William Henry Cosby Jr. is an American former comedian, actor, and media personality. He performed over a period of decades in film, television, and stand-up comedy, with his longest-running live-action role being that of Cliff Huxtable in the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992). He also released several stand-up comedy albums and was a popular spokesperson in advertising for decades. Cosby was well known in the United States for his fatherly image and gained a reputation as "America's Dad". Since 2014, dozens of allegations of sexual assault have been made against him, which has effectively ended his career and tarnished his legacy.
Sexual assault in the United States armed forces is an ongoing issue which has received extensive media coverage in the past. A 2012 Pentagon survey found that approximately 26,000 women and men were sexually assaulted that year; of those, only 3,374 cases were reported. In 2013, a new Pentagon report found that 5,061 troops reported cases of assault. Of the reported cases, only 484 cases went to trial; 376 resulted in convictions. Another investigation found that one in five women in the United States Air Force who were sexually assaulted by service members reported it, for one in 15 men.
Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. Sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser. Live streaming sexual abuse involves trafficking and coerced sexual acts, and/or rape, in real time on webcam.
Jennifer Joy Freyd is an American psychologist, researcher, author, educator, and speaker. Freyd is an extensively published scholar who is best known for her theories of betrayal trauma, DARVO, institutional betrayal, and institutional courage.
Jennifer Fox is an American film producer, director, cinematographer, and writer as well as president of A Luminous Mind Film Productions. She won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for her first feature documentary, Beirut: The Last Home Movie. Her 2010 documentary My Reincarnation had its premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2010, where it won a Top 20 Audience Award.
Elizabeth Laura Mullinar is a London-born former film casting consultant. She is one of the founders of Advocates for Survivors of Child Abuse and is the Founder of the Heal For Life Foundation and created the TREE Model of Trauma Recovery. Mullinar is regarded as an expert in the field of trauma. In 2019, she presented the TREE model at the International Congress of Trauma and Attachment alongside other trauma experts including American Psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel, and British Psychoanalyst Peter Fonagy OBE.
No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel is an autobiography by fashion model, photographer, author and talent agent Janice Dickinson. It was published in hardcover format in 2002 by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins. The author's friend make-up artist Way Bandy advised her to begin putting her past experiences down on paper as a form of therapy from prior trauma in her life. After gaining sobriety, she started compiling her notes into book format. She contacted book publisher Judith Regan who agreed to help her publish her book after hearing her tale on the phone, without first seeing a writing sample. In November 2014, Dickinson asserted in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that pressure from Bill Cosby and his lawyers resulted in the removal of an account of sexual assault and rape by Cosby when she visited him at a hotel in Lake Tahoe, California in 1982. After Cosby's attorney disputed this account, she reappeared on the program to proclaim she was telling the truth and explained she was speaking out publicly because of a need to be heard and to represent other women who stated they experienced a similar trauma.
In late 2014, multiple allegations emerged that Bill Cosby, an American media personality, had sexually assaulted dozens of women throughout his career. Cosby was well known in the United States for his eccentric image, and gained a reputation as "America's Dad" for his portrayal of Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show (1984–1992). He received numerous awards and honorary degrees throughout his career, many of which have since been revoked. There had been previous allegations against Cosby, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved.
The feminist pathways perspective is a feminist perspective of criminology which suggests victimization throughout the life course is a key risk factor for women's entry into offending.
After a sexual assault or rape, victims are often subjected to scrutiny and, in some cases, mistreatment. Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. If there is a criminal trial, victims suffer a loss of privacy, and their credibility may be challenged. Victims may also become the target of slut-shaming, abuse, social stigmatization, sexual slurs and cyberbullying. These factors, contributing to a rape culture, are among some of the reasons that may contribute up to 80% of all rapes going unreported in the U.S, according to a 2016 study done by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Betrayal trauma is defined as a trauma perpetrated by someone with whom the victim is close to and reliant upon for support and survival. The concept was originally introduced by Jennifer Freyd in 1994. Betrayal trauma theory (BTT), addresses situations when people or institutions on which a person relies for protection, resources, and survival violate the trust or well-being of that person. BTT emphasizes the importance of betrayal as a core antecedent of dissociation, implicitly aimed at preserving the relationship with the caregiver. BTT suggests that an individual, being dependent on another for support, will have a higher need to dissociate traumatic experiences from conscious awareness in order to preserve the relationship.
There have been many reported cases and accusations of sexual abuse in the American film industry reported against people related to the medium of cinema of the United States.
Julienne Lusenge is a Congolese human rights activist recognized for advocating for survivors of wartime sexual violence. She is co-founder and President of Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and director of the Congolese Women's Fund (FFC).
Sammy Woodhouse is an activist against child sexual abuse. She was a victim of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, which she helped expose by giving an anonymous interview to Andrew Norfolk of The Times. Woodhouse has actively supported pardoning child sexual abuse victims for crimes they were coerced into committing.
Chanel Miller is an American writer based in San Francisco, California and New York City. She was known anonymously after she was sexually assaulted on the campus of Stanford University in January 2015 by Brock Allen Turner. The following year, her victim impact statement at his sentencing hearing went viral after it was published online by BuzzFeed, being read 11 million times within four days. Miller was referred to as "Emily Doe" in court documents and media reports until September 2019, when she relinquished her anonymity and released her memoir Know My Name: A Memoir. The book won the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiographies and was named in several national book lists of the year. She is credited with sparking national discussion in the United States about the treatment of sexual assault cases and victims by college campuses and court systems, a topic she addresses as a public speaker.
Beechwood children's home was a care home for children in Mapperley in Nottinghamshire, England, where staff committed serious sexual and "sadistic" abuse against children spanning several decades before it closed in 2006. Some abusive staff received lengthy prison sentences.
Jessica Taylor is a British feminist author and campaigner. She wrote the 2020 book Why Women Are Blamed For Everything. She has made appearances on British television, including BBC Two documentary Womanhood, and in the true crime documentary My Lover, My Killer, which aired on Channel Five.
Meggie Royer is an American writer and artist.
Nobody's Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs, and Trolls is a 2019 book by Carrie Goldberg, co-written with Jeannine Amber. It describes incidents of sexual violence experienced by Goldberg's clients and herself, as well as other famous cases. The acts of violence include rape and sexual assault, revenge porn, "doxing", "swatting", "sextortion", and abusive messages. Goldberg categorizes perpetrators as "assholes", "psychos", "pervs" or "trolls" depending on their nature, though "assholes" was omitted in the book's subtitle to avoid profanity.
Kristen M. Gibbons Feden is an American attorney, legal analyst, and former Assistant District Attorney of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She is known for her legal work in sex crimes, civil rights, and elder abuse cases. She is best known for being one of the prosecutors working on the Bill Cosby sexual assault cases, prosecuting Cosby for three counts of aggravated indecent assault against Andrea Constand, resulting in his conviction in 2018.
