The Physical and Psychological Effects of Rape on Women

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The Physical and Psychological Effects of Rape on Women Most people think that rape is about sex but it is not. If rape was about getting sex the person would just go and have sex with someone who wants to give it to them. Paying for sex is better than going out and raping someone. Rape is also called sexual assault. Rape is about having power and control over someone. Rape is defined as one person forcing another person, without his or her consent and using violence or threatening violence, to have intercourse or other forms of sexual activity. Usually when people hear about rape they think of a man raping a woman, but rape can happen to anyone. It is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. Some people think that rape is just physical but it also has psychological effects. Sometimes it takes victims awhile to get over it but some never do. It messes them up really bad. In this paper I’m going to talk about the physical and psychological effects of rape on women. On average 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the U.S. Over the course of the year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. More than 1 million women are raped in a year (NISVS, 2011). In 1983-1984 Diana Russell did a study of community women in San Francisco that revealed that 24% of women had experienced a completed rape and 44% had experienced a completed or attempted rape. A national random survey of college women found that one in four had experienced rape or attempted rape in their lifetime and 84% of the women knew their attacker (Koss, Gidycz, and Wisniewski, 1987) (Campbell and Wasco, 2005). There are plenty of physical effects on women. The physical effects are pregnancy, urin... ... middle of paper ... ... this kind of stuff always happens to you?”(Ullman, 2010, 2012) Society should never blame the victim. No one ever asks to be raped. If they do they aren’t quite right in the head. We live in a free country if you want to walk down the street naked you should be able to without having to worry about being raped. True enough you would be arrested for indecent exposure but that would be the extent of it. When a rape/ murder case goes on trial the victim is usually treated like they’re the one on trial and not the defendant. Unless the victim came up to you and said that they wanted to be raped which I highly doubt you shouldn’t do it. The victim’s past or current lifestyle shouldn’t matter. Most people tend to forget that. If they tell you no you should just leave it alone. No means no in no way does it mean yes. (Holmes, Resnick and Kilpatrick) (Campbell and Wasco)

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