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Sexual assault is an act 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, which includes child sexual abuse, groping, rape, or the torture of the person in a sexual manner.
A proportion of 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 sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim. 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.
Marital rape or spousal rape is the act of sexual intercourse with one's spouse without the spouse's consent. The lack of consent is the essential element and need not involve physical violence. Marital rape is considered a form of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Although, historically, sexual intercourse within marriage was regarded as a right of spouses, engaging in the act without the spouse's consent is now widely classified as rape by many societies around the world, repudiated by international conventions, and increasingly criminalized.
A rape kit or rape test kit is a package of items used by medical personnel for gathering and preserving physical evidence following an 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.
Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature, 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 another race, ethnic group or religion.
Equality Now is a non-governmental organization founded in 1992 to advocate for the protection and promotion of the human rights of women and girls. Through a combination of regional partnerships, community mobilization and legal advocacy the organization works to encourage governments to adopt, improve and enforce laws that protect and promote women and girls' rights around the world.
Rape can be categorized in different ways: for example, by reference to the situation in which it occurs, by the identity or characteristics of the victim, and by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrator. These categories are referred to as types of rape. The types described below are not mutually exclusive: a given rape can fit into multiple categories, by for example being both a prison rape and a gang rape, or both a custodial rape and the rape of a child.
Rape by gender classifies types of rape by the sex and/or 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 in a physical, psychological, and sociological way. Even though the effects and aftermath of rape differentiate 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.
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assault against a small child, whereas sexual abuse is a term used for a persistent pattern of sexual assaults.
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually 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 used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.
Corrective rape, also called curative rape, as well as homophobic rape, is a hate crime in which one or more people are raped because of their perceived sexual orientation such as homosexuality or bisexuality. The common intended consequence of the rape, as claimed by the perpetrator, is to turn the person heterosexual.
The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement which is part of the movement seeking to combat violence against and the abuse of women. The movement seeks to change community attitudes to violence against women, such as attitudes of entitlement to sex and victim blaming, as well as attitudes of women themselves such as self-blame for violence against them. It also seeks to promote changes to rape laws or laws of evidence which enable rapists from avoid penalties because, for example, victims are discouraged from reporting assaults against them, or because the rapist is entitled to some immunity or because a rapist is capable in law of denigrating the victim. The movement has been successful in many jurisdictions, though many of these attitudes still persist in some jurisdictions, and despite changes to laws and significant increases in reporting of such assaults, in practice violence against women still persists at unacceptable high levels.
The rate of sexual violence in South Africa is among the highest recorded in the world. During 2015/16, there were 51,895 crimes of a sexual nature reported to the South African Police Service.
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.
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. It is observed in April.
Kuros is an American online retailer, based in Austin, Texas, that sells sportswear to women and men worldwide. The company was founded in 2013 by Kuro Tawil an entrepreneur from Austin who believes every woman has the right to defend themselves from crimes like assault and rape. The company sells products made in Nepal, with every Kuros product sold the company donates a can of pepper spray to at risk populations of women.
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.
References
- ↑ non-governmental organisation http://www.sanews.gov.za/south-africa/lotto-board-boosts-women-owned-charities Archived 2015-04-16 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "W.A.R calls for a War on Rape in SA | Cii Broadcasting". Archived from the original on 2015-07-17. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
- ↑ Anne (7 October 2007). "Boerewors Express - news for South African expats world-wide: Helping rape survivors". Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
- ↑ "Janine Rowley". Archived from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-04-07.
- ↑ "Shocking rape video goes viral in South Africa,says CNN". News24. 19 April 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
- ↑ Tawil, Kuro (23 March 2015). "Fighting the War on Women: South Africa 2015". HuffPost . Archived from the original on 2015-10-30. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
