Branching off into a different area of rape scripts. Five “Acquaintance” rape scripts were elicited. “The five acquainted rape scripts consist of: the Acquaintance rape script, the For Sex Only rape script, the Party rape script, the Not Ready For Sex rape script, and the Wrong Accusation script”, (Carroll & Chandler, 2008). The Acquaintance rape script describes a scenario of an incident where a man feels led on and does not care about the woman’s response regardless of if she is or is not ready for sex.
The For Sex Only rape script entails of a situation where the man’s only purpose of the date with a woman is to ave sex and does not care if she says no. One of the more frequently practiced scripts, the Party rape script occurs when the man is sober and the woman is intoxicated and is unable to consent. The Not Ready For Sex rape script describes an incident where a woman who states she is not ready for sex is pressured by a man who does not care about her response until she gives in.
The final script is the Wrong Accusation script and is described as a woman who initially says “no” to sex but eventually gives into the demands of a man after constant verbal coercion. There has been much controversy surrounding he final script, rejecting the conclusion that the woman was raped. “Amongst college-aged men, research has shown differences in background experiences of men and women were notable in the frequency with which scripts were reported as well as the individual content of each script”, (Carroll & Chandler, 2008).
Discovering that a large percentage of all rapes in general occur on college campuses, a study of 4600 college students at 136 institutions was conducted and revealed that 20% of college women and 4% of college men had been raped at some point in their lifetime (Foubert & Newberry, 2006). In addition to these studies conducted, the U. S. Department of Justice discovered a survey taken of over 4000 college women with 3% stating that they had experienced some form of rape or attempted rape during an academic school year.
With nearly 5% of rape victims becoming pregnant, the effects of rape are traumatic and long lasting (Foubert & Newberry, 2006). The survivors or rape have also been known to experience higher levels of smoking, high- risk drinking, cocaine use, drinking & driving, and have been known to consider, and even in some cases, attempt suicide. Of he people who commit rape, 99% of them are men; and of this 99%, at least 9% of college men admit to committing or attempting rape with fraternity men being a group a particularly high risk for perpetration (Foubert & Newberry, 2006).
Rape prevention programs that are established on college campuses primarily target fraternity me considering that they commit over half of all gang rapes that occur on college campuses (Foubert, & Newberry, 2006). IN addition to this information, men involved in fraternities were more likely than other men to believe that women being enjoyed “physically oughed up”.
Cases show that (some) fraternity men also believe that women pretend to not want sex but would rather be forced into the act, “Men should be controllers of the relationship, sexually liberated women are promiscuous and will probably have sex with anyone, and that women secretly desire to be raped”, (Foubert & Newberry, 2006). According to Grube, Mayton, & Ball Rakeach, a theory known as the Belief System Theory suggests that to produce lasting attitude change, interventions must be designed to maintain people’s existing self-conceptions.
In order to help support this theory, “The Men’s Program” was established in the early 2000’s and was presented to tens of thousands of men in colleges, universities, high schools, military bases, halfway houses, and other community organizations nationwide (Foubert & Newberry, 2006). Of the college audiences that have consisted of men, fraternities, sports teams, residence halls, student organizations, classes, faculty, and staff are amongst the groups targeted to research theories of attitude and behavior change especially in the views of women and consensual sex.
With researches conducting massive amounts of studies and urveys on victims of rape, some have taken the initiative to record personal testimonies of victims to apply to their findings. The novel, “Against Our Will: Men, Women, & Rape” focuses on stories shared by victims of sexual assault and also provides insight into the mind of a rapist. Although both genders suffer from rape, women were more likely to mention the incident than men (Brownmiller, 2015).
One of the most frequently asked questions is “Why does it happen? Some evolutionary biologists believe strongly in the grim inevitability that “men will be men” while a handful of neo-Darwin’s speculate that rape is/was iewed as a cost effective strategy for males to spread their genes widely with a minimal amount of parental investment (Brownmiller, 2015). One personal testimony that stuck out in this book consisted of a young woman sharing her experience of the first time she was raped and by multiple individuals. Better known as “gang rape” this act is described as two or more men assaulting one woman.
The story takes place one night while she and her significant other were engaging in casual conversation inside of a parked vehicle with the windows down. While sitting in their vehicle, the driver (male) was caught ff guard and attacked by a group of (5) men and eventually had his keys stolen out of the ignition. He was then pulled out of the vehicle and beaten by the men as his significant other was forced to watch. Feeling helpless, the woman offered herself to the 5 assailants in order to spare the life of her already beaten significant other.
She was then raped by 2/5 men until they chose to flee the scene in fear of being discovered. One who suffers from a traumatic event such as this is sure to suffer from long lasting post-traumatic stress disorder. Regarded as one of the most severed of all traumas, rape ictims tend to suffer from long term psychological effects, repeated sexual victimization, and chronic physical health problems. “Rape victims have extensive post assault needs and may turn to multiple social systems for assistance”, (Campbell, 2008).
Research by Campbell reveals that approximately 26% to 40% of victims report the assault to police and seek protection through the criminal justice system. In between 27% to 40% seek medical care and forensic examinations, and 16% to 60% obtain medical service (Campbell, 2008). Studies by Campbell also show that non-stranger rape is far more typical than rape y an unknown individual. Approximately 80% of rape is committed by someone known to the victim. The trauma of rape goes far beyond the event with intervention strategies being implemented to provide treatment.
As sexual assault victims reach out for help, they instill a great deal of trust into the legal, medical, and mental health systems. Seeing as how most victims fear disbelief, blame, and refusal of help from those who they confide in, it is essential that a substantial amount of empathy and support is provided during treatment. For some victims, experiences with social system personnel are ositive and helpful while for many, post assault help seeking becomes a “second rape”.
In the event of prosecuting rape, it is rare for a case to make it all the way through the criminal justice; and most reported rapes are not prosecuted. Many victims have personally reported that law enforcement actively discouraged them from reporting the incident. Officers even graphically portray the personal finances that will be expended on the victim’s behalf in the event they wish to pursue prosecution (Campbell, 2008). Testimonies from victims also state that detectives issue arnings of prosecution to the victims along with the assailants in the event that the accuracy of their claims fall under suspicion.
Faced with the fear of judgment from friends and family along with discouragement from prosecution by lav enforcement, it is clear to see why rape victims suffer from an intense level of traumatic stress and fear. With the occurrence of rape taking place cross country, one may find it difficult to believe that men could be victimized but that is not always the case. Outside of institutionalized settings, male rape is an issue that has been neglected by society with help nd support more than 20 years behind that of women.
Some research has found that gay and bisexual men are more likely to report sexual assault by other men than heterosexual men (Archer, Davis, & Walker, 2005). Very few male rapes appear in police files or other records due to their less likeliness to report an assault due to fear that they will experience negative treatment. A study conducted in 1993 revealed that 74 men and 1380 women reported to a hospital for rape related issues. Of this number, it was recorded that although a significantly less amount of men were rape, the male rape victims were more ikely to have been sexually assaulted by more than one perpetrator than women were.
More reports indicate that men were hesitant to report issues of rape unless the reason was severe, “Men might only report rape to medical services under extreme circumstances, such as gang rape” (Archer, Davis, & Walker, 2005). In many cases, male victims seek help for physical injuries while concealing the sexual context of their assault. This means that many male rape victims do not receive testing for sexually transmitted diseases that they may have contracted during their rape (Archer, Davis, & Walker, 2005).
The research on male victims of rape note that some negative attributions occur in males above and beyond those expected of victims generally. Typically after an assault, many male victims become confused and tend to question their sexual orientation. “They tend to question the extent to which they may have “contributed” to the assault, making attributions such as, “I must be gay” for “letting” the assault occur”, (Archer, Davis, & Walker, 2005). For many social workers working in the field of sexual assault, the reoccurring question is “What can be done to prevent it? ”
Practitioners have attempted to design and implement rape prevention programs for as long as studies of the issue have been conducted with some success. As it is certainly important to acknowledge more victims of sexual harassment, challenges and limitations arise; seeing as how the vast majority of sexual violence perpetrators are men (Banyard, 2014). Social workers play an essential role in the treatment and recovery of rape victims. By providing a safe and non-judgmental environment for victims to feel secure in, social works can apply generalist practice to help provide treatment for recovery.
As stated in the article “Sexual Violence Prevention”, “Little is currently known about the protective factors that may reduce vulnerability for victimization and risk perpetration, or environmental factors which may contribute to prevalence”, (Guy, Lee, Mixon, Perry & Sniffen, 2007). The primary goals now is to prevent assault before it occurs. Classified by the Center for Disease Control and prevention, the act of sexual violence prevention and intervention are according to when they occur in relation to the violence. Lee and Guy divide prevention into three subgroups to help identify each situation.
The first form of prevention is known as Primary prevention which takes place before sexual violence has occurred to prevent initial perpetration or victimization. The next form is known as Secondary prevention and is described as an immediate response after the sexual violence has occurred to deal with the short-term effects of violence. The final form is referred to as Tertiary prevention and is noted as long term responses after sexual violence has occurred to deal with the long lasting consequences of violence and sex offender treatment interventions (Guy, Lee, Mixon, Perry, & Sniffen, 2007).
Applying the problem solving method to the treatment of rape victims and incorporating theories such as the Empowerment theory and combining it with the Strengths Perspective in order to help a victim regain control of their lives is certainly essential to the recovery of the victim. The methods of practitioners now tend to gear towards not only the treatment of victims but the prevention of rape in general with hopes that the issue of sexual assault will soon cease to exist
