“Only 344 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to police. That means about 2 out of 3 go unreported.” (Rainn 1). Many victims of sexual assault don’t report the assault for certain reason, but there are some that can not report the assault because it is past the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is how long a person has to report a crime or how long the police can pursue a crime. The statute of limitations on sexual assault can range from 3 to 30 years depending of the ‘type’ of assault and the age of the victim. Sexual Assault should not have a statute of limitations because of the psychological effects and the time it takes for a victim to recover. In fact many victims who were sexually assaulted as children don’t realize that they were assaulted until they are adults because the memories of the assault were repressed.
On the one hand, some argue that psychological effects can interfere with a victim’s testimony. The psychological trauma that a victim suffers from being sexually assaulted can have effects that can last for decades. California Coalition Against Sexual Assault often report that after being assaulted victims feel “shame, self-loathing and fear” and Joelle Casteix is no exception. “It took me years to understand the extent of my abuse and recover enough to come forward, but by that time, the criminal and civil statutes of limitations had expired. Even though I had evidence that my choir director had sexually assaulted me, there was nothing I could do to stop him from targeting other vulnerable teens” (Casteix 1). Casteix’s point is that many victims don’t understand that they were assaulted until after the limitations. This makes it very difficult for victims to come forward about their assault because when an assault is reported after the limitations very little can be done for the victim. It had taken Casteix years to understand what had happened to her before she had came forward only to be told that her case couldn't be prosecuted even with evidence because she apparently had taken too long to recover from her assault.
For victims it can take years or even decades to be able to recover from their assault, not just physically, but also mentally. Recovering
An American is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, and every 8 minutes, that victim is a child. Only 310 out of 1,000 assaults are reported, but only 6 out of 1,000 perpetrators end up in prison (RAINN). Although sexual assault is egregious, these perpetrators are less likely to end up in prison than other criminals. The reason that is seems to be that victims do not report their cases. So why are sexual assault victims afraid to share their stories? Victims often do not report their assault because of many reasons, including the fear of reprisal, the belief that the police could not and would not do anything about the case, or because they simply did not know how to approach an official.
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
Laws, policies, rules, and standards have been put in place to regulate the behaviors of all individuals and keep everyone safe. When those laws or policies are not followed, people’s safety become jeopardized, peoples’ rights get violated, and individuals become victims and criminals. Every state has its own laws concerning different types of crimes. Each state has a different sentencing system in place for people who break the laws. Aside from state laws, there are also federal laws that can deal with criminals that break the laws on a federal level. There are many resources available to victims that can help them with physical, emotional, and psychological issues that may arise after being victimized.
Many believed that there was no reason to report an abuse because the police or authorities would not believe them. However, they did not believe many until proven truthful, anyone can say someone sexually assaulted them, but they did not. This was to take precautions amongst both the victim and the accused perpetrator. In the article, there were many aspects that explained that the woman felt more victimized because of the courts decision to believe the abuser until proved he/she is guilt. Also, many children blamed themselves for the rape, so they would not tell their parents. To add, as we read throughout the article, we can distinguish that many abused individuals are scared and embarrassed about the sexual harassment. Many factors were brought to attention: youth and woman fell under the micro-level individual factors, and the community and police did not want to really intervene. These factors result in many victims maybe later on abusing others because they were abused, which should not happen. So, therefore, there was a lot of valuable information presented throughout this
Many cases throughout time have not resulted in a conviction being made, for the sole reason that the charges exceeded the statute of limitations. The statue of limitations is defined as “the maximum amount of time allowed for a party to initiate legal proceedings”(Legal dictionary, 2016). Present day, every state is entitled to their own statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault. 34 States currently have a statutes of limitations on rape/sexual assault. Some of these states have a statute of limitations but there is a DNA exemption rule, ruling that if a DNA match is made later than the statute then that case will be exempt from the statute of limitations. Only 16 states have no statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault (Filipovic, 2016, p .A23).
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.
Steven Whitacre experienced a very traumatic childhood of abuse from his father which led to a very difficult adulthood. In his book “My Fathers Prostitute”, he talks about his life, starting out when his father first abused him to more recent times in adulthood to where he finally sought help and started to move on in his life started to live the life he should and deserves. This book really opened my eyes on what all goes on in this world that I would have never guessed. “Every eight minutes, a child is sexually assaulted in the U.S., and 93% know the perpetrator” (“Adult Survivors of Childhood”). To me this statistic seems insane and I cannot ever imagine being sexually assaulted by anyone let alone one of my parents that I am supposed to trust and love. When you really think about it, that how every eight minutes a child is getting sexually assaulted it is astonishing. It makes me wonder how many people I know that I have been sexually assaulted but don’t tell anyone. I assume there are many different cases of sexual assault and how there are different levels of how traumatic they are to the individual someone came upon. With some people, the sexual assault only happened once, and with others like the author of My Fathers Prostitute it happens during their entire childhood to impact the individual even more. I am not saying that the individuals who have only been sexually assaulted once came out un hurt or traumatized, but I would just imagine that it would not leave
This goes back to the four decades of people reporting sexual assault… it took time to recover from this traumatic event
Assault laws have changed over the many years and will continue to do so later on. Laws treating and preventing sexual assault, domestic abuse and child abuse will increase and become more powerful than they are today. It has become easier and much faster to report someone of psychical assault than ever before, but how come not the same for sexual assault? Most sexual assault cases do not made it to trial, either they’ve been dropped or not seen as big enough to meet proper proceedings. Even though sexual assaults are much more frequent that simple assault, someone is being sexually assaulted in Canada right now as you are reading this. However, due to the work of many people today, protesting and informing others to stand up for their rights
Over 92% of sexual assault survivors disclose the assault to at least one person, and the types of responses they receive vary. The negative social reactions can cause maladaptive coping strategies for the survivor, and result in PSTD symptoms. A common negative response to an assault disclosure include blaming the victim, treating the victim as if they are broken or they have changed, as well as attempting to control the victim’s situation or even completely disregarding the victim’s emotions and focusing on their own feelings. Often times, when a person is assaulted it is by someone they know (unlike the common stereotype where a person jumps out of the bushes and attacks the weak victim), and the victim feels as if they cannot trust people again, making negative responses to disclosure almost like a stab in the back because the survivor has ran out of people to trust. When a person gives negative feedback to an assault disclosure, it prolongs the victims recovery time. A victim can feel as if they are not in control of their recovery and makes them question their actions and feelings. Also, in addition to the “loss of control”, they could disengage from seeking support and aid from others, falling into maladaptive coping strategies to avoid the feelings of anger, sadness, and anxiety. Often times, survivors can seek out alcohol or drugs to aid them in their recovery process, although they do not know they are causing more harm to themselves. However, negative reactions may not necessarily impair individual forms of adaptive coping, especially for survivors who do not rely on others for support during recovery. Some survivors can use the negative responses to encourage themselves to not rely on others for support and focus on individual strategies for coping (i.e. meditation, cognitive
The American justice system has created laws that are meant to help individuals in protecting rights and freedom, but in many violent cases, victims are not helped, and society as a whole is not benefited by these laws. On sexual assaults, there are statutes of limitations that give a time restriction on how long a victim has to come forward about the crime. Statutes of limitations are non-beneficial to any victims that have experienced a sexual assault in any of the 34 states that have statutes (Smith). Statutes of limitations do not give victims the time they deserve to heal, but worse, leave offenders free because of a time limit and has created a society that justifies rape. On the other hand, after many years after the crime, it may be
Sexual assault is a major issue in the world we live in today. The punishment that people get is never what they actually deserve.There has been all kinds of crime rates for sexual offence all over the world. Surveys in the United States have proven that one of every six women has experienced an attempt of rape or even a completed rape experience. Many women who are sexually assaulted are assaulted by men that they know,or has came into contact with. Women are rarely going to report that they have been raped when they know the asaultiant. With this being said there are alot of cases that are under reported. In this essay i will argue the many reasons why women are afraid to report a sexual assault crime made against them.
I choose this topic because sexual assault is one of the most offensive crimes committed in our society. Not only is it a threat to the community, but it has a physically and psychologically effect on the victim in many ways. For the last couple of decades, sexual assault, rape, and child molestation has become the focal point of public concerns today. According to a 1993 National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, about 500,000 rapes or sexual assaults occur each year (Statistics, March 2010). The Department of Justice states that, “rape crimes have risen nearly three times as fast as the total crime rate”, although other studies have shown statistics that are in
Summary: In Shaila Dewan’s New York Times article “She Didn’t Fight Back: 5 (Misguided) Reasons People Doubt Sexual Misconduct Victims”, Dewan opens by stating that there are many reasons that people doubt sexual assault and misconduct allegations, from a delay of reporting sexual assault, to the “foggy recall” of trauma that according to Dewan, experts say is normal. Dewan continues on, listing other reasons, such as not fighting back, which she explains is a result of an instinctual primal response to threats such as freezing, fleeing, or fighting against the threat. Dewan says that many of those who doubt sexual assault victims ask why alleged victims do not act like victims, and why they remain friendly with those they have accused, after
Many victims refuse to report or seek help after a rape because they are scared of what their family, friends, or society will think of them. Often