Someone close to me once said, “If you let them get away with it once, they will keep thinking they can do it.” Think on this statement for a minute. Many of you might assume this subject is about cheating or stealing, but this is on rape. Rape is a topic people do not take seriously enough. Some may argue that it is taken too seriously or that rape is an irrelevant subject, but this is simply not the case. Many victims feel afraid to report rape because they are terrified of being judged by people, labeled by society, or even harmed by their rapists. Also, the media distorts the idea of rape. Many of the jokes we make and the slang we use across social media reflect rape and rape culture. Although, not only do the people disregard rape, …show more content…
Putting this in a smaller perspective, that would mean half of this classroom would have been raped or sexually assaulted? Also, out of every 100 rapists, 32 will get reported to the police, 7 lead to arrest, 3 are referred to prosecutors, 2 lead to felony convictions, and 2 rapists will spend a single day in prison. Out of those 100 rapists, 98 will walk free. Also, every 107 seconds someone becomes a new victim of sexual assault. Now that you have a little background info, you hopefully have a better understanding of why rape should be taken more seriously, but let me go into my first point to give you a better understanding. Rape is often something people look at and they know it is a serious topic, but they do not really bother with it. Unless it has happened to them or someone close to them, they tend to feel like it is not a reality. It is like the bombing in Europe that happened recently. You know it happened, you feel bad for all the victims, but since it did not happen to you or someone close to you, it does not really affect you. Because of this feeling, many victims get labeled by society, judged by the people, and possibly harmed by the rapist at even a word about their rape. For example, an adult by the name of Karestan Koenen shared her story to help promote why victim blaming needs to stop. She was over in West Africa, serving in the Peace Corps, when her rape took place. She was young at the time, and now the memory of
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 the first place, the topic of rape and the attacks some suspects achieve become an uncomfortable yet hurtful subject for not only the victims but the human beings that it could very well happen to. Women in general are very vulnerable human beings, and when something insane happens in their life it may take a long period of time to speak up about the incident and when they are not given the attention they deserve when they finally speak up about the traumatizing story it
Rapists are rarely imprisoned for an adequate amount of time—if any—which is why once convicted, the sentencing that they receive should remain unchanged until it is fulfilled. Too many judges will allow the convict’s sentence to be shortened or changed to house arrest. Which means that survivors of rape have to deal with the fear of being raped again or even killed when their assailant is released from prison earlier than expected. Rape is a very traumatic experience and can happen to anyone. The effects after a traumatizing experience, such as rape, can last a lifetime and lead to the decay of a victim’s life. These outcomes can cause physical and mental damage for the survivor. To make matters worse, victims are essentially punished by the justice system for their own rapes when a rapist is not sufficiently prosecute and there are not any laws to protect the survivors. They are forced to live in fear of being raped again and sometimes are even ridiculed or shunned by peers and family for being raped, Therefore elucidating the impression that the rape was the fault of the victim. Many people who do not sympathize or empathize with the trauma of rape may claim that the survivor wanted to be raped. This is never true, even despite the circumstances. Nobody asks to be raped, not a woman, not a man, not a
Rape can be pervasive and a serious social problem, Sexual Violence can be used in different situations and places like at a party, after hours work or school, or even in your own home. Some people could be raped by drugs or alcohol or just by force. Even though girls and boys get rapped but mainly girls get raped more than guys because guys could get rapped in prison but girls can get rapped anywhere. In the case of law sexual violence are serious social and public health issues in the United States. Women are far less likely to report a rape or assault when they know their assailant, thus instance of sexual assaults are greatly under reported. Victims of sexual assault may not be able to give consent due to age, illness, or impairment or
Although it is important to be prepared in the case of sexual harassment, this method of teaching coincides with victim-blaming. The idea places the burden of sexual assault on the victim rather than potential perpetrators. In reality, teaching people about rape culture and how to avoid partaking in it places the burden of sexual assault on those who commit the act which more effectively helps eliminate the stigma around the issue. An article called, Rape and Sexual Assault, concisely paints a picture of the issue by explaining, “Sexual assault has nothing to do with how attractive a girl or guy is. It has nothing to do with desire or passion. Rape and sexual assault come from a need for power and control. In rape, sex is a weapon. It is used to overpower, humiliate, and inflict pain on another person,” (Rape and Sexual Assault). The author of this article asserts that the victim of sexual assault is never at fault, and details specific examples of rape culture to help the audience better understand the topic. In another article, Society's Response to Survivors, the author, Sarah Ullman explains the concept and effects of rape culture. She contends that victim blaming often leads to unstable mental and physical health for the victim. She mentions that many times when victims attempt to tell their
Along with television shows, news stations are accused of trivializing rape aswell. How many times have you heard, “She asked for it.” or any other type of victim blaming, or a derivative of,“Boys will be boys.” to make rape seem like not such a big deal (1a)? News channels will even go as far as scrutinizing a victim’s dress, mental state, motives and history to make the victim seem in the wrong about their rape (1a). Some channels will inflate the fake rape statistics to make rape seem like a less
Rape is one of the most violent crime known to man. It is also one of the most challenging to bring to court. Considering that rape and consensual sex can hold the exact same evidence aka DNA evidence. The book Missoula: Rape and the Justice system in a college town by John Krakauer, goes so far in depth about the rapes that some women endured while attending the University of Montana. The way the sexual assaults are described make you feel as if you lived them yourself. Other crimes such as murder are far more talked than rape. This is because it is typically a crime the targets women. Men can be raped too. But it doesn 't happen near as often. Therefor, there is less media coverage. All over the globe people have different views on rape. From people stating that women who dress provocatively deserve rape. To this quote by Jessica Valenti;
There has been a lot of discussion of rape within sociologists, criminologists, and feminist networks. In my own words, rape is someone engaging with someone else sexually without their consent. Rape is not strictly vaginal penetration, nor an exclusive heterosexual only act. If two people are in a relationship or married, there is still no justification to the perpetrator for their act. In the 21st century, although rape crimes have dropped 24.1% from 2001 to 2010, but not all rapes are reported (Eitzen, Zinn, & Smith, 2010). Curtis (1997) reported that 42% of rape victims do not tell anyone of their assaults. There may be a number of reasons why victims don’t speak out. Victims of rape typically fear their own safety and lives if they speak out on it. Men who are victims typically don’t report rapes because it’s considered demasculizing to their gender. Rape victims are traumatized for life, they live with the burden, as their perpetrators walk away free (Curtis, 1997).
Rape has always been a problem in the world, but recently rape has become a bigger problem with the effect social media is playing into it. Above all the media has been known for years to take the statements given by the sufferer and play with it to make it seem as though it’s their fault for getting assaulted (Pennington).
“rape culture includes jokes, TV, music, advertising, legal jargon, laws, words and imagery, that make violence against women and sexual coercion seem so normal that people believe that rape is inevitable. Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change, people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape as ‘just the way things are’” (Wavaw,)
Rape is an issue that needs to be addressed more often as it is becoming a big issue in America. We teach people to avoid getting rape when we should be teaching people to stop raping. Rape isn’t fair and it shouldn’t be happening at all. 98% of rapists will not spend a day in prison and 68% of sexual assaults aren’t ever reported to police out of confusion and fear. We need to change those statistics in order to provide a safer environment for everyone. People should be able to walk outside and not have to worry or think about rape.
A major perpetuating factor in misinformation regarding sexual assault and rape culture is the media. Confusion about what constitutes rape leads many students to question whether or not they were a "real victim". Rape isn't always a violent crime committed by a stranger down some dark alley. It can
In recent years the term rape culture has been used more frequently in social media and mainstream news media. Mass media is an integral component of our everyday life, whether it’s the news, television shows, movies, social media, etc. Individuals look to the media to figure out what to know, what to be aware of and overall what is going on in society. Victim blaming occurs more frequently in the media because of the way the media shapes the perception of various issues. The media hardly ever have factual evidence to make their point. The media frequently use framing techniques to present information to an audience and these techniques highlight on certain aspects of information and obscure others. In other words the media only shows us what they want us to see instead of showing us the whole picture or discussing the whole situation. The way the media portray sexual assault can have detrimental consequences for how the audience interpret sexual violence and victims of sexual assault. For example, movies and advertising often reinforce rape myths that trivialized sexual assault as being pleasurable and romantic. Not only does the media outlets underplay the true issues of sexual assault, they depict women as sexualized objects, and sexual aggression and pornography is portrayed as a normative behavior.
Imagine a young women going to a party and having a good time; yes, she may be drinking a little too much, but she’s just trying to have fun. She sees one of her classmates, a boy who’s in a couple of her classes, and he makes his way over to her. They start to dance and have fun, when all of a sudden he pulls her into one of the bathrooms in the house. She keeps telling him no, that she doesn’t want to do this, but he’s not listening. Now imagine if you were her, male or female. Would you want your case to be taken seriously? Rape (cases) should be taken more seriously because there are rapist out there that haven’t been prosecuted, victims are being neglected, and
Sometimes it feels like students get the same lectures over and over, ones with the same content, same lessons, and same takeaways. Understandably, it becomes harder to feel involved in these lectures and even more difficult to want to change because of one whether that change comes from altering how you act around others or how you fundamentally react to situations. This is unfortunately very true for how educators are teaching the student body and faculty about how rape cases are handled and the preventative and reactive measures in place at Brigham Young University. The instructions have become tedious, boring, and repetitive. Because of this, students aren’t investing in the problem, they aren’t building confidence in the policies