A survivor of sexual assault, Amita Swadhin experienced years of abuse by her parents throughout her childhood, including eight years of rape by her father.
But last Thursday, loud applause filled the theater hall when Swadhin, now a sexual assault survivor, came on stage and introduced herself with a soft-spoken, sophisticated tone of voice.
There were almost no empty chairs left in the hall. The warm welcome quickly transformed into a thoughtful silence that reflected the sensitivity of the topic.
The Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and the department of Asian and Asian American Studies helped to arrange a movie screening of “Secret Survivors,” where Swadhin was a guest speaker, in the Beach Auditorium at Cal State Long Beach.
Today, Swadhin is an educator, storyteller, activist and has been a consultant for
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Department of Justice in 1997, she has been a frequent speaker at university conferences and community organizations where she has often discussed being a survivor of child sexual abuse.
She thinks that the high level of stigma and taboo associated with child sexual abuse is the reason why a lot of people do not dare to talk about their experiences.
“I think about the fact that 20 percent of the U.S. population experience child sexual abuse,” Swadhin said. “This means that everybody in this room either is a survivor or has a loved one who is a survivor. This is a public health issue that affects all of us.”
After a short introductory speech, “Secret Survivors” appeared on the screen. The movie was a 40-minute-long documentary that featured survivor activists throughout the country and included Swadhin as one of them.
Rosie Kar, a lecturer in the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, took the initiative to arrange the movie screening. She said she believes that talking about the topic is important in order to help more survivors who may be suffering in the
Denise is a counselor with a graduate degree who works with many battered women. She is sensitive to vulnerable individuals who have experienced racism, sexism, mental health issues, and are economically disadvantaged. Denise also has had personal experiences of trauma including poverty and racism, similar to her clients. The novel suggests through the settings and the narrative that her trauma and that of others is a personal affair. Each person processes trauma in different ways. It is difficult to assign a general meaning of trauma without considering ones backgrounds, resources, and experience.
He examined the issue of being sexually assaulted by thoroughly explaining who, when, where and how the event took place. Most of the victims in this book were female students who got sexually assaulted within the vicinity of Missoula and the first thing they thought was right was to report it to the police. However, when turning
In Rape in the Fields, women who had been sexually assaulted and raped by men in positions of power chronicled their experiences working on farms and in processing factories. The way in which the documentary distinguishes between “unwelcome” and “involuntary” advances is illustrated through the personal narratives of different women. For some, the sexual harassment they faced was unwelcome, but submission to these sexual advances was required in order to stay in the country as undocumented immigrants, keep their jobs, and sometimes even their lives. For other women, sexual advancements were completely involuntary as they were raped, but still faced many challenges in seeking help from these abusive situations. 2.
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). According to https://www.justice.gov/ovw/sexual-assault, 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 as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. () Sexual Assault can happen to anyone, not just women it can happen to men and kids as well. Sexual Assault these days are a big trouble and it is not being addressed in good order, and it is
Sexual assault is defined as a type of behaviour that occurs without explicit consent from the recipient and under sexual assault come various categories such as sexual activities as forces sexual intercourse, incest, fondling, attempted rape and more (Justice.gov. 2017). People often become victims of sexual assault by someone they know and trust (Mason & Lodrick, 2013) which is conflicting to the public’s perception and beliefs that offenders are strangers. Women are the main victims for sexual assault and are 5 times more likely to have been a victim of sexual assault from a male (Wright, 2017, p. 93). Men are victims of sexual assault however only 0.7% of men, compared to 3.2% of women, experience some form of sexual assault which highlights how vulnerable women are compared to men. Sexual assault is publicised and exposed in the media, however is often
Childhood maltreatment is defined as emotional or physical maltreatment and sexual abuse that has the potential to cause harm to a child (The relation) while childhood adversity refers to physical or emotional acts that may be potentially harmful to a child’s development (Relationship). Both have similar effects in that they have been found to increase the risk of the development of a psychotic disorder and psychotic symptoms in adults. Childhood maltreatment has been proven to increase the risk of developing depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia in adults. The studies observed in this paper will help to understand if childhood maltreatment and adversity has any effect on the social functioning of people diagnosed with psychotic disorders,
"Who Are the Victims?” Who Are the Victims? | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. N.p., 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.
Policy makers should make registration and notifications mandatory and control where these sex offenders can live. When a child sex offender is released from prison, they should not have the freedom of walking around amongst others, especially children. Child sex offenders may have served their time but they should monitor them because they can repeat the same crime they have committed or be living in an area where they are not supposed to be living. In order to monitor and keep track of child sex offenders, registries and notifications should be implemented in all states: “some governments have attempted to deal with this crime by creating a sex offender register whereby the activities and movements of sexual deviants are monitored and the details of convicted sex offenders are recorded for
Sexual assault is a worldwide epidemic that has long lasting and devastating effects on the victims. The terms sexual abuse and sexual assault are often used interchangeably. Most often the term “sexual abuse” is used when the victim is under the age of 18 and “sexual assault” is used when the victim is over the age of 18. For the purposes of this paper, “sexual assault” will be most often used as this provides a better description of the impact it has on the victims. Women are more often the victim than men; however, all races, cultures, and societies are affected by sexual assault and child sexual abuse (Davies and Jones, 2013). It is nearly impossible to determine exactly how many women have been victimized. There are two primary reasons that make such estimates difficult. First, there are so many different definitions and terms used to describe sexual abuse and assault and definitions vary from state to state (Holcomb and Holcomb, 2011). According to Holcomb and Holcomb (2011, p 27), sexual assault is used as an overarching term, encompassing a large number of sexual behaviors – physical, verbal, and psychological – that violate the health and well-being of an individual. Holcomb and Holcomb (2011) provides their own definition of sexual assault as “any type of sexual behavior or contact where consent is not freely given or obtained and is accomplished through force, intimidation, violence, coercion, manipulation, threat, deception, or abuse of authority” (p. 28). In contrast to Holcomb and Holcomb’s broad definition of sexual assault, many researchers advocate for a more narrow interpretation to prevent over reporting, thus inflating statistics (Holcomb and Holcomb, 2011). The Lancashire Sexu...
It has been known for decades that substantial numbers of people have experience sexual assault it is one of the most offensive crimes committed in our society. The different types of sexual assault are rape, statutory rape, gang rape, rape in concert which is by stander behavior, sodomy, penetration with foreign object, child molestation, and spousal / martial rape/intimate partner sexual assault. Many people believe sexual assault is done by strangers but that is not true. In most cases the perpetrators is someone close to the victim or family. According to the Bureau of Justice in 2005-2010 78% of sexual assault violence was done by a family member, friend, acquaintance, or intimate partner. Berzofsky (2013). Many victims feel guilty or responsible for being victimized, the trauma caused by sexual assault often results in emotional stress that may be long lasting. Every victim reacts differently and it is helpful to have a support group to interact with people that have experienced the same things, somewhere where the victim can feel safe.
There are many different types of victims we have discussed over the course of this class, but we’re only going to talk about two types in the following paper. These two types of victims are common just as any another victim across America. These include sex assault victims and child abuse victims, which are both primary victims in cases. The two share a tie together, both are a victim of abuse and can cause lifelong consequences, but they also pose many differences as well. Many questions arise when talking about victims, for example why is a child or adult being abused and what are the life altering affects to these actions. Throughout this paper we discuss both sexual assault victims and child abuse victims and compare and contrast between the two.
Abuse in child can differ from physical, emotional, mental, sexual and neglect. The effects of child abuse vary between children these effects can be long lasting. Some of these problems can be psychological such as anxiety, depression, academic problems in school, withdrawn and difficulty connecting with others, and can even experience flashbacks and post-traumatic stress. They also have physical effects such as bruises, sprains, fractures, poor hygiene and inappropriate dress. Children living in an environment that is full of fear and violence develop poor coping skill some of these coping skills can be eating disorders, drug use risky sexual decision and self-harm. Some children fall into a cycle of abuse and become abusers themselves. Each child can experience one or more
Socioeconomic Status and Sexual Abuse Throughout the countries , family is generally considered the most important piece of one’s life. It promotes ethics such as support, comfort and love. However, relationships can be hard to maintain as family members lose the support of each other, and place more time on their careers, personal activities, or other aspects. This research study will be focusing on the relationship between the socioeconomic status of a family and sexual abuse amongst children.
More importantly, “60 percent of children who are sexually abused do not disclose and most are acquaintances but as many as 47 percent are family or extended family” (The Scope of, 2016). The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities (Child Sexual Abuse, 2012). Startling statistics represent the depth of the issue. Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood (The Scope of, 2016). “The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau report child maltreatment 2010 found that 9.2% of victimized children were sexually assaulted” (Child Sexual Abuse,
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.