Aquaintance Rape

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Aquaintance Rape

There are many types of rape. A very important type of rape is acquaintance rape. According to a researcher named R. Lance Shotland, there may be five kinds of acquaintance rape: beginning, early, relational, rape within sexually active couples (RSCA) with battery and RSAC without battery. They are "described both in terms of length of the relationship and previous sexual activity."

The first type of acquaintance rape is the beginning date rape. This form of rape happens within the first few dates while the couple is still getting to know each other. College students usually do not have sex on the first couple of dates, so the biggest cause is most likely not miscommunication. In this case, the perpetrator probably thinks that he will have a better chance of not being accused of rape because he knows his victim. The date is more of a plot than a social gathering to get the female alone and take advantage.

Early date rape is the second type of acquaintance rape. Since the beginning date rape is within n the first few days, then early date rape is after several dates. This is still way before sex has been discussed. A major cause of this form if also miscommunication. One common reason for miscommunication is the "rape myths" of our society. Rape myths are statements such as: "She deserved to get raped because that outfit was way too tight," or "She wanted to have sex because she went up to that guy's room. How many girls do you know that go up to a room just to talk?" Men who believe these myths might misread some of the women's signals and not take no for an answer. However, miscommunication probably is not the only problem this early in the relationship.

Relational date rape,...

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...l of the education I have described for women. Rape is not the women's fault. Because of this, I believe that men should also have to go through a date rape awareness program. In order for acquaintance rape percentages to fall, "men must be portrayed as part of the solution, not just the source of the problem, of date rape. Men are effected by rape myths as much as women are. The myths must be clarified and borderlines drawn. If men are included, perhaps miscommunications will decrease and acquaintance rape will not be as frequent. I think it should be a required portion of first-year student orientation. The knowledge should be given out before the students have to use it. At these sessions, counseling numbers should also be distributed in case the are needed during the college years. Women should know that help is always available and where to find it.

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