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Sexual assault
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Everything about Sexual Assault totally explained
Sexual assault is any physical contact of a sexual nature without voluntary consent. While associated with rape, sexual
assault is much broader and the specifics may vary according to social, political or legal definition.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sexual assault includes inappropriate touching, anal, and oral penetration, sexual intercourse, rape, attempted rape, and child molestation plus torturing the victim with many sexual ways. In Australia, the term "sexual assault" is more synonymous with rape.
Perpetrators may include, but are not limited to, strangers, acquaintances, superiors, legal entities (as in the case of torture), or family members. Both male and female sex predators can commit sexual assault against same-sex or opposite-sex victims or both. Generally, victims are more likely to be assaulted by an acquaintance (such as a friend or co-worker), an intimate partner, or a family member than by a complete stranger. The act is sometimes accomplished by force sufficient to cause physical injury. More often, the act is accomplished by psychological coercion alone, with no overt physical injuries to the victim. However, even when no lasting physical injury is sustained, the psychological damage done by this form of intimate violation may be substantial. Psychological damage is often particularly severe when sexual assault is committed by parents against children due to the incestuous nature of the assault.
Definition of sexual assault
Sexual assault is defined as:
» (1) Sexual intercourse with another person who doesn't consent.
» (2) Offensive sexual contact with another person, exclusive of rape.
Sexual violence is defined as:
- any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work.
Coercion can cover a whole spectrum of degrees of force. Apart from physical force, it may involve psychological intimidation, blackmail or other threats – for instance, the threat of physical harm, of being dismissed from a job or of not obtaining a job that's sought. It may also occur when the person aggressed is unable to give consent – for instance, while drunk, drugged, asleep or mentally incapable of understanding the situation.
Sexual violence includes rape, defined as physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object. The attempt to do so is known as attempted rape. Rape of a person by two or more perpetrators is known as gang rape. Sexual violence can include other forms of assault involving a sexual organ, including coerced contact between the mouth and penis, vulva or anus.
Forms and contexts of sexual violence
A wide range of sexually violent acts can take place in different circumstances and settings. These include, for example:
rape within marriage or dating relationships;
rape by strangers;
systematic rape during armed conflict;
unwanted sexual advances or sexual harassment, including demanding sex in return for favors;
sexual abuse of mentally or physically disabled people;
sexual abuse of child abuse;
[[forcedmarriage or cohabitation, including the marriage of children;
denial of the right to use contraception or to adopt other measures to protect against sexually transmitted diseases;
forced abortion;
violent acts against the sexual integrity of women, including female genital mutilation and obligatory inspections for virginity;
forced prostitution and trafficking of people for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
The extent of the problem
Sources of data
Data on sexual violence typically come from police, clinical settings, nongovernmental organizations and survey research. The relationship between these sources and the global magnitude of the problem of sexual violence maybe viewed as corresponding to an iceberg floating in water (see diagram). The small visible tip represents cases reported to police. A larger section may be elucidated through survey research and the work of nongovernmental organizations. But beneath the surface remains a substantial although unquantified component of the problem.
In general, sexual violence has been a neglected area of research. The available data are scanty and fragmented. Police data, for instance, are often incomplete and limited. Many women don't report sexual violence to police because they're ashamed, or fear being blamed, not believed or otherwise mistreated. Data from medico-legal clinics, on the other hand, may be biased towards the more violent incidents of sexual abuse.
The proportion of women who seek medical services for immediate problems related to sexual violence is also relatively small. Although there have been considerable advances over the past decade in measuring the phenomenon through survey research, the definitions used have varied considerably across studies. There are also significant differences across cultures in the willingness to disclose sexual violence to researchers. Caution is therefore needed when making global comparisons of the prevalence of sexual violence.
Estimates of sexual violence
Surveys of victims of crime have been undertaken in many cities and countries, using a common methodology to aid comparability, and have generally included questions on sexual violence. The United Nationshas conducted extensive surveys to determine the level of sexual violence in different societies. According to these studies, the percentage of women reporting having been a victim of sexual assault ranges from less than 2% in places such as La Paz, Bolivia(1.4%), Gaborone, Botswana (0.8%), Beijing, China (1.6%), and Manila, Philippines (0.3%), to 5% or more in Tirana, Albania (6.0%), Buenos Aires, Argentina (5.8%), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (8.0%), and Bogota, Colombia (5.0%).
It is important to note that no distinction has been made in these figures between rape by strangers and that by intimate partners. Surveys that fail to make this distinction or those that only examine rape by strangers usually underestimate substantially the prevalence of sexual violence.
Apart from crime surveys, there have been a small number of surveys, with representative samples, that have asked women about sexual violence. For instance, in a national survey conducted in the United States of America, 14.8% of women over 17 years of age reported having been raped in their lifetime (with an additional 2.8% having experienced attempted rape) and 0.3% of the sample reported having been raped in the previous year. A survey of a representative sample of women aged 18– 49 years in three provinces of South Africa found that in the previous year 1.3% of women had been forced, physically or by means of verbal threats, to have non-consensual sex. In a survey of a representative sample of the general population over 15 years of age in the Czech Republic 28:265–269, 11.6% of women reported forced sexual contact in their lifetime, 3.4% reporting that this had occurred more than once. The most common form of contact was forced vaginal intercourse.
Sexual violence by intimate partners
Forced sexual initiation
A growing number of studies, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, indicate that the first sexual experience of girls is often unwanted and forced. In a case control study, for example, of 191 adolescent girls (mean age 16.3 years) attending an [antenatal]] clinic in Cape Town, South Africa, and 353 non pregnant adolescents matched for age and neighborhood
or school, 31.9% of the study cases and 18.1% of the controls reported that force was used during their sexual initiation.When asked about the consequences of refusing sex, 77.9% of the study cases and 72.1% of the controls said that they feared being beaten if they refused to have sex .
Forced sexual initiation and coercion during adolescence have been reported in many studies of young women and men. Where studies have included both men and women in the sample, the prevalence of reported rape or sexual coercion has been higher among the women than the men . For example, nearly half of the sexually active adolescent
women in a multi-country study in the Caribbean reported that their first sexual intercourse was forced, compared with one-third of the adolescent men . In Lima, Peru, the percentage of young women reporting forced sexual initiation was almost four times that reported by the young men (40% against 11%, respectively) .
Gang rape
Sexual trafficking
Each year hundreds of thousands of women and girls throughout the world are bought and sold into prostitution or sexual slavery. Research in Kyrgyzstan has estimated that around 4000 people were trafficked from the country in 1999, with the principal destinations being China, Germany, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Of those trafficked, 62% reported being forced to work without pay, while over 50% reported being physically abused or tortured by their employers. (31) A World Organization against Torture (OMCT) report suggested that more than 200000 Bangladeshi women had been trafficked between 1990 and 1997. Some 5000.7000 Nepali women and girls are illegally traded to India each year and trafficking of Thai women to Japan has also been reported. Trafficking of women also takes place internally within some countries, often from rural areas to cities.
North America is also an important destination for international trafficking. A study undertaken under the auspices of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, estimated that 45 000 - 50 000 women and children are trafficked annually to the United States. Over 150 cases of trafficking were prosecuted between 1996 and 1999 by the United States Department of Justice. The problem also exists in Europe. A study conducted by the International Organization for Migration
estimated that 10.15% of 2000 known foreign prostitutes in Belgium had been forcibly sold from abroad. In Italy, a study of some 19 000 - 25 000 foreign prostitutes estimated that 2000 of them had been trafficked. Most of these women were under 25 years of age, many of them between 15 and 18 years. Their origin was mainly central and eastern Europe, particularly Albania, as well as Colombia, Nigeria and Peru.
Sexual violence against sex workers
Whether trafficked or not, sex workers are at high risk for both physical and sexual violence, particularly where sex work is illegal. A survey of female sex workers in Leeds, England, and Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland, revealed that 30% had been slapped, punched or kicked by a client while working, 13% had been beaten, 11% had been raped and 22% had experienced an attempted rape. Only 34% of those who had suffered violence at the hands of a client reported it to police.
A survey of sex workers in Bangladesh revealed that 49% of the women had been raped and 59% beaten by police in the previous year; the men reported much lower levels of violence. In Ethiopia, a study of sex workers also found high rates of physical and sexual violence from clients, especially against the child sex workers.
Sexual violence in schools, health care settings, armed conflicts and refugee settings
Schools
For many young women, the most common place where sexual coercion and harassment are experienced is in school. In an extreme case of violence in 1991, 71 teenage girls were raped by their classmates and 19 others were killed at a boarding school in Meru, Kenya. While much of the research in this field comes from Africa, it isn't clear whether this reflects a particularly high prevalence of the problem or simply the fact that the problem has had a greater visibility there than in other parts of the world.
Harassment of girls by boys is in all likelihood a global problem. In Canada, for example, 23% of girls had experienced sexual harassment while attending school.
The research done in Africa, however, has highlighted the role of teachers there in facilitating or perpetrating sexual coercion. A
report by Africa Rights found cases of schoolteachers attempting to gain sex, in return for good grades or for not failing pupils, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A recent national survey in South Africa that included questions about experience of rape before the age of 15 years found that schoolteachers were responsible for 32% of disclosed child rapes. In Zimbabwe, a retrospective study of reported cases of child sexual abuse over an 8-year period (1990.1997) found high rates of sexual abuse committed by teachers in rural primary schools. Many of the victims were girls between 11 and 13 years of age and penetrative sex was the most prevalent type of sexual abuse.
Health care settings
Sexual violence against patients in health facilities has been reported in many places. A study of physicians disciplined for sexual offences in the United States, for instance, found that the number of cases had increased from 42 in 1989 to 147 in 1996, with the proportion of all disciplinary action that was sex-related rising from 2.1% to 4.4% over the same period. This increase, though, could reflect a greater readiness to lodge complaints.
Other documented forms of sexual violence against female patients include the involvement of medical staff in the practice of clitoridectomy in Egypt, forced gynecological examinations and the threat of forced abortions in China, and inspections of virginity in Turkey. Sexual violence is part of the broader problem of violence against women patients perpetrated by health workers that has been reported in a large number of countries and until recently has been much neglected. Sexual harassment of female nurses by male doctors has also been reported (88,89).
Armed conflicts and refugee settings
Rape has been used as a strategy in many conflicts, including in Korea during the Second World War and in Bangladesh during the war of independence, as well as in a range of armed conflicts such as those in Algeria, India (Kashmir), Indonesia, Liberia, Rwanda and Uganda . In some armed conflicts . for example, the ones in Rwanda and the states of the former Yugoslavia rape has been used as a deliberate
strategy to subvert community bonds and thus the perceived enemy, and furthermore as a tool of ethnic cleansing.
In East Timor, there were reports of extensive sexual violence against women by the Indonesian military. A study in Monrovia, Liberia, found that women under 25 years were more likely than those aged 25 years and over to report experiencing attempted rape and sexual coercion during the conflict (18% compared with 4%). Women who were forced to cook for a warring faction were at significantly higher risk.
Another inevitable consequence of armed conflicts is the ensuing economic and social disruption which can force large numbers of people into prostitution, an observation that applies equally to the situation of refugees, whether they're fleeing armed conflicts or natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes or powerful storms.
Refugees fleeing conflicts and other threatening conditions are often at risk of rape in their new setting. Data from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for instance, indicated that among the boat people who fled Vietnam in the late 1970s and early 1980s, 39% of the women were abducted or raped by pirates while at sea, a figure that's likely to be an underestimate .
In many refugee camps as well, including those in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania, rape has been found to be a major problem.
Customary forms of sexual violence
Child marriage
Marriage is often used to legitimize a range of forms of sexual violence against women. The custom of marrying off young children, particularly girls, is found in many parts of the world. This practice is legal in many countries and is a form of sexual violence, since the children involved are unable to give or withhold their consent. The majority of them know little or nothing about sex
before they're married. They therefore frequently fear it and their first sexual encounters are
often forced.
Early marriage is most common in Africa and South Asia, though it also occurs in the Middle East and parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe. In Ethiopia and parts of West Africa, for instance, marriage at the age of 7 or 8 years isn't uncommon. In Nigeria, the mean age at first
marriage is 17 years, but in the Kebbi State of northern Nigeria, the average age at first marriage is just over 11 years. High rates of child
marriage have also been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Uganda.
In South Asia, child marriage is especially common in rural areas, but exists also in urban areas. In Nepal, the average age at first marriage is 19 years. Seven per cent of girls, though, are married before the age of 10 years, and 40% by the age of 15 years. In India, the median age at first marriage for women is 16.4 years. A survey of 5000 women in the Indian state of Rajasthan found that 56% of the women had
married before the age of 15 years, and of these, 17% were married before they were 10 years old. Another survey, conducted in the state of Madhya Pradesh, found that 14% of girls were married between the ages of 10 and 14 years.
Elsewhere, in Latin America for instance, early age at first marriage has been reported in Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Paraguay.In North America and Western Europe, less than 5% of marriages involve girls younger than 19 years of age (for example, 1% in Canada,
Switzerland and the United Kingdom, 2% in Belgium and Germany, 3% in Spain, and 4% in the United States.
Other customs leading to violence
In many places, there are customs other than child marriage that result in sexual violence towards women. In Zimbabwe, for instance, there's the custom of ngozi, whereby a girl can be given to a family as compensation for a death of a man caused by a member of the girl's family. On reaching puberty the girl is expected to have sexual intercourse with the brother or father of the deceased person, so as to produce a son to replace the one who died. Another custom is chimutsa mapfiwa wife inheritance, according to which, when a married woman dies, her sister is obliged to replace her in the matrimonial home.
What are the risk factors for sexual violence?
Explaining sexual violence against women is complicated by the multiple forms it takes and contexts in which it occurs. There is considerable overlap between forms of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. There are factors increasing the risk of someone being coerced into sex, factors increasing the risk of an individual man forcing sex on another person, and factors within the social environment including peers and family influencing the likelihood of rape and the reaction to it.
Research suggests that the various factors have an additive effect, so that the more factors present, the greater the likelihood of sexual violence. In addition, a particular factor may vary in importance according to the life stage.
Factors increasing women's vulnerability
One of the most common forms of sexual violence around the world is that which is perpetrated by an intimate partner, leading to the conclusion that one of the most important risk factors for women in terms of their vulnerability to sexual assault is being
married or cohabiting with a partner. Other factors influencing the risk of sexual violence include:
being young;
consuming alcohol or drugs;
having previously been raped or sexually abused;
having many sexual partners;
involvement in sex work;
becoming more educated and economically empowered, at least where sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner is concerned;
poverty.
Age
Young women are usually found to be more at risk of rape than older women. According to data from justice systems and rape crisis centres in Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Papua
New Guinea, Peru and the United States, between one-third and two-thirds of all victims of sexual assault are aged 15 years or less. Certain forms of sexual violence, for instance, are very closely associated with a young age, in particular violence taking place in schools and colleges, and trafficking in women for sexual exploitation.
Alcohol and drug consumption
Increased vulnerability to sexual violence also stems from the use of alcohol and other drugs. Consuming alcohol or drugs makes it more difficult for women to protect themselves by interpreting and effectively acting on warning signs. Drinking alcohol may also
place women in settings where their chances of encountering a potential offender are greater.
Having previously been raped or sexually abused
There is some evidence linking experiences of sexual abuse in childhood or adolescence with patterns of victimization during adulthood. A national study of violence against women in the United States found that women who were raped before the age of 18 years were twice as likely to be raped as adults, compared with those who were not raped as children or adolescents (18.3% and 8.7%, respectively).
The effects of early sexual abuse may also extend to other forms of victimization and problems in adulthood. For instance, a case control study in Australia on the long-term impact of abuse reported significant associations between child sexual abuse and
experiencing rape, sexual and mental health problems, domestic violence and other problems in intimate relationships even after accounting for various family background characteristics. Those who had experienced abuse involving intercourse had more negative outcomes than those suffering other types of coercion.
Having many sexual partners
Young women who have many sexual partners are at increased risk of sexual violence. It isn't clear, though, if having more sexual partners is a cause or consequence of abuse, including childhood sexual abuse. For example, findings from a representative sample of men and women in Leon, Nicaragua, found that women
who had experienced attempted or completed rape during childhood or adolescence were more likely to have a higher number of sexual partners in adulthood, compared with non-abused or moderately abused women. Similar findings have been reported in longitudinal studies of young women in New Zealand and Norway.
Educational level
Women are at increased risk of sexual violence, as they're of physical violence by an intimate partner, when they become more educated and thus more empowered.Women with no education were found in a national survey in South Africa to be much less
likely to experience sexual violence than those with higher levels of education. In Zimbabwe,women who were working were much more likely to report forced sex by a spouse than those who were not. The likely explanation is that greater empowerment brings with it more resistance from women to patriarchal norms, so thatmenmayresort to violence in an attempt to regain control. The relationship between empowerment and physical violence is an inverted U-shape . with greaterempowerment conferring greater risk up to a certain level, beyond which it starts to become
protective. It isn't known, though,whether this is also the case for sexual violence.
Poverty
Poor women and girls may be more at risk of rape in the course of their daily tasks than those who are better off, for example when they walk home on their own from work late at night, or work in the fields or collect firewood alone. Children of poor women may have less parental supervision when not in school, since their mothers may be at work and unable to afford child care. The children
themselves may, in fact, be working and thus vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Poverty forces many women and girls into
occupations that carry a relatively high risk of sexual violence, particularly sex work. It also creates enormous pressures for them to find or maintain jobs, to pursue trading activities and, if studying, to obtain good grades all of which render them vulnerable to sexual coercion from those who can promise these things. Poorer women are also more at risk of intimate partner violence, of which sexual violence is often a manifestation.
Factors increasing men's risk of committing rape
Data on sexually violent men are somewhat limited and heavily biased towards apprehended rapists, except in the United States, where research has also been conducted on male college students. Despite the limited amount of information on sexually violent men, it appears that sexual violence is found in almost all countries (though with differences in prevalence), in all socioeconomic classes and in all age groups from childhood onwards. Data on sexually violent men also show that most direct their acts at women whom they already know. Among the factors increasing the risk of a man committing rape are those related to attitudes and
beliefs, as well as behaviour arising from situations and social conditions that provide opportunities and support for abuse
| Factors increasing mens risk of committing rape |
| Individual factors |
Relationship factors |
Community factors |
Societal factors |
| Alcohol and drug use |
Associate with sexually aggressive and delinquent peers |
Poverty, mediated through forms of crisis of male identity |
Societal norms supportive of sexual violence |
| Coercive sexual fantasies and other attitudes and beliefs supportive of sexual violence |
Family environment characterized by physical violence and few resources |
Lack of employment opportunities |
Societal norms supportive of male superiority and sexual entitlement |
| Impulsive and antisocial tendencies |
Strongly patriarchal relationship or family environment |
Lack of institutional support from police and judicial system |
Weak laws and policies related to sexual violence |
| Preference for impersonal sex |
Emotionally unsupportive family environment |
General tolerance of sexual assault within the community |
Weak laws and policies related to gender equality |
| Hostility towards women |
Family honour considered more important than the health and safety of the victim |
Weak community sanctions against perpetrators of sexual violence |
High levels of crime and other forms of violence |
| History of sexual abuse as a child |
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| Witnessed family violence as a child |
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Who is vulnerable
Anyone is a potential victim of sexual assault, although females are at a higher risk of victimization than men. A person who is the victim of sexual assault may require assistance from medical and law enforcement resources. Medical and law enforcement professionals strongly recommend that a victim call for help and report what has happened.
Medical professionals are concerned for the well-being of the victim, who may need immediate medical attention, not only for injuries, but against sexually transmitted disease, and possibly to avoid unwanted conception. In many locations, EMTs, emergency room nurses and doctors are trained to help rape victims. Some emergency rooms have rape kits which are used to collect evidence.
» "A victim of sexual assault should be offered prophylaxis for pregnancy and for sexually transmitted diseases, subject to informed consent and consistent with current treatment guidelines. Physicians and allied health practitioners who find this practice morally objectionable or who practice at hospitals that prohibit prophylaxis or contraception should offer to refer victims of sexual assault to another provider who can provide these services in a timely fashion."—"Management of the Patient with the Complaint of Sexual Assault" from the American College of Emergency Physicians
Police are charged with the enforcement of the laws forbidding sexual assault and to gather evidence to identify and prosecute the offender. Further, police provide safety advice and prevention tips, to prevent people from becoming victims of sexual assault.
Reducing the risk of sexual assault
Police agencies routinely offer safety tips and advice for reducing the risk of sexual assault. While many individuals may offer 'tips' to reduce the risk of being sexually assaulted, research has shown that sexual violence is an offender variable, and that any traditional tips for victims of sexual assault not only are ineffective, but can be highly damaging to the recovery process by blaming the victim and excusing the offender. By giving tips such as 'avoid being alone in public', if a man or woman is assaulted while walking alone, that'll feel blamed for not heeding the suggestion, when research has shown that a person is much more likely to be assaulted by someone they know. Often it's the designated 'safe person' who is chosen to chaperone who will perpetrate sexual assault, as just one example.
Tips such as carrying Mace (which in many jurisdictions is a prohibited weapon), or having your keys in your hands at the ready are also highly ineffective. If someone is sexually assaulted through coercion by an acquaintance or partner, these responses won't come into play. In addition, sexual assault is a shocking life event, and people react to this life event in all different sorts of ways. This may look like screaming, or running away, or fighting back. One of the most common reactions is freezing. If this is the reaction, it doesn't matter if you've your keys in your hand, if someone's initial physiological reaction to this stress is to freeze, it won't matter. Of course, everyone should do whatever they need to so that they feel safe. The problem with these tips comes in when people tell others to follow them to 'be safer' when research has shown them to be ineffective and very harmful to a victim's recovery process.
The most effective 'tip' for how to prevent sexual assault is to not perpetrate sexual assault. If no one perpetrated this crime, it would be eliminated. This again speaks towards how this violence is an offender variable, and only offenders can decrease the prevalence rates of sexual assault. Other ways to work towards preventing sexual violence is to know when sexual assault is and to raise awareness about how common it is. By speaking openly about this issue, victims will know that that'll be believed if and when they disclose, and perpetrators will know that people won't be silenced in this violence. By not questioning the victims behaviour and instead questioning the offenders (ie, "why did you've so much to drink?" vs. "why did you not stop when s/he indicated they the didn't wish to continue?"), victims will feel more comfortable coming forward with their stories. Other ways to get involved in decreasing this type of violence is to volunteer at a local sexual assault centre.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Sexual Assault'.
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