Sexual Assault - Research Paper Example

Sexual Assault Running Head: Sexual Assault SEXUAL ASSAULT: PART I Sexual Assault 2 Abstract This paper tackles the crime of sexual assault, its definition; an overview of what it is all about; the available direct statistics concerning the subject matter; the effects of sexual assault on the victim; where sexual assaults are commonly committed; the legal and civil remedies available to the victim; characteristics of the sex offender; and finally a literature review of sexual assault cases with an additional emphasis on cases where they are committed while the assailant and possibly the victim too is intoxicated with alcohol. SEXUAL ASSAULT Assault, in general, is defined in Criminal Law as any atttempt to use illegal force on another person. Sexual assault, which is a general term encompassing rape, sexual battery and sexual harassment, is the forcible, non-consensual subjection of a person into an unwanted sexual activity by the use of physical or emotional violence. It can be physical, verbal or visual (e.g voyeurism). Sexual assault statutes vary from state to state but basically it is based on the precept that no one has the right or the privilege to coerce sexual contact and that a person has the right to determine who may touch hiss/her body and “when and under what circumstances”. Moreover, “each person has the right not only to decide whether to engage in sexual contact with another, but also to control the circumstances and character of that contact” (Brody et al 2000, p.426). The act of sexual assault is consummated when the assailant has intended to perform forcible nonconsensual sexual contact but fails to actually complete the act (Lindemann & Kadue 1999, p. 373). Herein, a demarcation line is drawn between rape and sexual assault because on the basis of this definition, sexual assault is tantamount to attempted rape and sexual battery. Several studies on sexual assault have revealed that majority of such victims were preyed Sexual Assault 3 on by people known or even close to them and the common reason for the commission of the crime is not sexual gratification but the assertion of power and control over someone else. Also, sexual assault is committed overwhelmingly by men against women and children although there are also cases where men are victimized and cases where men are sexually assaulted by other men. One author kept one step ahead by suggesting that sexual assault has been institutionalized since time immemorial and that the culprit is patriarchy, which propagates male gender domination favoring man’s power to exploit without legal restraint women and children “whose consent is mainly taken for granted unless actively withheld and whose communications are consistently devalued or misinterpreted because of patriarchal values and assumptions” (Pickard et al 2002, p.542). Many state laws are also one in affirming that to convict the sexual assailant, it must be proven beyond reasonable doubt that “there was sexual penetration and that it was accomplished without the affirmative and freely-given permission of the alleged victim” (Brody 2000, p.426). The United Nations has meanwhile, strongly condemned sexual assault and rape in the strongest possible terms by declaring them as violative of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and of the laws and customs of war (i.e sexual assaults in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tibet and Timor Leste). It also considered them as crimes against humanity and certainly a genocide (e.g. for mass rapes). Furthermore, the UN by applying the principle of criminal responsibility, has declared that superiors who knew and had the power to stop sexual assaults and yet turned mute and blind to them should also be criminally liable for sexual assaults (Annex II, p.1). Sexual Assault 4 Literature Review Literature all over the world abounds with horrid stories of sexual assaults. Whether in America, Europe, Asia or Australia, sexual assault cases are well-documented. RAINN or Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, the National Center for Victims of Crime, National Sexual Violence Resource Center, National Alliance to End Sexual Violence all labor hard to document the world with sexual assault cases as well as find means to deter sexual assaults through social and legal means and come to the aid of the traumatized victim. It had been emphasized that rape in many jurisdictions have been replaced with the crime of sexual assault. Same thing happens to sodomy, incest, fondling, child molestation, acts of lasciviousness and exhibitionism (The National Center for Victims of Crime). Thus when literature refers to sexual assault, it may cover any of the above crimes. The different literature reviews also clarify at the outset that sexual assault can be perpetrated not only through violence but also by threats or coercion, deception, compulsion or manipulation. The basic thing is that the victim doesn’t conform or consent to the act. There is no consent when the victim is threatened, coerced, doped, rendered unconscious, asleep or drunk, a minor, mentally incapacitated, disabled or hoodwinked to undergo a medical test or procedure which involves touching of the sexual organs in a lascivious, unprofessional manner (The Law, Your Rights). The statistics on sexual assault proffered by various literature are mind boggling. RAINN disclosed that 17.7 million American women have been victimized by sexual assailants, of which 80% of the victims are white (RAINN). It was claimed that in 2006 alone, there were 272,350 such victims and that for every 2 minutes, someone is sexually assaulted. Of the US population, 16.6% of women experienced rape while 3% males went through completed or Sexualt Assault 5 attempted rape (RAINN). Moreover, one in 6 rape victims are below 12 years of age, while one in two are below 18 (US Department of Justice). Majority of rape victims (73%) had been found to know their assailants who are either husbands or boyfriends (28%), other relatives (5%) and acquaintances (35%). Only 31% of women victims disclosed that their assailants were strangers (Bureau of Justice Statistics). One sour note is that only one in 10 sexual assaults are being divulged to the police and the rationale behind is that many victims consider it a private matter and they feel embarassed, terrified and guilty to let anyone know about it (The Law, Your Right). It is also divulged that many sexual assaults occur during acquaintance trysts or dates (30%) (Tru TV Crime Library) and many others in school campuses where 32-45% of female college students have admitted undergoing “coerced sexual advances” (Roberts 2005, p.157). But the one bombshell that resonated so loudly was the finding of rampant but stifled sexual assault cases of women and men in the military (Women’s News 2008). The Tailhook convention uncovered the military Pandora’s box as 83 women and 7 men bared that they had been sexually assaulted by military airmen in 1991 (Feminist Law Professors 2007). To further rub salt into the military’s wounds, military doctors divulged that 4 in 10 women at the military veterans hospital underwent sexual assault (CNN.com 2008). In 2004 alone, there were 1,700 known cases of sexual assault that included “rape, nonconsensual sodomy and indecent assault” (Tyson 2005, p.A03). Literature also teems with tales of traumatizing effects of sexual assault. There is tension and fear brought about by possibility of acquiring AIDS or HIV, venereal disease and worse, pregnancy. Others were documented to have suffered a fear of sexual intercourse which might Sexual Assault 6 last forever (Clarkson 2005, p.208). Other effects are depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, social withdrawal, nightmares, loss of self-esteem, guilt, suicide contemplation, drug and alcohol abuse, loss of appetite, impaired memory, psychological disorders, insomnia, self-mutilation and panic attacks (Barbaree & Marshall 2008, p.1). Because of the life-threatening essence and traumatic impact of sexual assault, most nations have risen to the occasion by conferring legal and civil remedies to such victims. The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 cushioned the dire after-effects of women victims as well as provided safety for women in virtually all public places and most importantly furnished criminal justice support for them (Roberts 2002, p.19). The Victims of Crime Act, on the other hand, supported “prosecution-based victim-witness assistance for all sexual assault victims” (Roberts 2002, p.20). Findings about the identities of the sexual offenders are quite disturbing as 23% of all sexual assault offenders are under 18 years of age and 16% of youthful offenders are below the age of 12. It is also found out that many of these sexual offenders were once sexually abused as children and many are products of broken homes and lousy parenting (Hall 2008, pp. 420-1). Another study that would surely raise eyebrows is the report that rape and other sexual acts are “accepted behaviors in western society”. One study revealed that “4% of male American college students reported some likelihood that they would rape and another that 35% of men would rape if they thought they would not get caught (Sampson 1993, p.10). It is also noteworthy that incidence of sexual assault is higher in the West than any other region on earth Sexual Assault 7 especially Asia where women wield lesser powers than men. But such insinuation of men’s insecurity with women’s gains of power and station in life doesn’t hold true in date rapes where rapists boast of their “sexual performance during the act “ (Sampson 1993, p.10). The most shocking revelation however, is that sexual assault offenders regard themselves as the real victims of the crime; that they are merely set up by the victim, who askedfor sex and merited it; that they are victims of circumstances, such as being placed in the position of being alone with the alleged victim and happened to experience sexual arousal; that they shouldn’t be blamed because they were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs and it is these that brought about their sexually aggressive behavior (Johnson 2006, pp. 96-7). The use of alcohol and/or drugs in sexual assault crimes are lately now the subject of several studies. They are not only used by the assailants to erase whatever shame and guilt left in them and to numb them emotionally but also to intoxicate the victim and thus impair her resistance and make her vulnerable to sexual victimization and to her own feelings of guilt (Johnson 2006, p.96). The statistics show the alarming fact that roughly 70% of abusers are under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time they abuse (Johnson 2006, p.67); that “intoxicated subjects responded more aggressively than did the sober subjects” (Weisman & Taylor 1994, p.70); that roughly “50% of violent crimes involve an offender and/or victim who has been drinking” (Murdoch, Pihl & Ross, 1990); that “heavy drinking was more common in dates where sexual Sexual Assault 8 assault occurred” (Muehlenhard & Linton 1987, p.186); that “even low amounts of alcohol may lead to some individuals becoming more aggressive” (Pihl & Peterson 1993a, p.186); that aggressiveness is at its “highest for the moderate dose rather than the high dose” (Kreutzer, Schneider & Myatt 1984, p.275). Another study on the effect of alcohol in college students revealed that wine doesn’t produce sexual aggressiveness. However, vodka does and distilled beverages rather than brewed beverages produce even more sexual aggression (Gustafson 1991, p.258). Research studies have come up to correlate sexual assaults in college campuses with alcohol intake of college students. Alcohol is found out to be big business in campuses as in 1992 alone $5.5 billion were spent on alcohol alone (Eigen, 1991). The university years are a “time of extremely high risk for…rape…and other untoward events related to substance use and abuse” (Rivinus 1992). And the sad thing is that it is accepted as one way of coping with college stress never mind if it causes sexual aggression facilitating sexual assaults. At a Brown University study, it was reported that date rapes are associated with alcohol and/or drug use. “Of the 5 cases of acquaintance rapes one case documented that both victim and the victimizer were under the influence of intoxicating substances” (Whitaker & Pollard 1993, p.75). Many studies are one in saying that young males who reported antisocial attitudes and aggressive tendencies “were more likely to commit assaults when drinking large quantities of alcohol” (Levinson 2002, p.11). Alcohol use becomes a dangerous component to the alcohol user who has mental health problems as its use increases the risk of violent behavior (Levinson 2002, p. 13). Alcohol user or sexually aggressive, man still has a free will and with that he can choose whether to opt for evil or good. Sexual Assault 9 REFERENCES Annex II. Rape and sexual assault: a legal study. www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/II.htm-39k. Barbaree, H., Marshall,W (2008) The juvenile sex offender, Guilford Press. Brody, David & Acker, James & Logan, Wayne (2000). Criminal law. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Bureau of Justice Statistics (1994) Violence against women, US Department of Justice. Clarkson, C (2005) Understanding criminal law, Sweet & Maxwell. CNN.com (2008) Sexual assault in military. www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/31/military.sexabuse/index.html-83k Department of Justice (1992) Child rape victims. Eigen, LD (1991) Alcohol practices, policies and potentials of American colleges and Universities. Office For Substance Abuse Prevention White Paper, Rockville, Md., US Department of Health. Feminist Law Professors (2007) Sexual asssault. Feminstlawprofs.law.sc.edu/?p=2528-141. Gustafson, R (1991) Male physical aggression as function of alcohol. Int. J Addict, vol.26,issue3 Hall, H (2008) Forensic psychology and neuropsychology for criminal and civil cases, CRP Press. Kreutzer, JS., Schneider,HG., Myatt, CR (1984) Alcohol, assertion and aggressiveness in men. J Stud Alcohol, vol. 45,issue 3, pp.275-8. Johnson, SA (2006) Physical abusers and sexual ofenders, CRC Press. The Law, Your Right. Sexual assault. http://www.legalaid.vic.gov.au/upload/cl.sexual_assault.pdf. Levinson,D (2002) Encyclopedia of crime and punishment, SAGE Publishing. Lindemann, Barbara & Kadue, David (1999) Sexual harassment in employment law, BNA Books. Muehlenhard, CL., Linton, MA (1987) Date rape and sexual aggression, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 4(2), 186-196. Murdoch, D., Pihl, RO., Ross, D (1990) Alcohol use and crimes of violence, SAGE. National Center for Victims of Crime (2008) Sexual assault. http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/main.aspx?dbName=DocumentViewer&DocumentID=32369 Pihl,RO.,Peterson,JB (1993) Alcohol, serotonin and aggression, Alcohol Health and Research World, 17, 113-115. Pickard, Toni & Goldman, Philip & Cairns-Way, Rosemary & Mohr, Renate (2002). Dimensions Of Criminal Law, Emond Montgomery Publication. RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network). Sexual assault statistics Rivinus, TM (1992) College age substance abuse, College Student Development, New York:The Haworth Press. Roberts, A (2005) Ending intimate abuse, Oxford University Press. Roberts, A & Fields,M (2002) Handbook of domestic violence intervention strategies, Oxford University Press. Sampson, A (1993) Acts of abuse:sex ofenders and the criminal justice system, Routledge. TruTV Crime Library (2008) Criminal minds and methods. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/sexual_assault. Tyson, a (2005) Reported cases of sexual assault in military increase. The Washington Post, Saturday, May 7, 2005. Weisman, AM., Taylor, SP Effect of alcohol and risk of physical harm on human physical aggression, Journal of General Psychology, 121(!), 67-75. Whitaker, L., Pollard, J (1993) Campus violence, kinds, causes and cures, Haworth Press. Women’s News (2008) Sexual assault pervasive in the military. www.womensnews.org/article.cfm?aid=1273-20k. Read More