Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Causes and effects of rape
The causes and effects of rape
The causes and effects of rape
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Deviant behavior is defined as a behavior or action that is against the social norms of society. Rape is a deviant behavior that is a type of sexual assaults that usually involving sexual intercourse. This happens when one person or more initiates sexual acts against another person without that person's consent. The act can be sometimes carried out by physical force, coercion, or a person not being able to give valid consent. Someone who is unconscious, incapacitated, or below the legal age of consent would fall under that category. The term rape is sometimes used interchangeably with the term sexual assault. According to R.A.I.N (Rape, Abuse and Incet National Network, 2009) 44% of rape victims are under age 18 and 80% are under age 30. It is sad to report that every 2 minutes another American is assaulted which leaves an average of 237,868 victims, age 12 or older of sexual assault each year (R.A.I.N 2009). So who is to blame for this growing problem? It would be surprising to hear that many times people blame the victims. This is a growing concern for us all because it has led to a tremendous amount of unreported incidents which leads to the perpetrator roaming the streets waiting to strike again. Rape can lead to have severe traumatization and victim can suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder along with causing psychological harm and has been shown to cause physical injury, or have additional effects on the victim, such as acquiring of a sexually transmitted infection or becoming pregnant. Sadly following a rape, a victim may face violence or threats thereafter from the rapist.
There are many reasons why men or women rape. Socioeconomic, sexual abuse as a young child, power, and anger to name a few are reasons to why peopl...
... middle of paper ...
...nd others. Be that voice that many don’t have and are afraid to come out. Help those who have suffered tremendous pain and suffering. There is so much to life that no one should feel violated and ashamed for what has happened to them. Everyone deserves a right to live in safety and enjoy life without being in fear all the time. Report those who have committed rape and seek help immediately. It is everyone’s responsibility to look out for each other. There are so many support groups and online support from people who have been raped and have suffered and overcome this tragic happening. Many will never forget what it was like to suffer and be raped, there is always hope for recovery and living a life of happiness. Report those rapists and put them in jail for their terrible actions. No one deserves to be violated by anyone. Everyone deserves to be respected and loved.
Rape is a virus that infects every nation, culture and society. It is constantly referred to as “the unfinished murder”, because of the deep state of despair the rapist leaves the victim in. There is no common identifiable trend that determines who will be a rape victim. Women are not assaulted because of their attitudes or actions, they are attacked simply because they are present. With rapists, just as with their victims, there is no identifiable trend. The old myth that only “sick, dirty, old, perverted men” commit rapes is a lie that society tells itself in order to sleep better at night. The startling truth is that most rapists work under a veil of normalcy. In order for the percentage of rapes to decrease, we have to change our ideas about rape and let go of the old myths of the past. And until this happens, rape will continue to plague our world at large.
Sociological Analysis of Sexual Assault This essay will examine the social and cultural conditions, within the macro-diachronic and micro-synchronic theoretical models, that intensify or perpetuate sexual assault. I have chosen only one concept from each model because these are the only concepts that I feel that I can use to most accurately and comprehensively depict causes and reasons for why sexual assault is deeply entrenched in our social structure. I will thus explore, from these ideological viewpoints, some of the motivations and circumstances that lead offenders to sexual assault. I will also fuse some of the historical attitudes from which today's concepts have evolved into our contemporary understanding of these social phenomena. However, it’s important that we look beyond both offenders' motivations and history, and to the greater sociological view, if we are to correctly reconstruct acts of violence such as sexual assault.
Rape is devastating to its victims. I feel as if this statement should stand alone, underlined and in bold typeface. It is crucial that we, as a society, come to a deep understanding and awareness of this message. For that reason, I will state it again:
Sexual assault is defined as 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 In the United States 80% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 30. Of that 80%, 44% are under the age of 18 (RAINN, 2016). That leaves 36% of victims between the ages of 18 and 30. These percentages become even more alarming when that 80% is of about 293,000 victims of secual assualt each year (RAINN, 2016). It is estimated that 1 in every 6 women in the US has been or will be victims of sexual assault in their lifetime. The risks of sexual assault increase on college campuses. Women ages 18-24 who are enrolled in college are 3 times more likely than women in general to suffer from sexual violence (RAINN, 2016). One would think that with all these women being sexually assaulted, one would hear more about it, or perhaps the police stations would constantly be busy. This is not the case. Sexual assault is one of the most unreported crimes, with 68% still being left unreported (RAINN, 2016). This could be because of every 100 rapists, only 2 will spend a day in jail. Of the 32 out of 100 that would be reported, only 7 are referred to an arrest (RAINN, 2016). Why would men or women want to report sexual assault when the system that is supposed to protect them fails so often, and why does this system continue to fail?
Rape until 2012 was defined as “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” It was severely lacking was only updated by the Federal Bureau of Instigation in 2012. It left out an entire section of rape that can be committed which is man being the rape victim. This lead to misclassification of rape of males for years. So even the statistics used till 2014 were underwhelming and inaccurate when it was related to male rape or sexual assault. Rape in the United States is now defined by the Department of Justice as “Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” Male Rape or men being the sexual assault victims are rarely ever the subject of a dialogue when Sexual Assault is the topic being discussed because rape is generally seen as a heterosexual highly sexed male attack on vulnerable, attractively dressed female victim. Most rapists have alternative outlets for sexual gratification, many take little notice of their victim 's physical attributes, and some may experience sexual dysfunction during the assault.
Sexual violence can happen to anyone. In fact, one out of every six women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. Although, it is women who are targeted most often, it is important to understand that rape can occur to any person, regardless of various factors such as age, race, sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. What many people do not ponder is that most of the time when a woman is raped, she is actually blamed for the assault. As Aosved mentions in her article titled, ‘Co-occurrence of Rape Myth Acceptance, Sexism, Racism, Homophobia, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance’, she states
2. The rape occurred in the basement at a friend’s house by one or two girls.
As the term “rape culture” grows in popularity, it is imperative to break it down to understand what it actually means. According to a report by the Marshall University Women’s Center, “Rape Culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture”. Rape culture is supplemented by the objectification of women’s bodies, glamorization of sexual violence, as well as many other saddening realities in society. A sad outcome of rape culture in todays society is that women are often seen as the one at fault in rape. Commonly excuses are immediately made for them men, such as blaming the girl for being too intoxicated, blaming the girl for the way she was dressed, or even blaming the girl for speaking out about it at all. A perfect example of rape culture in the media took place in Steubenville, Ohio. A 16-year-old girl, incapacitated by alcohol, was gang raped by two high school football players who then shared photos of the assault on their social networking sites and with their friends. Immediately, mainstream news and media began to blame the victim saying she should not have chosen to get so intoxicated in the first place. The two boys were given the minimum allowed sentence of 1 and 2 years. This court case caused an uproar and a
Traditional or common knowledge views of rape portray the act as something a crazy stranger commits on another stranger. However, this is simply not the case. The vast majority of rapes, sometimes up to 70%, involve a victim who was previously known to the offender (Woods and Porter 2008). The data does not totally support this view, however. This is because only an estimated 18% of acquaintance rape is reported to the police (Woods and Porter 2008). For comparative purposes, an estimated 79% of stranger rape is reported. Research suggests that each type of forcible rape has a more frequent setting (Woods and Porter 2008). When a rape happens indoors, the victim is more likely to have had a close personal relationship with the offender (Woods and Porter 2008). In fact, the rape usually occurs in either the offender’s or victim’s home (Woods and Porter 2008). The National Institute of Justice reports that women are raped dramatically more than men are; 18% of women report being raped at least once in their life, in contrast to just the 3% of men who report being raped in their lifetime (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). Of minority groups, 34% of American-Indian women report being raped in their lifetime, the highest percentage of any group; the lowest percentage is Pacific Islander women, of whom only 7% report being raped in their lifetime (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). The data suggests that rape occurs at an early age. Nearly a quarter of female rape victims and nearly one half of male rape victims were younger than 12 years old when first raped (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). The percent of victims first raped when younger than 18 years of age is nearly three quarters for men and over half for women (Tjaden and Thoennes 2006). “Women who w...
What do you think and feel when you hear the word rape? Do you feel uncomfortable? Maybe even angry? Your certain feelings and emotions towards this word is a result of rape culture. Rape culture, essentially, is how a society as a whole sees and reacts towards rape or instances of rape. In 2013 rape was defined by the FBI as, “Penetration… of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” (Division’s Crime Statistics Management Unit 1). The definition was finally changed after the old definition deemed inappropriate by today’s standards, which beforehand, stated that physical force needed to be used for rape to be considered rape. This is good news for men and women who have been fighting for the definition to be changed, but unfortunately this does not mean that state laws are being changed the same way. Even though the FBI may acknowledge the older inappropriate definition, most states do not. Sexual assault is a commonly unreported crime, where only an average of 36% of sexual abuse is actually reported to the authorities (Planty 7). Some forms of rape can include physical harm, threats, and even death of the victim, and most victims do not want to tell others for fear of criticism, self-blame, or even the fear that their attackers will carry out on their threats. In many cases, victims do have a reason to be afraid. When someone is brave enough to come forward and say they were sexually assaulted, they are putting themselves in the position of being in not only a long legal process, but also having their motives questioned and misunderstood, which is the last thing they want after their experience. The legal system in the United States...
Rape can happen to anyone. Women from different cultures, races, ages, and economic level are all vulnerable. It does not matter who you are or where you live, although women of lowest status are most vulnerable to rape, and so are Hispanic and African American women. (An...
Did you know that ninety-seven percent of rapists will never spend a day in jail? (RAINN) This fact is depressing considering the large percentage of rape victims. Things like rape and violence have a severe impact on the mentality level of people. Their lives will change forever after going through an intense situation such as being molested, beaten, or anything along those lines. It has caused people to commit the same crime, become severely depressed and suicidal, as well as many other unfortunate events. People look down on those who have gone through such events, some may say things such as, "you probably deserved it”, “you were dressed provocatively" or "how did you not enjoy that?” As such, rape is an underexplored
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.")
I am a 19-year-old girl, far too old to think I know everything. I don’t pretend to be an expert on rape. Having known the feel of a cold blade pressed to my side gave me no superior understanding of the crime, only a small scar to remember it by. Thus I offer you no solution. I cannot say with any conviction that my writing will help to save even one person from being subjected to a similar fate. Before you’ve read to the bottom of this page three more girls will be sexually assaulted, one girl will be raped. Neither the eloquence of my words, nor the fervor of my voice will have changed a thing.
Webster’s Dictionary describes rape as the crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. Rape is a crime in which most women cannot defend themselves. The fear of rape plagues every woman at some point or another in her life. The traumatic effects of rape vary from mild to severe, from psychological to physical. This paper will evaluate rape, as well as the effects it has on women, the theory behind male dominance and patriarchy, and differences in demographics.