Victim Advocacy

Abstract

This paper will be discussing a drug in which is used to rape someone and it is called the date rape drug as well as how it is given to someone. The discussion will involve the characteristics of the victim as well as give some statistical information regarding the amount of date rapes as well as the most frequent places where these kinds of crimes happen. There will be a discussion on how important it is to prosecute date rape crimes as well as the issues that are included for the prosecutor. Another discussion that will be in this paper will be the perception of the individual who has committed this crime. There will be various types of sexual assaults that will be discussed along with the different tactics used by the individual committing these horrific crimes. Finally, there will be recommendations provided in hopes of helping to determine the best suited actions for continuing with date rape cases.

Date rape is a sexual assault against another individual and in most cases these individuals are women and these assaults usually occur on a date or by an individual that the victim knows. This form of assault is forced upon the victim with no consent what so ever and most of these types of assaults involve violence. There are various types of sexual assaults and that includes stranger rape, statutory rape as well as spousal rape. The individual committing this rape will utilize different tactics such as secretly adding liquor to a women drink or even implying that they would like to go on a date in hopes of having something special with that woman. Victims of these types of crimes will in return suffer some overwhelming affects as well as some will begin to suffer from outbreaks of post traumatic symptoms.

The dynamics amongst the criminal and the victim is an important factor in order to understand why and how relationship rapes occur. The viewpoint of law enforcement plus the courts, aid in explaining why relationship rapes are hardly ever prosecuted plus a lot of the victims of these crimes usually don't even report the rape. The outlook of society will place responsibility on the victims or help in raising public awareness on the issue.

Overview of Sexual Assaults

* Trends

According to (The National Center for Victims of Crime, 2011), women are four times more probable of becoming a victim of date rape then they are of stranger rape. This form of rape is usually under reported to law enforcement. According to (The National Center for Victims of Crime, 2011), usually there is under two percent of victims reporting date rapes to law enforcement and there is a seventy-seven percentage rate of accomplished rapes that have been carried out by a non-stranger and every year, approximately one out of eight women attending college have been raped and eighty-five percent of those assaulted women knew who the individual was. When it comes to women being raped by a stranger, woman are twenty percent more commonly willing to report that rape compared to women who have been raped by an individual they know.

There are so many instances when law enforcement second guesses prosecuting a case where a woman was raped by an acquaintance. According to (The National Center for Victims of Crime, 2011), there was a study that determined that seventy five percent of men and fifty percent of women that have been involved in college related acquaintance rapes were under the influence of alcohol when these sexual assaults happened. Also according to (Sampson, 2002), women ranging from sixteen years old to twenty-four years of age encounter rape at a rate of four times more than the assault rates of all women, which in return makes the college and high school years more exposed for these women. Another factor that makes it harder to prosecute date rape cases is that the individuals involved in these crimes are usually intoxicated. Fifty seven percent of date rapes happen when two individuals are on a date and thirty-eight percent of date rape victims range from fourteen to seventeen years of age.

* Different Kinds of Sexual Assaults

Rape is forced sexual assault on an individual without their consent. According to (Department of Commerce, 2009), there are different kinds of sexual assault and they are stranger rape, acquaintance rape, spousal and statutory rape. Acquaintance rape is when someone is sexually assaulted by another individual that they know and this can also be referred to as date rape because this can occur when these two individuals are on a date. This form of rape can occur at any time and can also cause the victims to suffer from psychological damages. Statutory rape is when someone assaults or engages in sexual behavior with an individual who is under the age of consent and of course this age can vary from state to state and country to country.

Spousal rape is something that many may think isn't rape but when someone says no its no whether it is a man, woman, child, husband or wife. So, with that said spousal rape is forced sexual assault by the individual's partner whether it is the husband or the wife. Like stated earlier, just because the two people are married that doesn't mean that the other person has the right to force any type of sexual acts on the other person. Stranger rape is forced sexual assaults by an individual whom the victims don't know or have any relations with a stranger. The individual who is committing this crime is looking for power as well as control against the victim and in some instances can lead to homicide. According to (Community Crisis Center, Inc. n.d.), only twenty-two percent of the individuals committing the crime know the individuals they are raping but these individuals tend to plan their attack. This type of rape can cause individuals to become afraid of strangers as well as start avoiding any connections to the incident as well as start suffering from psychological damages.

* Strategies Used in Committing Acquaintance Rape

The individual committing the rape will usually begin by seeking the victim that they may believe would be vulnerable enough to rape. The perpetrator will locate an easy target and they will plan the attack prior to committing the crime. According to (datehookup, n.d.), the individual may also start playing on the person's emotional state or empathy by providing personal information in hopes of the victim lowering their defenses. Individuals are more helpless when they don't have control over their actions, so in some instances the individual may also place a date rape drug into the other individuals drink in order to make it easier to get them to agree to leave with the