Sexual Assault and Rape

Abstract

Sexual assault and rape are serious social and public health issues in the United States. Women are overwhelmingly the victims of sexual assault and rape, while men are nearly always the perpetrators. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States approximately one in three women (and one in four men) experience a form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime (CDC, 2021). The vast majority of incidents involve women being sexually assaulted by men with whom they are acquainted. Victims are far less likely to report a rape or assault when they know their assailant, thus instance of sexual assaults are greatly under-reported. This essay examines a number of reasons why victims fail to report an assault to formal support agencies and examines some of the ways in which social services agencies can reach those in need of support. This article also discusses rape prevention programs that are effective in reducing instances of sexual assault, including programs that educate college students on the dangers of alcohol and its association with assault. In addition, the gender role beliefs that play a role in how rape is perceived, particularly when there is a relationship between the victim and the perpetrator, are investigated. A look into the continued study and research regarding rape is also included, specifically the ability of such research to identify risk populations and risk factors as well as the type and format of education required to counter the effects of sexual assault.

Overview

Sexual violence is a major social and public health problem in the United States. According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, nearly one in three women and one in six men report having experienced sexual violence (Smith et al., 2017). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that almost one in every five women experiences attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, along with one in every thirty-eight men (CDC, 2021). The overwhelming majority of victims, however, are women who have been victimized by men (Franiuk, 2007).

Rape is defined as penetration or attempted penetration, but the definition of sexual assault or sexual violence is broader. According to the CDC (2021), sexual violence encompasses the following:

• Completed or attempted penetration;
• Abusive sexual contact without penetration;
• Non-contact sexual abuse (harassment and voyeurism, including posting or sharing sexual pictures of someone without their consent, or non-consensual sexting.

The definition also extends to acts of rape perpetrated during war, sex trafficking, and female genital mutilation (Basile et al., 2005). This essay is limited to a discussion of the three bulleted points above.

In most states, the legal definition of first- or second-degree sexual assault involves non-consensual sexual contact and/or intercourse (Franiuk, 2007). Consent is a critical factor when determining if sexual assault has occurred. If a victim does not consent to engaging in sexual activity with another individual, then the act is legally defined as sexual assault. Non-consent or ambiguous consent cannot be construed as affirmative consent. Victims of sexual assault may not be able to give consent due to age, illness, or impairment or may be intimidated through physical violence or threats (Basile et al., 2005) and therefore afraid to refuse.

Historically, rapes and sexual assaults were believed to be perpetrated against women by strangers, but current data shows that women are much more likely to be sexually assaulted by men with whom they are acquainted. In fact, estimates suggest that 82 percent of all victims of sexual assault know their assailant (Basile et al., 2005).

At-Risk Populations. The majority of first-time rape victims are young; an estimated 71 percent of all rapes occur before the victim reaches the age of eighteen. Young women between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four are the most at risk for being raped (Feminist Campus, 2021). Among female rape victims, about one in three first experience rape between the ages of eleven and seventeen, while one in eight experiences it before the age of ten. Among male rape victims, about a quarter experience rape between eleven and seventeen and another quarter before the age of ten (CDC, 2021).

College campuses have unique elements that contribute to higher rates of sexual assault (Franiuk, 2007). College women report they often feel emotionally and psychologically coerced into sex (Feminist Campus, 2021). A 1987 study of 3,000 college women surveyed indicated that more than 50 percent reported being sexually victimized and 15 percent were victims of rape. The statistics were re-affirmed by subsequent 1997 and 2006 studies (Franiuk, 2007). Reports released in 2015 and 2019 by the Association of American Universities found that about one quarter of female undergraduates reported non-consensual penetration or sexual touching (Association of American Universities, 2020). Transgender, genderqueer, or gender nonconforming college students also have a higher risk of sexual violence (RAINN, 2020).

Researchers have posited that colleges have higher rates of sexual assault than non-college settings because of the prevalence of (Franiuk, 2007):

• Alcohol;
• Men and women living in close proximity;
• Increased exposure to others having sex.

Many trends are apparent and disturbing when it comes to sexual assault:

• Women are far less likely to report instances of assault if the assailant is known to them. Since only 15 percent of rapes are committed by strangers, this statistic is likely to indicate that only a small number of sexual assaults actually get reported.
• Intoxication clouds judgment and causes uncertainty about what has actually happened.
• Women and men have different ideas about what constitutes "consent"
• Women may subscribe to sexual scripts that suggest women are prey while men are predators, such as: "this is how sex is supposed to be—maybe it wasn’t assault"
• College students lack knowledge about sexual assault and its prevalence on campus (Franiuk, 2007).

Responding to Sexual Assault through Education. Researchers and sociologist believe that heightened awareness and education for both men and women can reduce the instances of sexual assault at colleges and universities. One such study provided students with a number of different scenarios and asked them to decide which of the situations constituted sexual assault. Student perceptions revealed that many young people do not have an accurate picture (or definition) of what constitutes sexual assault. In a large number of cases, incidents that met the legal definition of rape or sexual assault went unreported simply because the young women involved did not perceive the incident as a sexual assault.

Knowing that the instances are likely to be significantly under-reported, it is imperative to be able to identify which scenarios are actually sexual assault and discuss the factors that make the situations less clear (Franiuk, 2007).

"Discussing and Defining Sexual Assault: A Classroom Activity" used the following methodology to help raise awareness of sexual assault and clarify its definition. Students were required to complete the following steps (Franiuk, 2007):

• Define sexual assault (student’s perception);
• Read scenarios and determine if they constitute sexual assault;
• Discuss with classmates and instructor;
• Define sexual assault post discussion with the understanding of what defines "sexual assault" and "consent."

After students read and evaluated eight scenarios about what constitutes sexual assault, they discussed the scenarios with others. Students did not accurately label some of the situations as sexual assault for the following reasons (Franiuk, 2007):

• The victim did not explicitly give consent, but was ambiguous: "I don’t know if I want to have sex";
• Intimidation and pressure were misconstrued by students and needed to be clarified;
• One victim drank too much and so was labeled by students as "responsible” for the assault: "She should have been more responsible";
• Gender of the aggressor confused some students — woman pressured boyfriend to have sex.

Alcohol & Sexual Assault. A report from the United Kingdom documents the role that alcohol plays in increasing the chance of sexual assault and rape. While this study did not focus specifically on college students, it pointed to the overall link between alcohol use and sexual assault. Eighty-one percent of reported sexual assaults involved alcohol and amounts were significant enough to cause disorientation, memory loss, and loss of consciousness. In 60 percent of cases, the amount of alcohol was significant enough to "make it questionable whether the victim would have been able to even give consent" (French, Beynon, & Delaforce, 2007).

The voluntary use of alcohol is linked to an increased risk of being victimized by sexual assault by reducing inhibitions that affect judgment decisions and generally put the potential victim at greater risk for assault. There is also increased concern about drug facilitated sexual assault (DFSA), but the clandestine use of these drugs is not well documented. One challenge to reporting is that the drugs may cause memory loss or amnesia, which prevents or delays reporting of assault, which puts at risk the collection of evidence and makes confirmation and prosecution of assault more difficult (French et al., 2007).

In the United States, men are increasingly being informed of the legal definition of rape as part of rape prevention programs. "It is a felony for a man to have sex with a woman who’s too intoxicated to give consent" (Choate, 2003), but in many cases neither men nor women define this scenario as rape. Experts suggest that prevention efforts need to focus on sex and relationship education to inform both men and women of what their responsibilities are while participating in healthy relationships (French et al., 2007).

In 1994, the US Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to draw attention to the impact that sexual violence has on society and to emphasize prevention. Successful prevention and education programs designed to reduce sexual assault provide several benefits, including providing individuals with support and reducing the burden on community social services, health care, and law enforcement agencies (Basile et al., 2005).

Applications

Gender Role Perceptions. Gender role perceptions and behaviors are formed from developmental processes and social prescriptions (Simonson & Sublich, 1999). When people interact on a sexual level, there are certain attributes that are viewed as traditional gender traits. On a societal level, men are often viewed favorably when they act dominant, powerful, and sexually aggressive. When it comes to sexual interactions, society prefers to envision women as passive, fragile, and submissive (Simonson & Sublich, 1999). Substantial research has focused on how gender role affects perceptions of different sexual assault and rape scenarios.

Sociologists are studying how gender role and sex role learning influence the perceptions that men and women have about different rape scenarios. Of particular interest to sociologists is the "relationship" that exists between the victim and perpetrator in a sexual assault and how that relationship affects rape perceptions.

Research supports the theory that men and women view sexual expectations within social interactions in very different ways. Researchers surveyed men and women regarding how they felt about different scenarios between the sexes. The outcome of each scenario was sexual intercourse; what differed was the type and level of relationship that the victim and perpetrator had in each scenario. Relationships were classified as stranger, acquaintance, dating, or marital (Simonson & Sublich, 1999). Observers were asked to rate their perception of the interaction using the four relationship types. Researchers found that perceptions of what constituted rape was highly dependent on how the observer perceived the relationship between the victim and perpetrator. The closer the relationship, the less likely observers were to see the sex act as rape.

Women who were surveyed for the study tended to view the world through a more egalitarian lens and thus were less likely to minimize the severity of the rape. Women’s more liberal view on gender roles was largely aligned with their egalitarian attitudes. Because women are traditionally in less powerful roles than men, they may have more to gain from an egalitarian society than men do. When confronted with a rape scenario, women were more likely to consider a rape a rape (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005). Men were seen as having greater self-interest in defining rape more narrowly than women; they were also quicker to minimize the severity of a rape, the affect on the victim, and how severe the punishment should be (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005).

Research studies also concluded that those who hold less traditional gender-role stereotypes saw rape scenarios (overall) as more serious and were less likely to ascribe blame to the victim. These views belonged to individuals who hold more traditional gender-role stereotypes (Simonsen & Sublich, 1999). Gender roles are the behaviors and attitudes that are expected from individuals based on their sex and the learned socialization process (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005). Society has prescribed beliefs about the way that men and women should act in given roles. The role that will be discussed in this context is the one that involves sexual interaction between men and women.

One theory about rape that has gained some credence views rape as an extreme extension of traditional gender roles and associated male-female sexual interaction rather than as a result of deviant or pathological behavior (Brownmiller, 1975; Simonsen & Sublich, 1999; Ben-David & Schneider, 2005). "Rape [can be seen] as a mechanism of social control, [which has an] intimidating effect on all women, not just on victims, and the threat of rape [reinforces] traditional attitudes concerning gender roles and women’s rights" (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005).

The more intimate the association between the victim and the assailant, the less responsibility was attributed to the perpetrator, and the less they were seen as responsible for violating the victim’s rights. Marital rape was seen as the least serious and was often not viewed as rape at all.

Judicial systems only add to the ambivalence within our society toward victims of sexual assault. Leniency is often given to perpetrators who have a known prior relationship with the victim (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005). In other words, when the victim knows their assailant, their claims of rape are diminished. Sociologists question these perceptions by suggesting that a violent assault by a person close to the victim might be considered more heinous because of the "betrayal of trust." Another perception, often referred to as “rape myth,” purports that sexually experienced women are not really damaged by rape—particularly if the victim has had prior sexual relations with the assailant. These perceptions essentially view "rape and consensual sex as the same" (Ben-David & Schneider, 2005). Rape victims do not see rape and consensual sex as equal.

Disclosure of Assault. Community sensitivity around the topic of sexual violence is a significant barrier to implementing rape prevention education (RPE) programs (Basile et al., 2005). Most women who are sexually assaulted do not report the attack to the police or other formal agencies, but statistics show that over 50 percent do reveal the incident to someone (usually a friend or family member). Many women do not tell anyone about their ordeal because they are afraid that no one will believe them, they want to protect their privacy, or they are afraid that they will be blamed for the assault (Feminist Campus, 2021).

Rape survivors suffer increased psychological symptoms including: anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and low self-esteem; these symptoms may last for years. While statistics vary, it is well documented that many women (50–75 percent) eventually disclose experiences of sexual assault and relatively few (3–10 percent) reveal sexual assault to formal support sources (Starzynski, Ullman, Townsend, Long, & Long, 2007).

There is also evidence that women who received initial positive support reactions from a source (formal or informal) are more likely to disclose sexual assaults to a formal support network. Negative reactions from any support source generally cause women to stop talking (Starzynski et al., 2007). Many women report that they are hesitant to report their ordeal because they anticipate negative reactions from formal support networks. "Lack of sensitivity and education among clinicians . . . can result in a “second rape” . . . [and] failure to receive adequate support when it is finally sought can be devastating" (Russell & Davis, 2007).

Victims of rape committed by a stranger are more likely to report sexual assaults and seek professional help and seek help sooner. Research also shows that women who experience other stereotypical sexual assaults are more likely to report the assault to formal support services. Besides rape by strangers, women are also more likely to report an assault that involves violence, bodily injury, assault with a weapon (Starzynski et al., 2007)

It is well documented that women who are assaulted by acquaintances are not as likely to report the incident. However, "acquaintance rape victims still experience similar psychological distress as those who are victims of stranger rape" (Starzynski et al., 2007). When compared to other crime victims, rape survivors appear to suffer more negative psychological outcomes, which include depression, sexual dysfunction, substance abuse, and PTSD (Russell & Davis, 2007; CDC, 2021).

Early intervention can have a significant impact on the long-term stress and negative effects that women suffer from sexual assault. The large number of women who never report sexual assault to formal support networks are at greater risk of suffering long-term psychological consequences. The reasons that women do not access formal support networks for sexual assault are many and varied. Some women simply lack basic knowledge about what services are available, while others have negative attitudes toward seeking help. Women without health insurance, the uneducated, and the young are least likely to seek formal support. Researchers and sociologists suggest that educational materials and information should be given to informal support networks because so many more women rely on such informal networks.

Educating Men. Social learning affects attitudes, knowledge, and behavior regarding rape and sexual assault. Studying the effects of sex-role learning is helping sociologists design and implement prevention programs for men. Studies show that socialization focused treatment is as effective as traditional rape education programs in reducing rape. Blame and shame are largely not effective methods for preventing rape (NASPA, 2007).

Campus rape is a significant problem and accounts for the majority of sexual assault instances. Therefore, reducing the number of sexual assaults on college campuses would significantly reduce the overall instances of sexual assault and rape. Most college rape prevention programs target women and include:

• Risk reduction strategies;
• Self defense classes;
• Increasing campus safety;
• Victim advocacy.

Sex-role learning and gender-role behaviors contribute to men’s perceptions, beliefs, and biases about sexual assault. College men are more likely to view sexually coercive behavior as acceptable and rape myths are thought to be widely accepted on college campuses (Choate, 2003). Rape myths are rampant and support false information about rape, rape victims, and rapists in a way that marginalizes the damage of the act (Crider, 2008; Feminist Campus, 2021).

Sociocultural theories support the idea that gender roles are taught and then reinforced. Among the messages that men receive are that they should be "sexual aggressors or competitors and women are the gatekeepers" (Choate, 2003). This type of social message reinforces the idea that women are to blame for their own victimization. Making an association between gender-role socialization and rape, participants are less accepting of rape myths and receive a strong message that they need to obtain positive consent for sexual activity (Choate, 2003).

Dr. Tracy Davis, assistant professor at Western Illinois University, has studied the effectiveness of rape prevention programs for college fraternity men. Davis’s research focuses on social-learning-shaped perceptions and not just the biological differences between men and women.

Davis states that men are seen as "victims of harmful sex-related social learning." As such, it is suggested that researchers "scrutinize the negative impact that some messages can have, explore alternatives, and make new choices." This approach might shed light on why men might, for example, be prone to perpetrating sexual assault. By specifically exploring socialized messages (e.g., real men don't cry or express sensitive emotions), men can begin to better understand themselves and take responsibility for the choices they make (NASPA, 2007).

Terms & Concepts

Consent: To give assent or approval. In terms of sexual activity, consent is often contested; the legal definition of rape or sexual assault requires that both parties consent to engaging in sexual intercourse-free of coercion, ambiguity, or the influence of alcohol.

Egalitarian Attitudes: General beliefs that men and women should enjoy the same rights and privileges. Egalitarian views eschew gender stereotypes.

Gender Roles: Social, cultural, and psychological aspects that distinguish between the sexes in a given social context.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): After experiencing a severe trauma, victims may suffer long-term effects from an event. The effects inhibit recovery, productivity, and lead to a number of other outcomes such as substance abuse and depression.

Rape Myths: "Prejudicial, stereotyped, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims, and rapists" (Crider, 2008).

Sexual Violence: Non-consensual sexual contact or sexual intercourse that results in a trauma (physical or psychological) to the victim.

Token Resistance: A rape myth that holds that women often offer token resistance to sexual advances from men, but when they say no to sex, they really mean yes.

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Suggested Reading

Imbesi, R. (2007). Engaging young people in leadership roles in the prevention of sexual assault: The CASA House Peer Educator Project. Primary & Middle Years Educator, 5, 21-25. Retrieved May 19, 2008, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=26476393&site=ehost-live

Lehavot, K., Molina, Y., & Simoni, J. (2012). Childhood trauma, adult sexual assault, and adult gender expression among lesbian and bisexual women. Sex Roles, 67(5/6), 272-284. Retrieved October 30, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=78218611

Marquand, I. (1999). Crime on campus. Quill, 87, 38-40. Retrieved January 27, 2009, from EBSCO Online Database Academic Search Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2320629&site=ehost-live

Rape & Sexual Assault. (2014). Georgetown Journal of Gender & the Law, 15, 155–93. Retrieved January 22, 2015, from EBSCO Online Database SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=100264188&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Tambling, R. (2012). Solution-oriented therapy for survivors of sexual assault and their partners. Contemporary Family Therapy: An International Journal, 34, 391-401.Retrieved October 30, 2013, from EBSCO Online Database SocIndex with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=78333074

Walton, G., & Beaudrow, J. (2016). Tipping the iceberg: Positionality and male privilege in addressing sexual violence against women. Culture, Society & Masculinities, 8(2), 140–154. doi:10.3149/CSM.0802.140. Retrieved March 9, 2018, from EBSCO Online Database. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sxi&AN=120633385&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Yassen, J. & Glass, L. (1984). Sexual assault survivors groups: A feminist practice perspective. Social Work, 29, 252-257.