psychology
ELLERBEE1
SexualAssaultRape.pptxSexual Harassment/Assault, Rape & Rape Culture
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Terms
Sexual harassment – harassment using explicit or implicit sexual overtones. These include a range of actions from verbal behavior to sexual abuse or assault
Sexual Assault – sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim (attempted rape, unwanted sexual touching, forcing a victim to perform sex acts like oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator, rape)
Rape – sexual penetration without consent.
This means that all acts of rape are sexual assault, but not all sexual assaults are rape. These definitions are often based on legal definitions, not psychological ones. Each state defines rape slightly differently.
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Sexual Harassment
What about our expectation of gender roles makes people laugh when they see this image on the left….instead of seeing it as sexual harassment. His look is indicating shock and discomfort…and yet many of us don’t attribute that to him. Thanks to our expectations of gender roles.
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Sexual Harassment
Two types of behaviors are considered harassment:
Explicit
Abuse of power for sexual favors
Not explicit
Creation of a “hostile environment”
Why does sexual harassment occur?
An attempt to make the workplace unpleasant for a coworker/subordinate who is unwanted
A way of ‘keeping people in their place’ or making them feel vulnerable
Unwanted flirting can become sexual harassment when it does not stop
While these guidelines were based on male-female sexual harassment, courts have applied a similar standard to same-gender harassment
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Sexual Harassment
There’s a big difference between sexual harassment and unwanted flirting:
The role of power
One individual may be ‘superior’ to another
Details of the approach
Level of interest in continuing contact
Key is the nature of the relationship between the parties
Why does sexual harassment occur?
An attempt to make the workplace unpleasant for a coworker/subordinate who is unwanted
A way of ‘keeping people in their place’ or making them feel vulnerable
Unwanted flirting can become sexual harassment when it does not stop
While these guidelines were based on male-female sexual harassment, courts have applied a similar standard to same-gender harassment
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Countering myths about sexual harassment:
Attractive people CAN sexually harass others
Harassment can occur across/within genders
Can occur across/within ages/SES/education
You don’t need to have power over someone to sexually harass them (implicit harassment)
The key feature is that the behavior is unwanted
Politely asking someone on a date is not harassment….unless there is a consequence for saying “no”
Sexual harassment is culturally specific
Actions considered offensive to some individuals may be flattering to others, based on upbringing or cultural norms
Gender differences
Research indicates that men are more likely to interpret women’s friendliness as flirtation
Men are more likely to engage in same-gender harassment in the form of anti-gay taunting
Women may have a difficult time saying ‘no’ or ‘stop’ due to social norms
Harassment reinforces our social norms against taboo gendered behaviors:
“Non-masculine” behavior for males
“Unacceptable” sexual behavior in females
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Harassment starts early…
Teasing, more often peer-to-peer, compared to adult/child
83% of girls and 79% of boys in grades 8-11 reported experiencing harassment at school
Harassment is often discounted or ignored by adults
Discounted as normative: “Boys will be boys”
Impact of harassment:
Girls felt less autonomous, more intimidated and embarrassed when assessed later
33% of girls and 12% of boys no longer wished to attend school as a result
Results from a large AAUW study in the early 2000s
40% of students report witnessing or experiencing harassment by teachers / other school employees
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Smith et al. 2020
Nationally representative sample in 2019 reported:
80% of straight women, 95% of sexual minority women
77.3% of sexual minority men and 41.3% of straight men
Reported being sexual harassed while at middle or high school
Harassment starts early…
Harassment has been found to be perpetrated more often by boys in groups than by single boys
Motivation may be achieving higher status among other boys
40% of students report witnessing or experiencing harassment by teachers / other school employees
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Harassment starts early…
In addition. Violence and mating have been found to be linked in men’s minds.
This does not mean all men are naturally violent, but it does mean men should be conscious of that link…and particularly conscious of changes in behavior in groups at all times
40% of students report witnessing or experiencing harassment by teachers / other school employees
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Why are rates higher for sexual minorities?
Sexual harassment (particularly in school) is often because of perceived sexual orientation
Based on appearance
Based on gender role behaviors
63.7% of LGBT students reported being verbally harassed, 27.2% reported being physically harassed and 12.5% reported being physically assaulted at school in the past year because of their gender expression.
Nearly two-thirds (61.1%) of students reported that they felt unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation, and more than a third (39.9%) felt unsafe because of their gender expression. 29.1% of LGBT students missed a class at least once and 30.0% missed at least one day of school in the past month because of safety concerns, compared to only 8.0% and 6.7%, respectively, of a national sample of secondary school students. The reported grade point average of students who were more frequently harassed because of their sexual orientation or gender expression was almost half a grade lower than for students who were less often harassed (2.7 vs. 3.1). Increased levels of victimization were related to increased levels of depression and anxiety and decreased levels of self-esteem. Being out in school had positive and negative repercussions for LGBT students – outness was related to higher levels of victimization, but also higher levels of psychological well-being.
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Heterosexism or Heterosexual Bias
An ideological system that denies, denigrates, and stigmatizes any non-heterosexual persons, form of behavior, relationship, or community
The assumption of superiority of heterosexuality (still several states where you can be fired for being LGBTQ)
Current cultural debates over human rights center on whether LGBT persons are worthy of them
“I don’t approve of who you are or what you do, so I don’t think you should have the things that I do.”
Persons are most often harassed for their perceived sexual orientation
Based on appearance
Based on gender role behaviors
Two major forms of discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual persons:
Heterosexual bias/ heterosexism
Anti-gay prejudice
Anti-gay prejudice and homophobia are beliefs about GLB persons that may lead to discrimination
Anti-gay prejudice does effect heterosexuals
It is a problem for any individual who may be viewed as gender ‘deviant’
Used as a weapon of intimidation
Some heterosexuals feel they must “prove” their heterosexuality in order to avoid being discriminated against
e.g., those in gender atypical occupations
Same-gender friendships become suspect
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Violence Against queer Individuals
Same sex love or sexual behavior has been targeted by many groups throughout history, even by our own country
Christian Inquisition
Nazis
McCarthy Era Blacklists
Table is from an in depth piece in the NYTimes in 2016 using primarily FBI and Williams Institute data. Among LGBT people minority transgender women face the greatest risk of violence
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Why?
Several personal characteristics may contribute to anti-gay prejudice:
Insecurity about one’s own sexuality
Fundamentalist religious orientation
Lack of knowledge/understanding about homosexuality
Gender differences
Heterosexuals feel more antipathy towards homosexuals of their own gender
Heterosexual men are overall less tolerant than heterosexual women (masculine gender role expectations)
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Rape
Brock Turner, case became famous because the judge gave him a lenient sentence because he was a good swimmer in school and came from a good family. Yet, he perpetrated a violent rape and was caught by two bystanders that didn’t know either party but saw an unconscious woman being raped in an alley and chased Brock down (they were European tourists and were so shook by what they saw that they were openly crying when filmed by the news about the incident). Its rare that a case is so clear-cut, no he said/she said but multiple witnesses and someone caught in the act…and STILL the judge gave him leniency. California recalled the judge and removed him from office. Sadly, there are countless stories like these that don’t end with justice being served across the nation. Turner’s family even feels so bold that they sued a psychologist for including the above image in a textbook chapter about rape, even though hes a convicted rapist and legally we can put his picture in any textbook about rape that we please as a result.
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Rape
Is an act about control/power
The underlying motivation for rapists is never solely to obtain sex. That may be one of their perceived benefits of the act but is not the most driving psychological factor in why people rape others
Power/control/restoring feelings of lost masculinity are all more dominant factors in interviews with admitted rapists.
Rape
Serial rapists often have levels of sexual sadism, in which they gain sexual gratification from the act of violence itself, but most rapists wouldn’t fall under the sexual sadist category. And it’s the power/control that they are primarily getting off on
Its hard to pinpoint a single reason why any person would rape, but rather it’s a combination of factors. Control is one of the only variables that seems to cut across and combine with all causal factors
Ellis (1991) Brownmiller (1975) Thompson and Butell (1984) Barbaree (1991)
Other credible suggested factors: specific paraphilias, high sex drive combined with low impulse control and myth acceptance, attempts to bond the victim/survivor to the rapist through trauma. In all these studies, controlling others or restoring a lost sense of masculinity/control exist in all these scenarios
Societal beliefs about rape
Rape myths are very common and often guide thinking about the act
Societal beliefs about rape
Most common is the belief that rape is a violent brutal act perpetrated by a stranger in a secluded location
(this isn’t even close to being statistically correct, about 85% of rape cases in the U.S. are acquaintance rapes)
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Societal beliefs about rape
Often people only think of those 15% of situations as “real rape” because of their belief in the myth
Often difficult to prove to others that acquaintance rape was indeed rape as a result of their assumptions
Myths About Rape
The victim wants to be raped
“No means yes”
Vast difference between erotic fantasies of rape and actual rape (issues of control and harm)
Rapists are ‘obviously’ mentally ill
A potential rapist would look the part.
The victim deserves to be raped/men cannot be expected to control their sexual urges.
“She was dressed like a slut”
Many women ‘cry rape’
False accusations of rape are quite uncommon (and infrequently prosecuted).
It isn’t rape or “it can’t be rape”
Rape of prostitutes often not considered rape
Rape of marital partners has often been not considered rape
Men always want sex so they cannot be raped (plus, basic physiological issue of erection).
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Myths About Rape
The victim wants to be raped
“No means yes”
Vast difference between erotic fantasies of rape and actual rape (issues of control and harm)
Rapists are ‘obviously’ mentally ill
A potential rapist would look the part.
The victim deserves to be raped/men cannot be expected to control their sexual urges.
“She was dressed like a slut”
Many women ‘cry rape’
False accusations of rape are quite uncommon (and infrequently prosecuted).
It isn’t rape or “it can’t be rape”
Rape of prostitutes often not considered rape
Rape of marital partners has often been not considered rape
Men always want sex so they cannot be raped (plus, basic physiological issue of erection).
Characteristics of rapists—proclivity toward violence (rape can be about violence, sexual gratification, or probably most commonly, both). Men who embrace traditional gender roles are more likely than men who do not. Anger toward women is a prominent attitude among some men who sexually assault women. Alcohol often contributes. Many rapists have a self-centered personality (insensitivity towards others feelings). Power and violence may be more common in stranger rape whereas a need for sexual gratification may prevail in acquaintance or date rape.
Sanday’s research on rape-prone societies—these societies glorify masculine violence, encourage boys to be aggressive and competitive and view physical force as natural and exemplary. In these cultures, men tend to have greater economic and political power, remaining aloof from “women’s work” such as child rearing. Rape-free societies share power and authority and contribute equally to the community welfare. Children of both sexes in these societies are raised to value nurturance and to avoid aggression and violence. The United States has the highest incidence of rapes among all Western Nations.
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Legal issues
Often sexual assault laws are vague or misleading.
Survivors/victims may be confused about legal protections/rights.
Studies have shown many rape survivors view their experience in negative terms and feel victimized…but may not even know what happened meets the legal standards for rape
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Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice National Crime victimization survey (largest and most reliable crime study)
734,630 sexual assaults in 2018(most recent data)
From 2016 to 2018 the number of victims of sexual assault doubled
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Statistics
Most studies put prevalence ranges at:
¼ women will be raped in their lifetime
1/5 men will be raped in their lifetime
But new Williams Institute data suggests men’s rate may be closer to ¼
For both men and women the perpetrator is most likely to be male
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Date Rape/Acquaintance Rape
most rapes are not perpetrated by strangers
Intimate partners
Casual acquaintances
Ex-partners
Alcohol / drug use associated with more than 70% of date rapes (on the part of the victim and the perpetrator)
Alcohol has been shown in studies by the WHO to increase the likelihood someone commits a violent crime (especially if they’ve already been thinking about it)
Many perpetrators get drunk or high either as a legal strategy, or to psychologically try and remove guilt they feel from their acts
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False Reports
The FBI places false reporting for sexual assault at around 3%
This is far lower than many other crimes including theft and even murder
Sexual assault is HIGHLY underreported
Making a real accusation is difficult, making a false one that goes to court becomes nearly impossible in this reality
False Reports
So why do so many people believe false reports are common?
Think back to the myths and how many blame people for their own assaults
Think about gender role messages of femininity and who is “good” or “bad”
Think about old claims of hysteria, based on the idea that women have chaotic emotions, makes it more easy to believe a woman would lie about something emotional
Consent
Can’t always rely on No/Yes
Drunk individuals can’t consent
Mentally ill cannot consent with non-peers
Those under the age of 18 (17 in New York with exceptions)
Unconscious individuals
High individuals
Sleeping individuals
Consent
Gender norms about sex (men are teachers, women learners/passive) sometimes make it difficult to say no
What are other signals of “no?”
Body language (anxiety)
Trying to find excuses not to
Trying to change the subject
How you can help a survivor
Listen
Don’t be judgmental
Be patient
Help empower the individual, give them choices
Encourage but don’t force them to report
If they are willing to seek medical attention, accompany them if requested
Listen. Be there. Don’t be judgmental.
Be patient. Remember, it will take your loved one some time to deal with the crime.
Help to empower your loved one. Rape and sexual violence are crimes that take away an individual’s power, it is important not to compound this experience by putting pressure on your loved one to do things that he or she is not ready to do yet.
If you are dealing with an issue involving your child, create a safe place by talking directly to them.
If you are the non-abusing parent in a case of incest, it is important to support your child and help them through this situation without blaming them. This is also true if you are not a parent but still an observer of incest.
If your loved one is considering suicide, follow-up with them on a regular basis.
Encourage your loved one to report the rape or sexual violence to law enforcement (call 911 in most areas). If your loved one has questions about the criminal justice process, talking with someone on the National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1.800.656.HOPE, can help.
Let your loved one know that professional help is available through the National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1.800.656.HOPE, and the National Sexual Assault Online Hotline.
If your loved one is willing to seek medical attention or report the assault, offer to accompany him or her wherever s/he needs to go (hospital, police station, campus security, etc.)
Encourage him or her to contact one of the hotlines, but realize that only your loved one can make the decision to get help.
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In situations of abuse…
Rape happens in relationships
Often a component of domestic violence
Still about power/control, not solely about a desire for sex
Why wouldn’t someone leave?
60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to a statistical average of the past 5 years.2 Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison. Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail.
From RAINN rape abuse and incest national network rainn.org
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Why wouldn’t someone leave?
Leaving a relationship is hard
Women often have to opt for living in poverty as opposed to men
Many cultural/social norms that encourage women to stay
Violence has become a familiar pattern
Often people love their partners still
When leaving/separating/divorcing the risk of violence/death is at its GREATEST!
Leaving a relationship, no matter how abusive, is never easy. Women who leave relationships often have to opt for living in poverty. That's a very difficult choice to make. There are many social, cultural factors that contribute to encouraging women to stay and try and make the situation work. Often, violence is a familiar pattern for the woman, as well as the man. In addition, women often love the men who abuse them, or at least love them initially. Men who batter are not 100 percent hateful, but they can be loving and attentive partners at times. Some women remain emotionally and/or economically dependent on the batterer despite the fact that she faces continued abuse if she stays with him. Women are at highest risk of injury or violence when they are separating from or divorcing a partner. Women can be very intimidated by a partner and the consequences of her leaving. It takes a long time for a woman to give up hope in a relationship and to recognize that the only way she can be safe is to leave him.
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Sexual Abuse Trauma
Memory - unless abuse occurred before the age of 3, most remember some details.
Traumatic sexualization
Inappropriately associate sexual behaviors and emotions
Innocent touching feels violating
Betrayal, adult survivors find trust difficult
Dependent relationships
Anger and hostility toward partner
Stigmatization, guilt, shame
Mental health problems
Fear & anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder
sense of not being in control
compulsive behaviors such as substance use, sex, shopping
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Of course these aren’t required. Many survivors don’t experience negative psychological outcomes, and find coping to be easier. So we shouldn’t force expectations on survivors, and allow them to be the guide/teacher/one in control.
Rape Culture
Rape Culture
Beliefs and attitudes that promote victim blaming, normalize male sexual aggression/violence, and sexism that contributes to the high rate of sexual harassment/assault people face.
The definition of rape culture has a few implications:
Rape is not natural or inevitable
Men are not naturally more inclined to rape, but are taught to
The law focuses on consent to stop rape
Yet the law can’t agree on what consent is (different state to state)
Some states don’t allow for a withdrawal of consent once penetration has begun
Other states like California require continuous consent throughout the act
States like Washington require overt displays of consent, meaning you can’t just read someone’s body language or make assumptions
Consent
many high schools and colleges are focused on teaching consent to stop rape (but what is consent? Even the law can’t agree. So what are they teaching students?)
Would a perfect understanding of consent, if we could agree on one, stop rape?
From the policy level, was sex ed policy only designed to help people follow the law?
If not then what was it intended to do?
Rape Culture
Which is why we have a focus on rape culture, prevention is always better than treatment.
If we can start early and create citizens that treat each other with equity and respect, and don’t believe myths, we have a better chance at lowering rates of rape
Rape Culture and gender role beliefs - Masculinity
Gender role beliefs strongly contribute to rape itself. Rapists often commit their crimes after feeling invalidated/weak in ways that attack their masculinity (the same is true for domestic violence, and even serial killers and mass murderers)
According to recent Williams Institute data men may be raped at a rate close to that of women (mostly by male rapists) but data was rarely included in the past because men are unlikely to report, and rapes within prison weren’t included as rape in most datasets
Rape Culture and Gender Role beliefs – Femininity
Rape culture isn’t just perpetuated by beliefs about masculinity; teachings about femininity also help to keep its structure in place
Teaching that femininity is submissive, sexually passive/coy makes overt consent more difficult for one gender than another
Teaching about women as “gatekeepers” helps to place blame on women (myths about clothing worn, certain behaviors being permission for sex, etc.)
What else?
Reling et. Al. 2017
“Beliefs that hookups are harmless and elevate social status increased rape myth acceptance, whereas beliefs that hookups express sexual freedom decreased rape myth acceptance. “
Hookup culture endorsement had the largest effect on rape myth acceptance
Reling et. Al. 2017
“Hookup practices similarly reinforce the normalcy of men as masculine pursuers/ aggressors and women as properly feminine gatekeepers. Men typically control the terms of a hookup (Bogle 2008; Wade 2017), are far more likely to experience sexual pleasure (Armstrong et al. 2012), and are more likely to socially benefit from pursuing a large number of sexual interactions with different women partners (Currier 2013; Wade 2017). They are not exempt from the social risks associated with hooking up with an undesirable partner, but they retain more power than women do to redefine less-than perfect hookups in ways that elevate their social status”
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Reling et. Al. 2017
female students in the United States were less likely to report believing rape myths than male students were, and more religious students were more likely to accept rape myths
“rape myth acceptance is similar for men and women. For both, the belief that hookups elevate status demonstrates a positive association and functions as the largest predictor of rape myth acceptance. The gender-specific analyses identified some differences in the importance of control variables, with Greek-affiliated men reporting lower overall rape myth acceptance and more religious women reporting higher levels of rape myth acceptance. Greek life affiliation correlated with lower rape myth acceptance among men, even though the opposite has consistently been found in previous research”
Jozkowski 2015
“Research indicates that the college environment supports, and even fosters, sexual violence against women via low-level coercion, lack of social acknowledgment of sexual assault, and institutional acceptance of sexual violence (Armstrong, Hamilton, & Sweeney, 2006). Such attitudes support victim blaming, discourage women from reporting rape and, in turn, may contribute to women not acknowledging their experiences as acts of sexual assault or non-consensual sex (Peterson & Muehlenhard, 2004, 2011).”
Jozkowski 2015
“Therefore, it may be an important first step for students to (a) be able to acknowledge the occurrence of sexual assault between two people who know each other and (b) have the ability to articulate the social circumstances that led to the occurrence of sexual assault”
Jozkowski 2015
“The larger cultural context in which sexual assault and sexual violence occurs on college campuses may be lost when prevention efforts focus almost exclusively on emphasizing that students should obtain consent in the sexual dyad. Such conceptualizations of rape suggest that either the raped woman displayed behavioral signs of consent or did not communicate her non-consent clearly”
