 217). Rape myth is the major reason for victim-blaming and stigmatisation, and having an increase of responsibility on blaming the victim and minimising the rape. Likewise, the main concern in sexual assaults is wondering whether if both parties had consented in engaging sexual activities or if both parties had the capacity to do so. Thus, the stereotype that sexually assaulted individuals who have no physical trauma will be unwilling to report to the police or to seek medical care. Still, the acceptance of rape myths can lead

I theorize that the three social institutions; family, religion, and culture, creates a rape-prone society. I hypothesize that these norms integrates into the college environment and creates an atmosphere where women are perceived as sexual objects and are “slut-shammed” during instances of sexual violence. I conclude that Spelman College and Morehouse College are rape-prone campuses. I hypothesize that Spelman College and Morehouse College are rape-prone campuses because of the U.S. is a society that perpetrates rape culture. Students are socialized to support and normalize rape culture. In this chapter, I will explore three research questions and the ways in which I will measure each question.

Many people consider the victim the cause of their own rape. They are found as the cause often because of the way they were dressed, how they acted, or if they “protected themselves.” These factors should not place the blame on the victim. When victims are deemed the cause of rape, rather than being treated as the victim, it can be psychologically harmful to them. To prevent these women from suffering further, we need to understand why they are not at fault.

van der Bruggen, M. and Grubb, A. (2014) "A Review Of The Literature Relating To Rape Victim Blaming: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Observer And Victim Characteristics On Attribution Of Blame In Rape Cases". Aggression and Violent Behavior 19 (5),

In today’s society, victims of domestic violence and sexual assault often experience some form of victim blaming. Victim blaming occurs when society partially condemns the victim for what has happened to them. This tendency to assign criminal responsibility to the victim occurs in all segments of our society regardless of race, gender, social class, or occupation (Hamilton, 1979). Currently, rape is a big issue throughout society. The word rape is defined as sex without consent. The FBI data estimates that 683, 000 women are raped each year. Additionally, 4 million women a year are physically assaulted by their partners (). Rape is about power and dominance, not sex. The cultural message in America is “don’t get raped” as opposed to “don’t

According to the just worth hypothesis, human beings have a natural tendency to believe that the world is a just place, “where people get what they deserve” (Andre). People want to believe that she was asking for it or she was lying about it. People need to reassure themselves that the world is not a terrifying place. However, victim blaming blinds individuals from the reality that it is those “she-had-it-coming” beliefs that have road blocked any advanced in ending this distorted view of rape in society. In fact, since 1996 the rate of sexual assaults has drastically increased (Lee) and only 2% of the reports were given falsely