Rape

For crisis assistance and other information in the United States, see RAINN - The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.

chris waz a raped lil bitch and dont ever get no pussy only ass from a dude named wilber fucked him three times sexual acts through violence, force, threat of injury, other duress, or where the victim is unable to decline due to the effects of drugs or alcohol. It is generally considered one of the most serious sex crimes.

There is no universally accepted distinction between rape and other forms of sexual assault. The criminal laws of some jurisdictions explicitly consider all kinds of sexual activity equivalent to reproductive intercourse, whereas others use the term only in the case of penile-vaginal or vaginal-penile penetration. Some even further restrict rape to cases where a woman is forced by a man, however, it is also rape when men are forced into a sexual act by women or other men. Forcible or non-consensual sex acts, such as forced fellatio or cunnilingus, which do not meet the criterion for rape in a jurisdiction are often grouped in the umbrella term sexual assault.

Definitions of rape

The Latin term for the act of rape itself is raptus. The word rape originates from the Latin verb rapere: to seize or take by force. The word originally had no sexual connotation and is still used generically in English (see rape (word)).

In most jurisdictions, rape is a crime involving intercourse or penetration without valid consent by one of the parties.

In some jurisdictions, rape is defined by penetration of the anus or the vagina by a penis, while in other jurisdictions, the penetration of either the vagina or the anus need not be by a penis, but can be by other objects such as a finger or a hand-held object, or the forcing of a vagina or anus onto a penis by a female.

Some jurisdictions expand the definition of rape further to include other sexual acts without valid consent, including oral copulation and masturbation.

The lack of valid consent does not necessarily mean that the victim explicitly refused to give consent; generally, where consent was obtained by physical force, threat of injury, or other duress, or where consent was given by a person whose age was below the age of consent, a person who was intoxicated by drugs or alcohol, or a person who was mentally impaired by illness or developmental disability, the consent is considered invalid.

Statutory rape refers to a sexual act that is considered rape by the law regardless of whether it was coercive or consensual. Such laws are common and exist in order to prevent adults from having sex with minors, who may be more easily influenced and therefore are deemed legally unable to give effective informed consent. Sexual activity involving a person below the age of consent is often known as statutory rape, although a number of jurisdictions use terms such as "unlawful sexual intercourse" to avoid the forcible connotation of the word.

The Brazilian Penal Code defines rape as unconsensual vaginal sex. Therefore, unlike most of Europe and the Americas, male rape, anal rape, and oral rape are not considered as rape crimes in Brazil. Instead, they are a "violent attempt against someone's modesty" ("Atentado violento ao pudor").

Rape and human rights

Probably for much of human history, rape, violence, and war have often occurred in connection with one another. In the twentieth century, the use of rape as a "weapon of war" has been well documented and addressed by NGOs as well as the United Nations [4] and national governments. If the victim is under the age of consent in the relevant country the rapist may be charged with child abuse.

Effects of rape

In the first few days and weeks following the assault, it is very normal for a rape victim to experience intense and sometimes unpredictable emotions. This individual may have repeated strong memories and nightmares of the event that are difficult to ignore. Victims are often severely traumatized by the assault for the first few weeks and months following the incident.

The victim may have difficulty concentrating, sleeping, eating, and normally functioning. He or she may feel jumpy or on edge.

The victim may also experience severe, highly disruptive symptoms that make it incredibly difficult to function in the first month following the assault.[5]

These problems may disrupt the victim's daily life and prevent them from seeking assistance or telling friends and family members, resulting in Acute Stress Disorder. Symptoms of this are:

feeling numb and detached, like being in a daze or a dream, or feeling that the world is strange and unreal
difficulty remembering important parts of the assault
reliving the assault through repeated thoughts, memories, or nightmares
avoidance of things (places, thoughts, feelings) that remind the victim of the assault
anxiety or increased arousal (difficulty sleeping, concentrating, etc.)

In 1972, Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holstrom embarked on a study of the psychological effects of rape. They interviewed and counseled rape victims at the emergency room of Boston City Hospital and observed a pattern of reactions, which they called Rape Trauma Syndrome.^[1] The Rape Trauma Syndrome is divided into phases.

During the Acute Phase survivors may feel shock, disbelief, or in some way frozen and may attempt to disconnect himself or herself from the person who was raped. Survivors may feel humiliated, confused, dirty, ashamed, or in some way at fault for the assault, particularly if the assailant was an acquaintance. Victims often experience extreme nightmares, heightened anxiety, frequent flashbacks, and a strong attempt to disconnect from one's emotions. They may be in denial, trying to convince themselves that the assault did not actually occur. It is common for a victim of acquaintance rape to try to protect the perpetrator.

Victims may respond to the rape in either an expressive or controlled style. The expressive style involves obvious outward emotions such as crying, shaking, rage, tenseness, ironic and uncomfortable laughter (part of their denial), and restlessness. A controlled style occurs when the victim appears to be quite calm and rational about the situation, even if he or she were facing severe internal turmoil. There is no single response to rape; every individual deals with his or her intensely traumatic emotions differently.

After the acute phase, the Reorganization Phase begins and the survivor attempts to reorganize their life and create the world that they once knew. Despite their best efforts though, this phase is often riddled with feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety. Emotions such as anger, anxiety, denial, and loss (of security) surface. Development of an inability to trust is frequently caused by sexual assault. This loss of the fundamental need for security wreaks havoc on the survivor’s life, causing the individual to feel completely powerless and without control over his or her own body. The survivor may feel unsafe, which can cause a heightened state of anxiety as well as difficulty with intimate relationships. Victims may attempt to return to normal social interaction (i.e. go out to social engagements), and consequently find themselves unable to do so. Their attempts to re-establish themselves in relationships may be hindered by a lack of trust.

Survivors often isolate themselves from their support network either physically or emotionally. The survivor may feel disconnected from peers as a result of the perceived personal experience. The shattering of trust can adversely affect intimate relationships, as survivors may have a heightened suspicion of other’s motives and feelings.

Sexual assault can change an individual forever by altering their outlook. The end result can be an individual in a constant state of turmoil and in extreme cases, suicide.[6]

Sociobiological analysis of rape

Some animals exhibit behaviors that resemble rape, in particular combining sexual intercourse with violent assault, as in ducks, geese, and certain dolphin species.^[2] It is difficult to determine what constitutes rape among animals, as the lack of informed consent defines rape amongst humans. See also Non-human animal sexuality.

Some sociobiologists argue that our ability to understand rape, and thereby prevent it, is severely compromised because its basis in human evolution has been ignored.^[3] Some argue that rape, as a reproductive strategy, is encountered in many instances in the animal kingdom.^[4] Some studies indicate that it is an evolutionary strategy for certain males who lack the ability to persuade the female by non-violent means to pass on their genes.^[5]

American social critic, intellectual, author and teacher Camille Paglia and some sociobiologists have argued that the victim-blaming intuition may have a non-psychological component in some cases, because a few sociobiological models suggest that it may be genetically-ingrained for certain men and women to allow themselves to be more vulnerable to rape, and that this may be a biological feature of members of the species.^[6] One published viewpoint states this to be “a very controversial view".

Loss of control and privacy

Rape has been regarded as "a crime of violence and control" since the 1970s. Psychological analysis literature identifies control as a key component in most definitions of privacy:

"Privacy is not the absence of other people from one's presence, but the control over the contact one has with them." (Pedersen, D. 1997).
"Selective control of access to the self." (Margulis, 2003)

Control is important in providing:

what we need for normal psychological functioning;
stable interpersonal relationships; and
personal development. (Pedersen, D. 1997)

Violation of privacy or "control" comes in many forms, with sexual assault and the resulting psychological traumas being one of the most explicit forms. Many victims of sexual assault suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which also center around control issues. Therefore, some argue that it makes more sense to look at the issue of sexual assault as an invasion of privacy (Mclean, D. 1995):

The more comfortable a person is with talking about invasion of privacy and in insisting that he or she has privacy that deserves respect, the clearer that person’s understanding of rape will be…

Approaching rape through the concept of privacy helps bypass certain social stigmas.

Prevalence and reports

Many reports suggest that rape statistics are notoriously unreliable, because a significant number of rapes go unreported and also because a significant number of rapes reported to the police cannot be verified or never occurred.^[7] In the United States, the adjusted per-capita victimization rate of rape has declined from about 2.4 per 1000 people (age 12 and above) in 1980 to about 0.4 per 1000 people, a decline of about 85%. ^[8]

College campus rape

Some studies indicate a particular problem with rape on college campuses. The subject attracts attention because of the presence of many young men and women, often experiencing their first years away from home together, in an environment where prior controls, supervision and discipline are to a great extent removed, and where youths are in a position to engage in adult behavior with some anticipating new activities and freedoms, whilst others are left more vulnerable and less supervised.

In the United States, students are allegedly most vulnerable to rape during the first few weeks of the freshman and sophomore years. According to the U.S. Justice Department, 1.7% of college women and 3.8% of men were victims of completed rape within a six month period, and in 90% of the cases the attacker was known to the victim. In a typical college career, one-fifth to one-fourth were victims of attempted or completed rape. According to one 1992 study, one out of twelve college aged men and one in every twenty college aged women committed rape, making each responsible for an average of three rapes. ^[9] [7] The high recidivism rate for sexual crimes makes this result unsurprising.

The Department of Justice study also found that in "about half of the incidents categorized as completed rapes, the women or man did not consider the incident to be a rape." [8] According to the Journal of Counseling and Development, women aged 16–24 are at the highest risk of sexual assault. One study has concluded that as many as one in four college aged females have either been a victim of attempted rape, or rape. ^[10]

Media Attention

A young male rapist has been attacking other males in the Houston, Texas suburb of Baytown. The last reported attack was on November 30, 2006. This is unusual in that some serial male-on-male rapes are not reported in part due to the emasculating and humiliating nature of this crime as felt by its victims.^[11]
2006 Duke University lacrosse team scandal
An ongoing problem with sexual assault in the U.S. military has resulted in a series of scandals that have received extensive media coverage.
Take Back the News
The Accused, a 1988 movie about rape.

References

^ Burgess A., & Holmstrom L. (1974). Rape Trauma Syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry.
^ Gowaty, P.A. & Buschhaus, N., "Functions of aggressive and forced copulations in birds: female resistance and the CODE hypothesis," American Zoologist (1997).
^ Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C.T., A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion (MIT Press, 2001).
^ Gowaty, P.A. & Buschhaus, N., supra.
^ Thornhill, R., & Thornhill, N.W., "Human rape: an evolutionary analysis," Ethology and Sociobiology (1983).
^ Paglia, C., Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale University Press, 1990).
^ Dick Haws, "The Elusive Numbers on False Rape," Columbian Journalism Review (November/December 1997).[1]
^ Anthony D'Amato. Porn Up, Rape Down. Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 913013
^ Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, 1992
^ Warshaw, R. (1994). I never called it rape. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.[2]
^ Porretto, J., "Rapist targets young men in Texas," Prescott Herald (12/2006).[3]

External links

[1] Burgess A., & Holmstrom L. (1974). Rape Trauma Syndrome. American Journal of Psychiatry.

[2] Gowaty, P.A. & Buschhaus, N., "Functions of aggressive and forced copulations in birds: female resistance and the CODE hypothesis," American Zoologist (1997).

[3] Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C.T., A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion (MIT Press, 2001).

[4] Gowaty, P.A. & Buschhaus, N., supra.

[5] Thornhill, R., & Thornhill, N.W., "Human rape: an evolutionary analysis," Ethology and Sociobiology (1983).

[6] Paglia, C., Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence From Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (Yale University Press, 1990).

[7] Dick Haws, "The Elusive Numbers on False Rape," Columbian Journalism Review (November/December 1997).[1]

[8] Anthony D'Amato. Porn Up, Rape Down. Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 913013

[9] Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, 1992

[10] Warshaw, R. (1994). I never called it rape. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.[2]

[11] Porretto, J., "Rapist targets young men in Texas," Prescott Herald (12/2006).[3]

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