Panayiota Bertzikis | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 7, 1981 Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  United States Coast Guard |
Panayiota Bertzikis is an author, public speaker, and women's rights activist. [1]
Panayiota Bertzikis | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 7, 1981 Thessaloniki, Greece |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service | United States Coast Guard |
Panayiota Bertzikis is an author, public speaker, and women's rights activist. [1]
Panayiota Bertzikis is a United States Coast Guard veteran who founded the Military Rape Crisis Center in August 2006 while she was still on active duty. The Military Rape Crisis Center provides medical advocacy, support groups, legal services, case management, community education, and professional training to victims of military sexual trauma [2] while fighting gender-based violence. [1]
Bertzikis made claims of being sexually assaulted by a shipmate while serving in the United States Coast Guard in Burlington, Vermont and saw a lack of support and no substantial steps being made to investigate the matter from the authorities after her assault. [2] [3] After her discharge from the Coast Guard for failure to adjust, [4] she was awarded the Unsung Heroines of Massachusetts award by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women in May 2010. [5] [6] [7]
Bertzikis also runs the blog mydutytospeak.com. She has been awarded the Peter Vogel Gold Leadership Award (twice) and the Peter Vogel Silver Leadership Award. [8]
Some victims of rape or other sexual violence incidents are male. Historically, rape was thought to be, and defined as, a crime committed solely against females. This belief is still held in some parts of the world, but rape of males is now commonly criminalized and has been subject to more discussion than in the past.
A rape kit or rape test kit is a package of items used by medical, police or other personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence following an instance or allegation of sexual assault. The evidence collected from the victim can aid the criminal rape investigation and the prosecution of a suspected assailant. DNA evidence can have tremendous utility for sexual assault investigations and prosecution by identifying offenders, revealing serial offenders through DNA matches across cases, and exonerating those who have been wrongly accused.
In scholarly literature and criminology, gang rape, also called serial gang rape, party rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape, is the rape of a single victim by two or more violators. Gang rapes are forged on shared identity, religion, ethnic group, or race. There are multiple motives for serial gang rapes, such as for sexual entitlement, asserting sexual prowess, war, punishment, and, in up to 30% of cases, for targeting racial minorities, religious minorities, or ethnic groups.
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.
Rape by gender classifies types of rape by the sex and gender of both the rapist and the victim. This scope includes both rape and sexual assault more generally. Most research indicates that rape affects women disproportionately, with the majority of people convicted being men; however, since the broadening of the definition of rape in 2012 by the FBI, more attention is being given to male rape, including females raping males.
Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is below the legal age of consent. The term rape is sometimes casually inaccurately used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.
As defined by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, military sexual trauma (MST) are experiences of sexual assault, or repeated threatening sexual harassment that occurred while a person was in the United States Armed Forces.
The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement which is part of the movement seeking to combat violence against and the abuse of women.
Rape in the United States is defined by the United States Department of Justice as "Penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim." While definitions and terminology of rape vary by jurisdiction in the United States, the FBI revised its definition to eliminate a requirement that the crime involve an element of force.
The Victim Rights Law Center (VRLC) is a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to victims of rape and sexual assault in Massachusetts and Oregon. Established in 2003, it became the first nonprofit law center in the United States solely dedicated to serving the legal needs of sexual assault victims. The VRLC mission is to "provide legal representation to victims of rape and sexual assault to help rebuild their lives and to promote a national movement committed to seeking justice for every rape and sexual assault victim." VRLC also seeks to transform the legal response to sexual assault in the United States.
Rape by deception is a situation in which the perpetrator deceives the victim into participating in a sexual act to which they would otherwise not have consented, had they not been deceived. Deception can occur in many forms, such as illusory perceptions, false statements, and false actions.
Nancy Schwartzman is an American documentary filmmaker, human rights activist, and member of the Directors Guild of America, and The Academy.
Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is an annual campaign to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence in the United States. It is observed in April.
The Invisible War is a 2012 American documentary film written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering and Tanner King Barklow about sexual assault in the United States military. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the U.S. Documentary Audience Award. The film has been lauded by advocates, lawmakers, and journalists for its influence on government policies to reduce the prevalence of rape in the armed forces.
Annie Elizabeth Clark is a women's rights and civil rights activist in the United States. She was one of the lead complainants of the 2013 Title IX and Clery Act charges lodged against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, claiming that the institution violated the law by the way they handled sexual assault complaints. Clark and Andrea Pino, then a fellow UNC student and also a victim of sexual assault, launched a nationwide campaign to use Title IX complaints to force U.S. universities to address sexual assault and related problems more aggressively. Clark is co-founder with Pino of End Rape on Campus, an advocacy group for victims of campus sexual assault.
Rape in Egypt is a criminal offense with penalties ranging from lifetime sentence to capital punishment. Marital rape is legal. By 2008, the U.N. quoted Egypt's Interior Ministry's figure that 20,000 rapes take place every year, although according to the activist Engy Ghozlan (ECWR), rapes are 10 times higher than the stats given by Interior Ministry, making it 200,000 per year. Mona Eltahawy has also noted the same figure (200,000), and added that this was before the revolution.
Rebecca Nagle is an Native American activist, writer, public speaker. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. Nagle is one of the founders of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, an organization led by artists and activists dedicated to promoting a culture of consent. Nagle has also served as a coordinator of the event "Pink Loves Consent."
#HimToo is a social movement supporting male victims of sexual assault and false rape allegations. The reaction to the #MeToo movement started in October 2018 after a tweet from a mother about her son being afraid to date because of a climate of false rape allegations. It rose to greater prominence during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination. The #HimToo movement was a response to the sexual assault allegations from the #MeToo movement.
Iris Stern Levi is an Israeli social activist focused on issues of women's and human rights. She is co-founder of the non-profit organizations Her Academy (2016) and Turning the Tables (2011), both of which work to provide vocational training for women who are survivors of prostitution and violence. Stern Levi is also on the board of Coalition of Women for Peace, co-director of the Testimony Tribunal of Women Victims of Sexual Assault, and was the volunteer coordinator for the Tel Aviv Sexual Assault Crisis Center for 16 years. She is the recipient of the 2018 Sussman-Joint Award.
Malya Villard-Appolon is a Haitian activist for women's rights and domestic violence prevention. She is the cofounder of the Commission of Women Victims for Victims (KOFAVIV), an organization that provides services and support to victims of violence against women in Haiti.
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