Sexual Victimization

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Sexual Victimization

• Chapter 7

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Defining Sexual Victimization

• 1770-1845 rape was defined as penetration of the
  vagina by the penis where ejaculation had taken
  place
• Difficult to prove in court
• Later changed to a woman that was not his wife
  and without her consent

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• Changed even more penile/vaginal intercourse
  committed by an adult male stranger against a
  female
• Most rapes do not fit any of these definitions

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• Any one can be a rape victim
• Beyond just intercourse
• Includes oral, anal, etc
• Attempted and completed
• Any sexual intimacy forced on one person by
  another

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Historical Issues

• Children are often not educated about rape
• They learn that men are to be feared yet depended
  on (like a father)

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• rape for a rape the father of a raped daughter
  was permitted to rape the rapists wife
• bride capture where a male staked a claim to
  a woman by raping her form of permanent mating
  relationships

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• Rape laws were often made to protect virginal
  daughters in wealthy families
• Difficult for a woman to go to court because she
  had to admit to having sex with a man not her
  husband

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• Stranger rapes
• Acquaintance rapes (most common)
• Continuum coercion to force

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Statistics on Sexual victimization

• Most underreported index crime
• Rapes are not always taken seriously (example
  prostitute)
• Children may have a difficult time reporting

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• Anal and oral rapes are the least reported types
  rape
• So are date and marital rape
• Feel that the crime was not important enough to
  report
• 12 million women have been victims

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• 1 in 6 women
• 1 in 33 men

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Who are the victims?

• Media portrays certain women and offenders
• ANYONE can be a victim
• Women often between the ages of 16 and 24
• In their own homes
• At night and in the summer months

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Who are the offenders?

• 1/3 of rapists say that they are sexually active
  with their wives when they raped
• Power and dominance
• Media portrays a man lurking from behind the
  bushes. NOT TRUE

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• Anger rapes physical brutality, rage and anger
• Power rapes wishing to harm victim, possess her
  sexually
• Sadistic rapes aggression is eroticized

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• 55 of rapes are power rapes
• Many men do not feel guilt or shame regarding
  their behavior
• Victims are meaningless objects
• Intra-racial
• Anyone can be a rapist

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Victim/offender relationship

• Victim feels ashamed to report that a friend or
  loved one raped her
• Fear retaliation if she reports
• May not think it was rape

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Child Sexual victimization

• Once thought to be a rare occurrence,
  particularly incest
• Not labeled a social problem until the 1980s
• 29 of all forcible rapes occurred when the
  victim was less than 11 years old

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• Non-contact sexual victimization exposure,
  masturbating in front of child
• Contact child sexual abuse
• Offenders are most likely to be fathers or uncles
• Female children often more at risk
• Many dont report until they are adults

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• Abuse is often not a one time thing
• Power and/or anger to control victims
• Children are powerless, vulnerable and naïve
• 71 of child abusers are under the age of 35
• See themselves above the law

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• Some groups believe in adult/child sex
• Reactions to abuse
• Anxiety, depression, fear, anger, inappropriate
  sexual behavior, withdrawn
• Adult survivors
• Self destruction, negative feelings about men,
  fear, mistrust, drug/alcohol use, sexual
  dysfunction

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Date rape

• Forced or coerced sexual intimacy by someone with
  whom one has had a romantic or dating
  relationship (one type of acquaintance rape)
• Can occur on first date or even years later

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• Many women feel an obligation to marry the rapist
  because they have already been sexual with them
• 62 of college women report some level of
  offensive erotic intimacy

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• Gang rape
• Humiliation of being watched by others
• Taken advantage of while being in an intoxicated
  state
• 35 of college males said that they would commit
  rape if they knew they could get away with it

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Marital Rape

• Often extreme brutality
• Media portrays marital rape as an argument over
  sex
• 12 of women have been assaulted sexually by
  their husbands

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• Battering rapes sexual violence occurs in
  addition to verbal and physical violence
• Non-battering rapes little non-sexual physical
  violence but rape occurs
• Obsessive rapes bizarre sexual obsessions

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• Marital rape victims often minimize that they
  were abused
• Most at risk of being killed by their partners
• Less likely to seek medical or police help

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Sexual Harassment

• Most people think of work harassment
• Can happen anywhere and to anyone
• Erodes the victims self respect and privacy
• Unwanted and insulting behaviors

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• Gender harassment sexist remarks
• Seductive behavior sexual advances
• Sexual bribery sex is solicited with promise of
  a reward
• Sexual coercion threatening someone
• Sexual assaults, gross sexual imposition,
  indecent exposure

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• Quid pro quo harassment I do this for you if
  you do something for me
• Hostile environment intimidating or offensive
• Many people say they do this to humiliate anger
  their victims or out of camaraderie

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Victims and the CJ System

• Victims often report of being victimized twice
• By the offender
• By the CJ system