Date Rape: The Factors, History And Preventions

Pondering about date rape isn’t the most pleasant thing to do, but necessary when willing to protect oneself and the people they love. “25% of the revealed date rape assaults are done by somebody near the person in question, for example, a current or ex or sweetheart, or even an ex-mate” (Santora, 2018). Date rape is a type of associate assault and dating brutality. Prime characteristics of this violent crime are manipulation, violence, pressure, abuse of substances, threats, amongst many others. Furthermore, consent is to be discussed as the focal point in “date rape” crimes. If the victim clearly or even vaguely expressed in any form, verbal or physical, rejection towards the sexual advances by the offender or is unconscious to do so, and the offender disregarded such warnings or flags, the principle of consent was violated and undermined, resulting in the criminal act of “date rape”. The two expressions are regularly utilized conversely, yet date rape explicitly alludes to an assault where there has been a type of sentimental or possibly sexual connection between the two gatherings. Date rape done by a peer additionally incorporates assaults in which the person in question and culprit have been in a non-sentimental, non-sexual relationship, for instance as co-workers or neighbors. Date rape is especially present on college campuses, where it as often as possible happens in circumstances including liquor or other date rape drugs. The thing about date rape is that it is most oftenly done by someone known to the victim, making it hard to expect that something like this would happen to somebody. Date rape mostly happens among undergrads when liquor is involved, or date rape pills are taken. One of the most targeted ages for ladies are between the ages of 16 to 24. The idea of date assault is moderately new. Truly, date rape has been viewed as less genuine than assault by a stranger, be that as it may, since the 1980s, it has been progressively comprehended to be a genuine societal issue that establishes most of assaults in certain nations.

To understand and know the history of date rape we first have to look at the origins of rape as well as men and their actions. Rape caused by men to women has been known to exist since the beginning of time across all cultures and throughout history. Rape has been known to occur in all kinds of species. From mammals to insects. In the animal kingdom, male animals’ rape to maximize their chances of spreading their genes. It has been researched that male chimpanzees use intimidation and aggression to mate with females’ chimpanzees. The public became aware of rape with the publication of Brownmiller’s book called Against our will: Men, women, and rape. This book talks about how men keep women in a state of intimidation and fear by dominating in economics, politics, and other careers. There are various types of rape like war rape, prison rape, statutory rape, date rape, between others. Date rape is especially controversial to society because it occurs within a relationship.

When looking at the internal and external stakeholders of date rape, one may be surprised to find that the crime not only affects the lives of the victims, but nearly everyone around them as well. A breakdown of those involved in date rape would include the rapist, the victim, the victim’s loved ones, as well as anyone else the victim decides to share their experience with. It is seemingly obvious how the victim and rapist would be involved in the crime, but when it comes to surrounding parties, like the victim’s loved ones, the relationship is not as direct.

Because date rape is committed by a significant other, more often than not, the individual is in shock as to what took place and needs time to register what happened. This may cause changes in the victim’s behavior, like depression and isolation, which may cause those around them to behave or react to these changes differently as well; some may not know how to help the victim, so they just stop interacting with them entirely. Moreover, it may take time to open up about such an experience and some individuals might even feel a bit of embarrassment, so when an individual finds the strength and courage to finally share their experience with family and/or friends, it is important that they are listened to attentively and given all the support that they need. Because there is always the risk of not being believed by family and friends, or they don’t feel the need to take the situation as serious as it needs to be taken, this can, in turn, cause the individual to feel estranged and helpless; essentially creating an unhealthy environment in which it is difficult for the victim to adjust following the crime.

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These internal and external stakeholders can contribute to both the problem and solution in crime and criminal justice because any of these responses towards an individual after listening to them share their experience can either influence them to stand up for themselves and their rights and seek justice or cause them to feel more down and out and send them into a deeper depth of depression. Furthermore, one way these relationships between the victim and these external parties could be helpful to these crimes in terms of criminal justice would be raising awareness. Victims and their families or loved ones could help raise awareness of these crimes as well as encourage more leaders and institutions to teach others about the significance of consent, and how important that concept is, even within a romantic relationship. Once there is a universal understanding of what proper consent is, there will be no more loopholes for the rapists to get through and avoid proper punishment, and no more making excuses in support of these acts no matter the circumstances, because everyone will know that consent is something that must be given, each time, and not something to be expected.

In cases dealing with rape the victim will most of the time go through a traumatic feeling and will distance herself from everyone around her. They will start having a scenario where they’ll be depressed, discomfort, and it can even lead to suicidal thoughts. Studies show that these victims tend to not even speak up about what they went through and keep silent since they believe that nobody will believe them or be blamed for the traumatic event. Most of the people that commit the crime go unpunished which is another reason why the injured person doesn’t seek out any type of help. Studies also show that the chances of going through a sexual assault increases once the victim has gone through that matter. It’s even more tragic that if you’re an undergraduate it can happen to you even more than usual at a shorter period of time than other victims. The victim can be male or female just depending in the situation. Research shows that males tend to do sexual activity in any means necessary by forcing a female into sex which would fall into the category of rape. Although less likely in a physical forceful way, females also have sexual assaulted but in verbal persuasion. The attributes when it comes to rape shows the responsibility is more towards the rapist and the fault to the victim are often low.

Rape is defined as sexual intercourse or activities against a person will, with a person that in underage or a person that hasn’t provided consent due to a number of serious reasons. While researching rape statistics the number of statics in the U.S alone were concerning. In just the U.S, at one point in their lives, one out of five females will be raped. The term to really look at is will be. Statistically speaking that can still be avoided. Rape is the most under-reported crime; 63% of sexual assaults are not reported to police, according to Get Statistics. It makes one wonder why? Survivors of rape or date rape don’t always come forward to report the crime. As stated by the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault, A survivor’s relationship with the offender has a strong effect on the likelihood of reporting. As students studying criminal justice, we should find ways to reach out and protect people and help the victims. Train more personal on signs of someone who has survived sexual abuse and may be threatened or afraid to come forward.

Some solutions to the prevent date rape from happening include the usage of items that can be put in the liquid that one is drinking that can detect if the drink has been drugged, not accepting drinks from others, campaigns to teach about date rape and how to prevent it, campaigns that spread awareness about it, and many other more things can be done in order to see the number of people affected by date rape decrease over time. The main thing to do is spreading awareness about date rape and how it happens and what are some necessary steps to take in order to prevent it from happening to oneself. By spreading awareness people will be more educated about how horrible date rape is and injustice will decrease in date rape cases and more people will be helped because more people are informed about the topic.

There has been sometimes injustice in trials by the accused not being charged appropriately and by spreading awareness more people will hopefully act correctly now that they know how horrible it is and will help does who are affected by date rape. There have also been companies that have made items that are made to detect if one’s drink has been drugged in the case that the person feels like their drink could have been drugged and prevent anything bad from happening to the person. Making these items more accessible to people would drastically help decrease the numbers of date rape and other horrible crimes.

Citations/References

1. An Updated Definition of Rape. (2017, April 07). Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/blog/updated-definition-rape
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3. England, D. C. (2014, June 24). Date Rape. Retrieved from https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/date-rape.htm
4. Get Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nsvrc.org/node/4737
5. Grubb, A., & Harrower, J. (2009). Understanding attribution of blame in cases of rape: Ananalysis of participant gender, type of rape and perceived similarity to the victim. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 15(1), 63–81https://doi-org.db16.linccweb.org/10.1080/13552600802641649
6. Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://mcasa.org/
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8. P, Kim. “Date Rape Statistics.” CreditDonkey, 22 Aug. 2018, www.creditdonkey.com/date-rape-statistics.html.
9. Santora, Tara. “All about 'Date Rape' Drugs.” Scienceline, 19 Dec. 2018, scienceline.org/2018/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-date-rape-drugs/.
10. Vagianos, A., & Vagianos, A. (2017, April 06). 30 Alarming Statistics That Show The Reality Of Sexual Violence In America. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sexual-assault-statistics_n_58e24c14e4b0c777f788d24f