Statement of Problem
Sexual assault is a global issue, where individuals fall victim every day. Sexual assault does not have; an age, race, sex, religion, or sexual orientation, it has no preference. Since fear has a powerful effect on people can it prevent and individual from reporting a sexual assault. My question is, why do individual not report sexual assaults committed towards them? Individuals may fear that their assault will harm them and retaliate against them for disclosing the incident to anyone may prevent them from reporting the incident. I intend to show that an individual’s fear of their assaulters causes them to not report a sexual assault committed towards them. Also, discuss if there is a relationship between fear of their
Fear of their assaulter alone can affect if they decide to report a sexual assault omitted towards them. According to Adegoke O. Adefolalu, "The extent of this crime [sexual assaults] is grossly underestimated partly due to non-disclosure, which in turn is often attributed to the fear of not being protected adequately after reporting the incidents of sexual violence as the victims fear possible reprisal from their attackers." She mentions how the victims choose to keep quiet about the incident, since they fear their attacker will harm them for reporting the incident. Adefolalu mentions, "Victims who feared reprisal attacks from perpetrator were five times more likely to delay presentation than those who were not." My hypothesis is fear of their assaulter prevents an individual from reporting a sexual assault committed towards them. My null hypothesis is fear does not affect if an individual reports a sexual assault. My independent variable is fear of their assaulter and my dependent variable is unreported sexual assaults. According to U.S. Department of Justice, "when crimes are not reported to the police, victims may not be able to obtain necessary services to cope with the victimization, and offenders may go unpunished." The U.S. Department of Justice Office states a valid point, in order for victims to obtain the necessary services need, they have to disclose of the incident and seek
Fear = === Victims might be afraid of the offenders and the consequences if they report the crime/s. An example is if a woman was being beaten up by her husband. She might not report this to the police, as she will be.
systems for filling out a sexual assault report. Victims will choose to not report a sexual
Holding back tears takes a lot out of any persons’ emotions. University of Manchester’s Billie Andrews reveals that the constant force for a boy to be emotionally repressed, hiding any emotions that negatively impact the boy, eventually leads to boys keeping events of sexual abuse to themselves (“Boys Don’t Cry”). After being consistently told to be “tough”, boys tend to ignore the magnitude of how much danger they are in for the sake of “being a man”. For example, the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center of the University of Michigan provides statistics on male sexual assault encounters; roughly 16% of males have reported sexual assault according to the US Centers for Disease control in 2005 however, there are estimations that declare males report sexual assault even less than females (. A contributing factor to males not reporting sexual assault is because it is hard for society to believe males can be victim to assault because males are always “tough”. Masculinity implies that a male should repress any negative emotions and being a victim is a negative emotion. The fact that the idea of masculinity is so powerful it can force a boy to hide events of sexual assault spells that the male gender role is in need of attention; regardless of gender, sexual assault victimizes
...e Dean than to report to the police. A police report and a trail take time and one 's rapist could still be walking around campus. But if one reports the the Dean, there s a small and private judiciary process to get the rapist at least removed from one 's classes if any are shared. Perhaps this will make victims more aware that although it might take longer and be harder, reporting to the police may be a better route. Then the rapist will hopefully and up in jail, making the victim feel safe. Maybe this trail will also make people more aware of sexual assault and how it can be stopped. In my research paper I want to continue to look into sexual assault stories, its potential causes, more statistics, and what we can do to decrease the amount of sexual assaults on college campuses. Hopefully, if anything substantial is found, it can be integrated into SIU’s policies.
When comparing the difference between stranger and acquaintance rape perpetrator, the method that the first study used was situations between two different rape scenarios as the independent variable in the negative situations on how there are two stories that go along with stranger rape and acquaintance rape. In the second study, the participants were approached and asked whether they could complete a questionnaire on the certain situations. Then as they did, the purpose was to find out what is the difference between stranger rape and acquaintance rape. The participants would indicate the amount of years they feel that the perpetrators should get if he or she was guilty for the offense that was caused in the certain situations.
The US Military has been one of the most powerful and respected fighting forces in the world; it is also a hotbed for sexual assault. Each year, thousands of men and women take an oath to serve and protect their country and each thousands of military service members are sexually assaulted. “Earlier this week, Pentagon officials released a new report which estimated more than 70 sexual assaults occur in the military each day.”(Shane III) Fear of retaliation, both personal and professional, and humiliation stop many service members from reporting their sexual assaults. Those few that make the bold choice to report incidents of sexual assault often finds themselves disappointed by the outcome; assaults that do get reported have an incredibly low rate of conviction of the offender. The US Military has proven over time that they are incapable of effectively dealing with the sexual assault problem that it faces.
2. The rape occurred in the basement at a friend’s house by one or two girls.
When the victim does not fit the ideal victim attributes which society has familiarised themselves with, it can cause complications and confusion. Experts have noticed there is already a significant presence of victim blaming, especially for cases involving both genders. The fear of being blamed and rejected by the public is prominent in all victims. Victim blaming proclaims the victim also played a role in the crime by allowing the crime to occur through their actions (Kilmartin and Allison, 2017, p.21). Agarin (2014, p.173) underlines the problem of victim blaming is due to the mass of social problems and misconceptions within society. The offender can have “an edge in court of public opinion” if victim blaming exists, resulting in the prevention of the case accomplishing an effective deduction in court (Humphries, 2009, p.27). Thus, victims will become more reluctant to report offences because of their decrease in trust in the police and criminal justice system, leading to the dark figure of
Lawmakers and the criminal justice system overlook marital rape, Das (2010) states those survivors’ experiences of being told that their victimization is “not a real rape” and encountering victim-blaming attitudes may lead to less filing of complaints and reporting to police. Women have reported experiencing harsh and insensitive treatment from the criminal justice system when trying to report abuse or marital rape. Social stigmatization, cultural traditions, and gender bias are structural hurdles that discourage women from reporting acts of sexual violence, especially experiences of marital rape (Prasad,
In the 20 elements victims are given several options on how they want to tell their story, and they can control when and how they do it. The second theme was people want the authorities to be neutral. For example, victims do not want to be judged or blamed. A major problem with reporting sexual assaults for victims is they often get or feel blamed for the assault. Research by Elliot, Thomas, and Ogloff (2012) also gave insight that non-blaming attitudes on the part of the police are deemed to be important to
There are many factors that play into reporting a crime for the victim. Being scared that the offender will retaliate because of the report as well as being embarrassed to even admit the crime had occurred can play into the victim’s
Consider this: within the next year and a half, one student in this room will be a victim of sexual assault. Well, maybe not literally, but according to a New York Times article written in September 2015, over a fourth of undergraduate college students claim to have been sexually assaulted (Perez-Pena). Keep in mind that these instances are only the reported assaults. The website Best Colleges references that “The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) estimates that 95% of U.S. campus rapes go unreported” (“The Realities of Sexual Assault on Campus”). So, though theoretically only one victim in this room would report their assault, others of us could still be victimized.
Rape and sexual violence is a very serious problem that affects millions of people each year. Rape is someone taking advantage of another person sexually. Sexual assault can be verbal, physical, visual, or anything that forces a person to join in unwanted sexual contact or attention. ("Sexual Assault.") Rape is one of the most underreported crimes. In 2002, only thirty-nine percent of rapes and sexual assaults were reported to law officials. ("Sexual Violence: Fact Sheet.") Victims sometimes do not report that they have raped because of shame or feeling that it was their fault. It is never the victim's fault. "Victim blaming" is holding the victim of a crime to be in a whole or in partly responsible for what had happened to them. Most victims believe this. ("Myths and Facts about Sexual Violence.")
There are many different types of rape including date rape, statutory rape, gang rape, and acquaintance rape. Though there are more than a handful of different names to view rape, all of the names have one thing in common: a victim. The frightening reality is that all of the rape studies that have been done show that the perpetrator is usually someone that the victim knows and/or trusts; during the dating years, seventy to ninety percent of rapes are acquaintance or date rapes (Mackey). Even more terrifying is that only one-third of rapes are reported to law enforcement officials (Buddie & Miller). Victims are most likely afraid that by going through with the process of pressing charges on his/her perpetrator that they, in turn, will be blamed using one or more of the ridiculous rape myths, by society. The reality of rape is a startling combination of ignorance relating to rape myths, lack of reportings and convictions, severe post-traumatic feelings of the attack, and theories of rape, both psychological and sociological.
Rape is defined “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”(Siegel,352) . Rape is seen all throughout history and it is still happening today. It is believed that about 15 - 38 percent of rape are reported to officials, meaning about 85-62 percent of rapes go unreported. Most rape cases go unreported due to fear, guilt, and shame. About only 9 percent of rapes get prosecuted and only five percent of those lead to felony conviction; Only six percent of rapist will get a conviction( “Reporting Sexual..”).