Chelsea Vise
Date rape
Rough draft
Date rape is usually
looked as a stranger jumping out at you and sexually assaulting you, or when a
stranger slips something in your drink so they can sexually harass you.
What people don’t know or think about is that most the time date rape is by
someone you know or who is very close to you. The real definition of date rape
according to ASU website it sexual assault is an
unlawful act that may involve the touching of intimate body parts, sexual
intimidation, or forced sexual penetration. This includes sexual intercourse,
oral sex, and digital penetration. Rape is forced sexual intercourse. Force may
be by verbal threats, physical restraint, or violence. Stalking is defined as
repeated, obsessive, fear-inducing behavior that makes the victim afraid or
concerned for his or her safety. There are many problems and positions when you think about
date rape. Date rape is something that happens everywhere but I am mainly
focusing on date rape at ASU. Date rape is usually looked as a stranger jumping
out at you and sexually assaulting you, or when a stranger slips something in
your drink so they can sexually harass you. What people don’t know or
think about is that most the time date rape is by someone you know or who is very
close to you. Another thing we don’t realize is a lot of women call
“date rape” because they don’t remember it happening, but the big question here
is if we don’t remember it, is it automatically date rape? Have you ever
thought that maybe you drank too much that you became blacked out and had
sexually relations with someone. I know we all say well that still is
date rape because I didn’t consent to it, but what you don’t think about is
that you more then likely said yes while it was happening. Sometime the
guy and the girl are both blacked out and don’t remember it but yet the girl
will press charges on the guy and say he raped her. So the big question
here is where is the line crossed and it’s actually date rape. So
my goal for this project/paper is to find out what date rape really is, and how
we can define whether a situation was date rape or just a “drunken night”
between two people.
The
shame involved in either being battered by or hurting someone we care for makes
it hard to tell anyone, even those closest to us. Acquaintance Rape also known
as date rape is one of the most common among female adolescents and college
students. Someone the victim knew commits about 60% of all reported rapes.
(Warshaw, 11) The most common way to get into trouble is the idea of “you say
no but you mean yes.” Since women are most often the victims of date rape, they
must be firm in their response against sexual advances. Women
sometimes will say no but they know they want it so they say yes. Later
they then say it was rape if they relationship with the guy goes bad or
something like this. There is a wide variety of spokespeople, feminine
activists, and community leaders who have been assaulted and now speak publicly
on the issue of Date Rape. One victim, Katie Koestner speaks on a national
level and has been featured on the cover of TIME magazine, appeared on Oprah,
NBC, CNN and has been published in The New York Times and The Chicago
Sun-Times.
Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, someone is sexually
assaulted. Of these approximately 248,000 victims, about 87,000 were victims of
completed rape, and 70,000 were victims of sexual assault. Up to 4,315
pregnancies may have resulted from these attacks. This is not okay.
This is something that we need to change and we need to start thinking more
about. We don’t ever think that date rape can happen because it hasn’t
happened to us. The victim doesn’t have to be a young beautiful Female, older
woman, men and kids get raped to. The victims, rapists, and motivation can be
very different depending on the one committing the crime. Date rape is a
controversial and ambiguous crime. Date rape is not a rare
incident that only happens in isolated situations. In fact, surveys indicate
that in 84% of rape cases, the victim knew the attacker, and 57% of rapes
occurred on dates (Warshaw 11). There are so many ways to look at date
rape because you never know if there was actually consent or not? Do you
think that if alcohol is involved it’s far to assume that it’s actually rape or
maybe they both wanted it and it was rape on both parts? When it comes to
date rape there are so many different possibilities but
I think when it comes down to it you can tell when something is really date
rape or just a date night gone bad.
“About 3% of coeds are raped
during each academic year. Over the course of 5 calendar years, including
summers and vacations, 20-25% may be raped.
”(ASU website) When we think about
the word “may” in this sentence it makes you wonder how could someone have
maybe been raped. This is because too
many people will clam they were raped but in reality they just don’t remember
it. This has a lot to do with to
many people getting to intoxicate.
I did a survey in one of my classes and out of the 35 people, 26 of them
said that they have had a night were they have woken up in a guy/girls bed and
have no idea who they are or how they got there or what happened. Which Shows a lot and affects the
amount of rapes that truly happen on ASU campus. One big problem with when
people are truly raped is that they have no evidence of it because girls are too
afraid to go straight to the hospital, so they shower and wash off all the
evidence. According to ASU website
when you a re raped you should not shower, clean or wash up in any way, or
change clothing before you go to the hospital emergency department. Doing so
could destroy evidence (e.g., blood type, hair samples, etc.), which may not be
legally acceptable if collected later than 72 hours after the rape. If you have
removed clothes worn at the time of the rape, put them in a paper bag and take
them with you to the E.R. This is
important information and we need to let more people know about it. The reasons most rapes go UN reported
is because women feel embarrassed and disgusted by it. The blame themselves and think if
people find out about it they will think they are gross. Which isn’t true, if we don’t report
the rapes the rapist will end up raping someone else. We need to put a stop to the rapes but we also need to know the
difference between actually rape and girls getting mad at guys and crying rape. “3.3%
of ASU female students and 0.4% of ASU male students reported that they
experienced an attempted or completed sexual assault in the past year.” (http://asu.orgsync.com/org/alist/Sexual_Violence) This
is a big problem because there are so many more women and men that are actually
being sexually assaulted. The shame involved in
either being battered by or hurting someone we care for makes it hard to tell
anyone, even those closest to us. People in abusive relationships often
work hard at making it seem as if nothing is wrong
CDC. Date
rape In the U.S
Atlanta, GA: CDC, 1999.
Centers for Date rape control and Prevention. Prevention
Strategic Plan Through 2005. January 2001.
"Date Rape." Planned Parenthood. Ed. Cullins.
Web. <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/index.htm>.
" Sexually Transmitted Diseases Brochure." U.S.
Food and Drug Administration. Dec. 1990. Web. 18 Aug. 2009.
<http://www.hhs.gov/>.
"Employment of Teenagers During the School Year and summer."
Http://www.bls.gov/nls/. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 08 Feb. 2004. Web.
Swander, Jan. "The Decline of Teen Workforce." Work
Source: QualityInfo.org. 21 May 2008. Web.
<http://www.qualityinfo.org/olmisj/OlmisZine>.
This
website is all about the rape information that has occurred on ASU campus. It also has all the information about
where to call if you get raped or even a help line for people that you think
may have been raped and need help.
It provides you with details on what to do with the clothes your wearing
when you’re raped. The first thing
you need to do is put all your clothes in a bag and take it to the hospital so
they can searched your body for any and DNA or evidence to find their rapist. This website is very helpful and all
girls should now about it. You
don’t realize all the stuff you need to do if your raped, most girls would
shower and never report it cause if they are in denial about it then it didn’t
happen. Which isn’t right, if you
let him get away with rapping you, your giving him another shot to rape someone
else. If we made websites like
these more available women may actually stand up for themselves and not be so
afraid.
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