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Unacknowledged rape is defined as a sexual experience that meets the legal definition of rape, but is not labeled as rape by the victim, either at the time or afterward. [1] This response is more frequently recognized among victims of acquaintance rape, date rape or marital rape.
The definition of rape has varied across time and cultures.
In 2013, the legal definition in the U.S. changed to “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.” [2]
Advocates against sexual assault argued that rape does not just occur by strangers, but may also involve acquaintances, partners, friends, and potentially even family members. Despite this social evolution, many victims still fail to acknowledge their experience as an assault. [3]
According to a 2015 study of 5,917 female victims, 60.4% of those that experienced sexual victimization did not acknowledge it as rape. [4] Different situations warrant different likelihoods of acknowledged rape. A victim is much more likely to acknowledge a rape if the perpetrator was a stranger or somebody with whom they have a platonic relationship. The rate of acknowledgement is typically lower if the perpetrator is somebody that the victim was once or currently romantically involved with.
Research suggests that women have a difficult time acknowledging date or partner rape due to previously learned sexual or rape scripts. [5] Sexual scripts are stereotypes told about rape, which limit understandings of assault. These scripts can be held at a cultural level, interpersonal level, or intrapersonal level. [6] Rape scripts also narrow down one's idea of what sexual assault is, prompting one to not acknowledge what happened to them. If one's experience does not fall into this narrow category, they may mislabel it. The word "rape" is a very loaded word. Many people are hesitant about using it to describe their experience unless it fits the rape script.
Some research suggests that there is correlation between unacknowledged rape and childhood sexual abuse. Childhood sexual abuse is linked to many long-term issues in many areas of life. [7] Some believe that sexual scripts begin to develop during adverse childhood experiences. CSA is often linked to guilt, sexual permissiveness, and the self-perception of being promiscuous. [8] Although there are no conclusive case studies, this is a factor that can be taken into account.
Counterfactual thinking occurs when an individual mentally morphs, restructures, or changes events. It is possible that unacknowledged rape victims use counterfactual thinking to cognitively reorganize the experience into something other than rape.Victims that exhibit counterfactual thinking typically reorganize their thought patterns by thinking of ways the situation could have been worse. Others think about ways they could have prevented the situation from occurring instead of thinking about the experience itself. [9]
Individuals who are raped by strangers are more likely to acknowledge their status as a rape victim. Conversely, individuals who are raped by acquaintances, friends, or significant others are more likely to be unacknowledged rape victims. Approximately 2/3 of assaults are committed by someone who knows the victim and 38% of assaults are committed by a friend of the victim. [10] Acquaintance rape is highly prevalent and represents the majority of sexual assault cases. Therefore, a majority of victims are at an increased likelihood of being unacknowledged.
If an individual is willingly under the influence of alcohol or drugs, they are less likely to acknowledge the event as a rape. One study found that less than 10% of women who were intoxicated acknowledged their experience as rape. Another study found that over 50% of unacknowledged victims report being under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the event while only approximately 25% of acknowledged victims report being impaired by a substance. [11]
Unacknowledged rapes can skew the validity of statistics regarding criminal behavior. Reputable reports such as the FBI violent crime report rely upon crimes reported to law enforcement to construct their statistics. A recent study estimated that 734,630 people were raped in the year of 2018. [12] However, the crime must be reported to be included in this report. Only 230 out of every 1,000 rapes are reported to law enforcement officials. [13] If a victim does not acknowledge the assault, they do not acknowledge that a crime has been committed against them. If there is no crime, there is nothing to report to the police. For this reason, it is understood that such reports underestimate the prevalence of sex crimes. Studies regarding unacknowledged rape also call into question whether or not the current line of communication between victim and law enforcement officer yields the most success. When investigating reported assaults, the protocol is for the officer to ask, "Were you raped?" However, it has been found that people reporting rapes respond better to behaviorally descriptive questions such as "Did the perp (insert action) without your consent?". Unfortunately, not acknowledging a rape makes it much harder to prosecute. If a rape eventually becomes acknowledged and a report is made, the report is considered delayed. A delayed report makes conducting an examination for a rape kit impossible. Because jurors can also hold rape myths, a delayed report is often viewed in a negative light.
There is inconclusive evidence regarding the effects of a rape that remains unacknowledged. Those who do not acknowledge their assaults often face similar issues to those who do acknowledge their assaults. Unacknowledged rape victims face a higher likelihood of re-victimization, especially in the case of a date rape where the victim holds a continued relationship with the assailant. Lower risk detection capacities and higher alcohol consumption are associated with unaddressed rapes. It has been found that the more time that passes, the more likely a victim is to acknowledge their rape. The prevalence of PTSD is where evidence is rendered inconclusive. Some studies report lower PTSD levels in comparison to victims who have acknowledged their rape, while others report the same or higher levels.
Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence that includes child sexual abuse, groping, rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, and the torture of the person in a sexual manner.
Acquaintance rape is rape that is perpetrated by a person who knows the victim. Examples of acquaintances include someone the victim is dating, a classmate, co-worker, employer, family member, spouse, counselor, therapist, religious official, or medical doctor. Acquaintance rape includes a subcategory of incidents labeled date rape that involves people who are in romantic or sexual relationships with each other. When a rape is perpetrated by a college student on another student, the term campus rape is sometimes used.
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.
Sexual violence is any harmful or unwanted sexual act—or attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion—or an act directed against a person's sexuality without their consent, by any individual regardless of their relationship to the victim. This includes forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed, and may be physical, psychological, or verbal. It occurs in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread, and is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations.
Prison rape commonly refers to the rape of inmates in prison by other inmates or prison staff. In 2001, Human Rights Watch estimated that at least 4.3 million inmates had been raped while incarcerated in the United States. A United States Department of Justice report, Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, states that "In 2011–12, an estimated 4.0% of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2% of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months." However, advocates dispute the accuracy of the numbers, saying they seem to under-report the real numbers of sexual assaults in prison, especially among juveniles.
Rape culture is a setting, as described by some sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to that setting's attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-shaming, sexual objectification, trivializing rape, denial of widespread rape, refusing to acknowledge the harm caused by sexual violence, or some combination of these. It has been used to describe and explain behavior within social groups, including prison rape and in conflict areas where war rape is used as psychological warfare. Entire societies have been alleged to be rape cultures.
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 traumatic experience that affects the victim (survivor) in a physical, psychological, and sociological way. Even though the effects and aftermath of rape differ among victims, individuals tend to suffer from similar issues found within these three categories. Long-term reactions may involve the development of coping mechanisms that will either benefit the victim, such as social support, or inhibit their recovery. Seeking support and professional resources may assist the victim in numerous ways.
Statistics on rape and other acts of sexual assault are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.
Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time. Most available data underestimate crime before the 1930s, giving the false impression that crime was low in the early 1900s and had a sharp rise after. Instead, violent crime during the colonial period was likely three times higher than the highest modern rates in the data we have, and crime had been on the decline since colonial times. Within the better data for crime reporting and recording available starting in the 1930s, crime reached its broad, bulging modern peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005–2006, 2014–2016 and 2020–2021. As of July 1, 2024 violent crime was down and homicides were on pace to drop to 2015 levels by the end of the year.
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.
Victimisation is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology.
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.
Campus sexual assault is the sexual assault, including rape, of a student while attending an institution of higher learning, such as a college or university. The victims of such assaults are more likely to be female, but any gender can be victimized. Estimates of sexual assault, which vary based on definitions and methodology, generally find that somewhere between 19–27% of college women and 6–8% of college men are sexually assaulted during their time in college.
Rape schedule is a concept in feminist theory used to describe the notion that women are conditioned to place restrictions on and/or make alterations to their daily lifestyles and behaviours as a result of constant fear of sexual assault. These altered behaviours may occur consciously or unconsciously.
Sexual assault of LGBT people, also known as sexual and gender minorities (SGM), is a form of violence that occurs within the LGBT community. While sexual assault and other forms of interpersonal violence can occur in all forms of relationships, it is found that sexual minorities experience it at rates that are equal to or higher than their heterosexual counterparts. There is a lack of research on this specific problem for the LGBT population as a whole, but there does exist a substantial amount of research on college LGBT students who have experienced sexual assault and sexual harassment.
People with disabilities face 1.5 times more violence than people without disabilities. The perpetrators are often people known to the person with disabilities, such as their partners, family members, friends, or acquaintances. It is estimated that 15% of the world's population lives with disability and are more likely to be poor and socially excluded. Thus violence against people with disabilities has many dimensions.
Research consistently shows that the majority of rape and other sexual assault victims do not report their attacks to law enforcement. Reasons for not reporting include fear of reprisal, shame, uncertainty about whether a crime was committed, or a belief that an incident was not sufficiently serious enough to report. As a result, researchers generally rely on surveys to measure sexual violence that is not reported to the police. Estimates of campus sexual assault measured on surveys vary across populations and over time, however a recent review concluded that a "reasonable average" of around 1 in 5 (20%) of women were sexually assaulted during their time in college. And although much of the research on sexual assault has focused on college campuses, there is evidence that non-students of the same age are actually at higher risk than college students.
A juvenile sex crime is defined as a legally proscribed sexual crime committed without consent by a minor under the age of 18. The act involves coercion, manipulation, a power imbalance between the perpetrator and victim, and threats of violence. The sexual offenses that fall under juvenile sex crimes range from non-contact to penetration. The severity of the sexual assault in the crime committed is often the amount of trauma and/or injuries the victim has suffered. Typically within these crimes, female children are the majority demographic of those targeted and the majority of offenders are male. Juvenile sex offenders are different than adult sex offenders in a few ways, as captured by National Incident Based Reporting System: they are more likely to be committed in school, offend in groups and against acquaintances, target young children as victims, and to have a male victim, whereas they are less likely than their adult counterpart to commit rape.
Secondary victimisation refers to further victim-blaming from criminal justice authorities following a report of an original victimisation.
