Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unit .1
Reality Check: It is estimated that one in four young women will be assaulted in some way before
they are 18 years of age and there will be one out of ten women raped in there life time Most victims are assaulted by men they know or trust. Most sexual assaults are premeditated. There were 15,630 victims of sexual assault recorded by the police in Australia in 2000 an increase of 11% from 1999.
Reality Check: Most people who choose to rape are not mentally ill. Rape is not just about sex it is
about controlling, harming and degrading someone else. Most offenders have a cycle of offending that starts with fantasies and develops into targeting victims. 30% of rapes are not reported.
Unit .2
Gang Rape
Gang rape accounts for about 9 percent of all reported rapes. However, the physical and emotional damage that is inflicted upon the victim of gang rape is enormous. When man rape in pairs or gangs, the sheer physical advantage of their position is clear-cut and unquestionable. Group rape is the conquest of men over woman. Often, men who commit gang rap normally would be too timid to perpetrate a rape by themselves. When they become part of a group of men this changes, particularly if there is a great deal of alcohol consumed. Men who commit gang rape experience a special bonding and there seems to be a sense of pride in humiliating their victim. They prove their manhood and standing in a group. Generally, the group leader is the first to commit rape and the others will then follow. It is also true that part of the motivation for members of the gang is to not lose status or look bad in front of the others. Gang rape is generally much more violent and abusive than normal rape. The perpetrators of the gang rape appear to have a lot of hostility and rage against women. Gang rapes are more common at events where alcohol and drugs are consumed. Fraternity parties and athletic parties can be a breeding ground for this kind of assaults PREVENTION: If all else fails, and you find yourself being assaulted by a group of men, try to make eye contact with one person. Tell him to get help. You may be able to break the male-bonding with him long enough for him to feel compassion for you. Depending on his personality and the groups control over him, it may or may not work.
Reality Check: Remember that all rapists are serial rapists. That is, they rape repeatedly until stopped. Rapists do not fit neatly into one category or another and a rapist can also progress to greater violence as time goes on. The feelings of the power and excitement may buildup.
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Unit .3
Rapist Techniques
If you observe a man using one or more of these techniques, you should be on your guard and get away from him quickly. Do not allow yourself to be alone with him, and do not hesitate or analyze. Act quickly to protect yourself. Purpose or experience where none exists. The man may even refer to the woman and himself as we, attempting to make the woman feel that he and she are sharing a common pursuit or purpose.
Prevention: When you notice this kind of behaviour, ask yourself, why is he trying to create a
team of the two of us? and does he really share the same experience as me or is he just lying to get close to me. Remind yourself that you and he are not sharing an experience, and remain on your guard.
Charm and Niceness: To charm is to compel or control by allure or attraction, when a man is
charming a woman you should say to yourself this man is trying to charm me many women who have been assaulted report that the man was extremely nice at the beginning. Beware of the behaviour that is excessive, inappropriate, or seems dazzling.
Prevention: If you have a sense that a man is exhibiting behaviour that is unusual for the situation,
ask yourself. Why might he be acting so nicely? or, why would he be trying to charm me?
Too Many Details: It is common for a person who is lying to offer too many details in an effort to
bolster his credibility. A person who is telling the truth is not preoccupied with whether or not he is being believed, while a person who is lying will work hard to be convincing.
Prevention: If you are hearing a mass of details or background information that you did not ask
for, you should ask yourself, why is he trying to convince me? try not to get too distracted by the story so that you can remain alert and clear about what is really going on.
Typecasting: A common maneuver is to make a slightly critical statement that then challenges the
listener to prove the opposite. The man does not necessarily believe what he is saying, he only believes that his statement will affect the womans behaviour. For example, he might say youre so well dressed that youre probably really uptight and wouldnt know how to have a good time the woman may find herself trying to prove to him that she does know how to have a good time, and may go along with things she otherwise wouldnt in order not to be perceived as uptight or not cool.
Prevention: The best way to counteract this tactic is to say nothing, and not to take the bait. If you
find yourself thinking, Ill show him Im not uptight you are falling into his trap.
Reality Check: Any one of the above techniques can be used to try and control a woman into a situation in which the assailant has power over the situation.
Premeditated rape
The majority of rapes are premeditated. If the rapist has not already identified a victim, he will be on the lookout for an easy target. Although the rape attack will almost certainly be premeditated, the method will be opportunistic. The mind set of this particular attack is that the rapist knows what he wants or what is going to happen. The rapist will already have a plan worked out and may have picked several different locations, all he will be looking for is a victim. Some of the locations could possibly be: - Short-cuts through alleyways or park areas - Lonely pathways - Behind buildings or walls - Car parks - Beaches - Generally quiet areas or times In some cases, the rapist may already know or have located the victim, he will just be looking for the opportunity. He may well have already followed the victim and knows the route she takes and the times. With this type of attack, an extreme amount of force may well be used.
Sexual Harassment
Date and acquaintance rape often starts as a series of intimidations and manipulations of a sexual nature and unwanted, repeated sexual attention. This is called sexual harassment and it is illegal even if the harasser is not your boss or some one at work. Here are some behaviours that the law may deem to be sexual harassment: - Sexual offensive or derogatory comments - Humor and jokes adout sex - Sexual remarks about your body, clothing or sexual activity - Sexual propositions or pressure for sexual activies - Insults of a sexual nature - Requests or demands for sexual favours - Catcalls - Leering, ogling, whistling - Insulting sounds - Use of inappropriate body images to advertise events - Visual displays of degrading sexual images - Unnecessary and unwanted physical contact [touching, brushing, pinching] - Attempts to imede or block movement - Attempts or actual fondling or kissing - Physical assault or unwanted sexual intercourse The basic point to remember is that sexual harassment is unwanted, unsolicited, or undesired attention of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment is a breach of the trusting reationship that normally exists between the employer and the employee. Sexual harassment can ezaly escalate into rape.
Reality Check: Sexual harassment is not just about sex it is about power. Typically, such behavior is desgned to humiliate and control.
Stalking
Probably the most insidious of the sexual crimes is that of stalking the never-ending control, manipulation, and pursuit of the intended victim. In general, it is such a heinous crime that the stalker rarely ends his pursuit. It is estimated that as many as on of every twelve women has been staled at some point in their lives. Fifty-three percent of stalking cases are reported to the police and about 12 percent of all stalking cases result in criminal prosecution. Over half all stalkers have never experienced a long term relationship and most of them do not have any major mental illness.
Who stalks
Love obsession stalkers: This category is characterised by stalkers who seem to develop a
love obsession or fixation on another person with whom they have no personal relationship. The target may be only a casual acquaintance or even a complete stranger. This category represents about 25 percent of all stalking cases. The stalker can develop fixations on people including co-workers, casual acquaintances, or people they just pass in the street. Since most are unable to develop normal personal relationships with someone they retreat to a life of fantasy relationships with persons they hardly know. This kind of stalker can turn out to be very dangerous in the long term. In some cases even going as far as murder their victims in a twisted attempt to romantically link themselves to their victim forever.
Obsession stalker: This second category represents 75 percent of all stalking cases and is
distinguished by the fact that some previous personal or romantic relationship existed between the stalker and the victim before the stalking behaviour began. Stalkers in this class are characterized as individuals who are: - Emotionally immature. - Often subject to feelings of powerlessness. - Unable to succeed in relationships by socially acceptable means. - Jealous, bordering on paranoid. - Extremely insecure about themselves and suffering from low self-esteem. Since the victim literally becomes the stalkers primary source of self-esteem, his greatest fear becomes the loss of this person. The stalkers own self-worth is so closely tied to the victim that when he is deprived of that person, he feel that his own life is without worth. In some extreme cases, these stalkers will stop at nothing to regain their lost possession their, partner. This is what makes simple obsession stalkers so dangerous. If you are attempting to break off a relationship with a obsession stalker, he will desperately connive ways to get the relationship re-started. If you resist him or dont cooperate, he may use force or intimidation. If threats and intimidation fail, he may turn to violence. He cannot be objective about his ex-partner. He has only one desire, and that is to return to what he felt was the perfect relationship he may define himself through that relationship and feel like a failure if the relationship fails. His violence may escalate to homicide from an obsessive belief that if he cannot have his victim in this life, then he will have her in the next.
Unit .4
Planning Ahead
Crime victims who fare the worst in a confrontation with a criminal generally have one thing in common. They thought it would never happen to them, and took no precautions or even gave any thought to protecting themselves. It may help you in the long run to put yourself hypothetically in the position of being attacked.
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Safety at home
- If you are getting a taxi or a lift by friends home, get them to wait for you to get inside safely. - Carry your keys in your hand. Dont stand at your front door searching for them in your handbag or pockets. - Always lock all doors and windows. - Buy some dead locks. - Get a home alarm system. - Dont leave spare keys in an obvious place. - Never tag your keys with your address. - If you do lose your keys, change the locks. - It is a good idea, if you have at least two telephones in the house-one in your living room and one in your bedroom your mobile phone may also be good use if telephone cant work. - Have a lock on the bedroom door.
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Unit .5
Touching: The adult touches, strokes or rubs the child in a sexual way. Masturbation: The adult makes the child touch his her/her genitals and/or the adult touches
the childs genitals.
Vaginal or anal penetration: By a finger, penis or other object. Pornography: Where the adult shows the child videos, dvds or photographs of sexual
practices.
Kissing: The adult kisses the child in an uncomfortable way. Exposing (lashing) sexual parts: The adult exposes his/her sexual organs to the child Watching: The child undress or bathe and suggestive behaviors or comments. Any other way children are used by someone for sexual purposes. Was I sexually assaulted as a child
Sometimes people wonder if what happened to them was child sexual assault. It can include a childs body being touched in a sexual way or the child being made to touch an adult in a sexual way. It also includes other behaviours such as watching the child in order to be sexually aroused, making the child watch sexual acts or an adult behaving in a sexual way towards the child. Child sexual assault can be a single incident or occur over a longer period of time. It may involve one or more perpetrators. Sexual assault of a child can have an impact on their physical, psychological and social development. However, the range and intensity of the effects of child sexual assault are different for everyone.
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Unit .6
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Unit .7
Unit .8
In the long term the child may also experience a number of effects as an adult. These may include.
- Depression, anxiety, trouble sleeping. - Low self-esteem. - Damaged goods syndrome. - Dissociation from feeling. - Sexual difficulties such as fear of intimacy. - Multiple sex partners or difficulty in reaching orgasm. - Relationship problems such as an inability to trust. - Rebellious behaviour such as drug/alcohol abuse. - Suicide attempts or feelings - Prostitution. There is a strong correlation between child sexual abuse and late teenage prostitution. - Reluctance to disclose details about themselves. - An underlying sense of guilt, anger. - Fear of being a bad parent.
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Sexual assault teaches children that they are not important and that their feelings do not matter. Often children and adult survivors carry shame about the assaults. As adults they may believe that they have no rights and the abuse may have taught them to believe that they do not deserve to be treated with respect.
Problems in relationships
Sexual assault betrays a childs trust and denies them the opportunity to be loved unconditionally. Some survivors may find it very difficult to trust people, often fearing further betrayal. The perpetrator may be a family member and this can make any contact with their family of origin very distressing.
Sexual difficulties
Adult survivors may actively avoid sex or particular sexual acts that evoke memories of the assault/s. Alternatively, the assaults may cause them to seek sex to meet their emotional needs, as they may believe that their only value is sexual.
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