Sexual Assault Among Women In the United States Essay

A traumatic event affects many people in various ways. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a globally recognized disorder that is common among persons who have experienced traumatic events, but is also known as a normal response by normal persons in abnormal situations. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by a multitude of reasons, not just from traumatic events. People with various personality traits can be associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. People who suffer from poor health can also be associated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. People who suffer various life occurrences such as rape, natural disasters,

Sexual Assault described in technical terms is defined as any sort of sexual activity between two or more people in which one of the people involved is involved against his or her will. (3) The description of "against his or her will" extends to varying degrees of aggression, ranging from indirect pressure to a direct physical attack. While sexual assaults are associated with the crime of rape, it may cover assaults which would not be considered rape. What constitutes a sexual assault is determined by the laws of the jurisdiction where the assault takes place, which vary considerably, and are influenced by local social and cultural attitudes. Every year, an estimated 300,000 women are raped and 3.7 million are confronted with unwanted

Sexual assault policy in the United States as it stands is clearly inadequate for protecting the physical wellbeing of men and women from sexual assault. Layering of policy serves a s a Band-Aid on a social wound much too large to be contained and the rise of sexual assault as a public problem reiterates the need for greater legislation and policy to protect everyone from becoming prey to the crime of sexual assault. While eyes focus on the (disproven) rise of violence in the United States, and turn to gun control, other violent crimes are forgotten. Sexual Assault has seen several cases of policy failure that actors have tried to salvage through the act of policy layering and have not significantly resolved the problem.

Sexual assault is defined as any vaginal, oral, or anal penetration that is forced upon another, regardless of sex and sexual orientation, using any object or body part. The issue of sexual assault in America is primarily encouraged by rape culture. Women Against Violence Against Women is an organization that defines rape culture as a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. The acceptance of rape culture, rape myths, and the disregard for sexual consent also allow for the perpetuation of sexual assault against women on college campuses. Recent examples of sexual assault on college campuses show how prominent this issue has become and how hostile campuses have become for female students. Some examples include the University of Southern California’s “Gullet Report,” Miami University of Ohio’s “Top Ten Ways to Get Away with Rape,” and a sexual assault on the campus of Kansas University. Sexual assault is perpetuated by the acceptance of rape myths and rape culture, lack of effective sexual education, and the disregard for consent. The solution to this issue lies with defeating rape culture, increasing awareness and funding for campus sexual assault crisis centers, and enacting more prevention programs on campus.

According to the Mayo-Clinic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD is defined as “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that 's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Post Traumatic Stress disorder can prevent one from living a normal, healthy life.

According to The United States Department of Justice, Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities such as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. (Department of Justice) 90 percent of the victims of sexual assault are women and 10 percent are men, and nearly 99 percent of offenders in single-victim assaults are men (Bureau of Justice Statistics 2010). Sexual Assault can happen to anyone, not just women. Sexual Assault these days are a big trouble and it is not being addressed in good order, and it is especially a big problem at the University of Kentucky campus. Although, many people think sexual assault on campus is not a huge issue, it really is and it is not properly spoken of. Even though people have different opinions on sexual assault, sexual assault is a big issue on campus and alcohol is largely to blame.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that involves a reaction to a traumatic event. There are four types of symptoms that doctors associated PTSD with: Intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in physical and emotional reactions. Some specific symptoms of PTSD are: nightmares, avoiding things that remind the person of the event, bad thoughts, depression, sleep problems, anger issues, and guilt/shame (Mayo Clinic). Furthermore, the symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event. All the symptoms of PTSD can be traced back to a traumatic event, and each case is different (VA).

Women tend to be the overwhelming victims of sexual assault and rape while men tend to be the perpetrators. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC), one in five women and one in seventy-one men will be raped at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of victims are women who have been victimized by men. There are two major forms of sexual assault, which includes non-consensual forced physical sexual behavior such as rape or sexual assault. The second type of assault is the Psychological form of abuse, such as sexual harassment, stalking, human trafficking, and indecent exposure and the targets of exhibitionism, especially children.

Victims of crime with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important topic to the field of psychology because it occurs in many victims. It is also important to the field because through research its causes and etiology are able to be discovered, treatments are able to be developed and tested for those with the disorder, and ways are found to prevent the disorder in victims. PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder and is recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The diagnostic criteria for PTSD include, “a history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptom clusters: intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms,” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Interest in PTSD in victims of crime is the reason for this literature. More interests include prevalence, differences in gender, and treatment options for those who are victims of crime experiencing trauma (sexual and non-sexual), as well as the measures taken to aide these victims. The following paper will discuss different aspects related to victims of crime with PTSD. The gender differences and treatment types for victims of crime with PTSD will be examined.

Sexual assault has been huge problem on college campus. College female students have been targets of sexual assault acts, According to Robin Gray “Between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career.” Sexual assault is when is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat. There are laws that protect women in all types of setting from being victims of sexual assault. The government had made some changes to the laws of sexual assault over the past decade to protect the girls and women so justice can be served. The president Obama has been enforcing a law for the young women in colleges.

The article "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Rape Survivors" from the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress reviews what PTSD is defined as, the criteria, the cause, and the recovery. To put it simply, PTSD is a common human reaction to an an extremely stressful situation. PTSD affects hundreds of thousands of people who have had traumatic experiences such as rape, domestic violence, child abuse, war, accidents, and natural disasters. It is normal to be affected by trauma. There is help, and it is ok to ask for help. Symptoms may come shortly after the event or even 50 years later. Symptoms of PTSD are intense fear and hopelessness, flashbacks of the event, nightmares, denial, feeling of numbness, depression, isolation…and many

A model of sexual violence risk proposed by Abbey, McAuslan, and Ross (1998) posits a central role for sexual misperception (i.e., perception of sexual interest or sexual attraction in a potential partner when that partner has not intended to communicate interest). Normatively it has been well documented that male college students perceive more female sexual interest than was intended to be conveyed. Whether viewing still images, video, or live interactions, men tend to perceive women as displaying more sexual interest than women view the female actor displaying and more sexual interest than the female actor intended to display (Abbey, 1982; Abbey & Harnish, 1995; Edmonson & Conger, 1995; Saal, Johnson, & Weber, 1989; Shotland & Craig,

Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse against a person without that person’s consent. Today, rapists are not being charged for a sufficient time. Sexual assault occurs in the everyday life and must be prevented. At least 1 out of every 6 American women has been a victim. Sexual assault is often viewed as a women’s issue rather than an issue for men or society as a whole.

Women, girls, men, and boys are vulnerable victims of sexual assaults every day in our country. While females experience much higher rates of sexual assaults than males. The problem that this country faces is the lack of being able to track rapist, in addition to the victims that chose not to report their assault of being raped to the police. Issues of under reporting comes from the victims with multiple reasons that hinders them from reporting these heinous criminal acts. Thus, the sad realization is that the perpetrator is usually some one that you know, that you would of never of thought that they could and would, and do sexually assault you.

Surviving any kind of sexual assault is very life traumatic and each survivor deals and responds differently after the assault. Besides the physical effects, survivors also experience mental and emotional effects. Effects can consist of physical injury from the attack, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, substance abuse, self harm, Stockholm syndrome, or rape trauma disorder consisting of depression, sleeping disorders, and post traumatic stress disorder. (Yarber and Sayad, pg. 591).