Sexual Assault Victims: Equal Recognition In Society

Victims, through news reports and social media, often become celebrities overnight. Victims of crime are instantly thrown into the public eye and are fair game when reporters are rushing the scene for a top news story. The media frenzy creates a chaos that magnifies the victims pain and suffering to acquire viewer’s attention, and the reports are usually more gruesome, violent and more sexually charged than the truth. Sexually violent crimes are often a top news focus, re-victimizing the survivor of the sex crime. Research shows that “84% of prime-time television shows contain at least one episode of sexual harassment, which perhaps accurately reflects the commonplace nature of this violent crime”(Beirne, 2011, pg. 11). When a crime has been committed, victims are at a vulnerable time in their lives, which is when the media takes the opportunity to move in and overwhelm them even further while distorting the facts, asking questions, and snapping pictures looking for a news story. Victims are often even re-victimized as the media picks through their past, nothing is private, all information received, whether through a dependable source or just another citizen, is displayed for all of society to make their judgment. This can lead to society thinking the victim deserved it, it was their fault, or they weren’t a good person. This type of treatment has a greater devastating emotional

Sexual assault and rape in common language are usually referred to as the same subject. The word sexual assault is the main category while rape is a specific entity within this category. Rape is a term used to refer to the act of being forced or coerced into performing oral, anal, or vaginal penetration. While sexual assault is the term used to refer to any sexual act unwanted by the participant that ranges from being touched to penetration; that involves intimidation or deception. In general rape/sexual assault is the most underreport crime; however if rape/sexual assault is reported women are more likely to come forward than men. There are barriers that are keeping the victims of rape/sexual assaults at bay. According to Pino and Meier (1999) “the underreporting of this crime is the result of a number of reasons that are related to the ways in which rape is perceived and defined”. The general public when hearing about rape/sexual assault assumes that the victim was a woman; when approximately “5% to 10% of rape victims are male” (Sable, Danis, Mauzy, & Gallagher, 2006).

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

Start blaming the system, not the victim. Sexual assault is a crime that is very common, yet the punishment perpetrators receive is not as harsh as it needs to be to reduce the occurrence of these crimes. Laws concerning sexual crimes have been edited over decades to be stricter however, sex offenders typically receive little or no punishment. Sexual Assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient (“Sexual Assault”). Victims of sexual assault are often blamed as the reason for the crime being committed while the blame is taken away from the offender. Harsher punishment must be enacted on sex offenders because the victims suffer conflict from the crime throughout their

The stereotype of who a typical sexual assault victim is, is also detrimental to abide by as male victims of sexual assault will often fear being blamed and feel emasculated as a result of their victimisation. The continuation of stereotypic types of victims when considering a certain crime can often distort the seriousness of sexual

There are different notions that the society has towards both Brock Turner and the victim, but whether good or bad, this case has sparked many new perspectives and conversations about situations such as this. The article proposes that this is only the first step to developing a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with cases that involve sexual assault.

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,

Prosecutors and police officers may be less likely to believe victims if they have no signs of physical abuse like cuts, bruises, or scrapes, or if they have known their attackers for a long time (Hilgenkamp 163). Victims often feel ashamed and humiliated for bringing their experiences forward and become frustrated and furtherly emotionally damaged (Hilgenkamp 163). Dealing with sexual assault cases differently based on the victim’s state and story is unfair to the survivor and will only further hurt someone who has already suffered through a traumatic ordeal since it causes them feel as though they are not being listened to or heard. In addition to investigations that are often biased and poorly conducted, the number of convictions made in sexual assault cases is astonishingly small. A few years ago, “The Chicago Tribune published the results of a study involving 171 campus sex complaints at six Midwestern universities. Twelve of the accused perpetrators were arrested, and only four were convicted” (Hedelman and Brown). Due to the low conviction rates, many women feel as though their allegations of having been sexually assaulted are not being taken seriously or even acknowledged (Hedelman and Brown). Unfortunately, sexual assault is a popular crime on college campuses, but when victims bring their stories forward to law enforcers, they are not taken seriously and severe punishments are rarely given to assaulters, which further harms people who have already been wrongly treated. Police and investigators have to change the ways in which they deal with sexual assault cases because investigations are unfairly biased and are usually so inaccurately conducted that most offenders

Rape culture creates myths that victim blame the survivors of sexual violence. For example, a victim of a crime may be asked a question by police that suggests the victim was too drunk or wearing revealing clothing that provoked the perpetrator and resulted in the sexual violence against the victim. Rape culture silences victims who feel that law enforcement and the judicial system do not protect them or hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions. The stigma of sexual violence continues to silence students who choose to not report incidences because they are in fear of stepping forward or believe the judicial system will fail them when they

After reviewing our book and focusing on Dr. Kristen Zgoba’s lecture, some sex crime does not receive the level of attention, because they are not reported to the law enforcement either being a nine-year-old girl or a nineteen-year-old girl, some people and their families don’t want to report this, either because they know the person (family member) or because they are ashamed. Not supporting the Media, but the Media cannot report what they did not know. On the RAINN’s website, they state that sexual assault crimes are one of the most under reported crimes among all the crimes, with up to 68 percent still being left unreported to the law enforcement. Also stating out of every 100 rapes, 32 are only reported, seven leads to an arrest, two leads

Furthermore, people need to understand that women could be offenders of the same sex crimes just as male offenders. The majority of the public has a gender bias that women could not possibly commit sex crimes. The gender bias leads female sex offenders to become obscure due to prevalent social cultural norms that define female sexual behavior (Duncan, 2010). In fact, victims are considered to be less protected because females are less likely to be identified due the majority of people having a hard time believing women could be a sexual predator. Victimization is more unlikely to be reported, prosecuted, and convicted because of the prevalent gender stereotypes (Duncan, 2010). Victims of sexual assault are already reluctant to face their abuser in court and with male social norms being classified as being dominant in relationships. More importantly very few males will admit to being victimized by a women sexual predator. There are stereotypes, which include women who fit the role of nurturing caretakers and mothers, that are difficult to view women as potential sexual predators and other crimes committed against children (Mallicoat, 2012). Because of this gender bias, women could never commit such a vile act against their ward; it leads to preventions of recognizing and reporting of

Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes in Australia especially sexual assault involving male victims following their characterised social stigma around society 's view point on the issue. It can be seen that although these cases happen to both genders with respect to each individuals’ various cultural groups, 495 per 100,000 women between the ages of 15-19 have succumb to a sexual act without there given consent. Even so there has been considerable amount of legislative and

Firstly, sexual offences are associated with a stigma that does not occur in other types of offences. Secondly, studies have demonstrated that identification causes significant distress for victims and may deter them from reporting offences at first instance. Thus, restricting the media’s ability to report on sexual offences enables victim’s to avoid social scrutiny, whilst they are coming to terms with their ordeal, and may also foster a culture where such offences are reported more freely.

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

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.