Once raped, always raped

Psychol Behav Sci Int J, 2017

Sexual contact without voluntary consent that violates a person’s sense of autonomy, control and mastery over their body constitutes sexual assault. It is increasingly recognized that many patients in primary settings have a history of sexual abuse. Demographics of sexual violence are usually obtained from crime records, hospital data, nongovernmental organizations and survey carried out for research. It is believed that these data underestimate the actual magnitude of the problem of sexual violence. In this paper we review the psychological aspects of rape and its consequences including rape trauma syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, memory and sexuality. Further research is necessary to better understand the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders in survivors of sexual assault. Research is also needed to determine evidence based management of survivors of sexual abuse coping with long-term mental health outcomes.

Public Affairs Quarterly, 1991

Analysis of the four primary accounts of the nature of rape. Author argues that rape is properly understood as nonconsensual sex , an account preferable to those based on force or against the will. Main objections to such an account are addresses and implications of the account are explained.

Arbor-ciencia Pensamiento Y Cultura, 2010

Trauma narratives are the defining feature of late modernity. Confessional renderings of stories of violation are so ubiquitous that they seem to be a universal constant, regardless of historical time or geographical place. Sexual assault has become the pre-eminent example of an experience that is framed in terms of trauma. In public discourse, rape "survivors" hold a special place in defining an extreme point of psychological distress. Historically, however, this has not always been the case. Indeed, psychological trauma arising from sexual assault is a relatively new way to frame the aftermath of attack. As I will argue in this article, "bad events" other than rape were more liable to be narrated in terms of psychological trauma. Why was rape-trauma introduced relatively late into discussions of trauma in Britain and the USA, and what was the impact of the invention of the diagnosis "rape trauma syndrome"? naRRatives Of victimhOOd It is commonplace to observe how little attention was paid to victims of sexual assault until the feminist interventions of the 1970s onwards. Until that period, it is difficult to find extensive debate about the needs of rape victims. Medical services ignored them. According to Index Medicine between 1957 and 1966, no public health journal contained articles on rape. As late as 1957, a 548-page study on Sexual Offences by the Cambridge Department on Criminal Science devoted only a couple of sentences to the emotional responses of rape victims (104). Even these sentences were embedded in a section entitled "Physical Consequences to the Victim", in which the attention focussed primarily on bodily injuries, venereal diseases, and pregnancy. As we shall see shortly, a dearth of analysis of the psychological aftermath of sexual assault can be observed in all the major psychological and psychiatric journals prior to the 1970s. It took until 1970 for the first substantial study of rape trauma to be published. In that year, Sandra Sutherland and Donald J. Scherl published "Patterns of Response Among Victims of Rape" in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. They were the first to delineate the "normal" and predictable psychological after-effects of rape. Four years later, the American Journal of Psychiatry published Ann RESUMEN: El trauma no constituye una forma universal de expresión de los efectos de un "suceso desagradable" sino que es construido socialmente. En el caso de la violación, el trauma psicológico es una forma relativamente reciente de conceptualizar las consecuencias de la agresión. En este artículo se examina el desarrollo de la noción de trauma en manuales psiquiátricos, legales y forenses, a propósito de las víctimas de violación, y se investigan las razones para su relativamente reciente puesta en práctica.

International Journal of Sciences and Arts, 2020

Pedophilia is an increasingly common occurrence nowadays that wemust confront, educate children how to recognize „bad uncles“, not to keep silent aboutsexual abuse and prove to themthat they are not guilty. This paper will address the personality of the child victim of sexual assault as well as the relationship with the perpetrator. Inthepaperwewill consultliteratureandtalkwitha childpsychologist. Wewillmake proposalsfor protection of children fromsexual abuse. Children are our future and we must work on their proper psychophysical development which will be built into healthy people without trauma, we must put an end to all forms of violence against them, all forms of coercion. Pedophilia can be a lifelong condition, but pedophile disorderincludes elementsthat may change over time (troubles, psychosocial disorders, tendency to act as needed).3 Keywords: children, victim, protection, pedophilia, perpetrator

Clinical Psychology Review, 2008

Whether treatment programs are effective at rehabilitating rapists is yet to be determined empirically. From a scientist-practitioner perspective, treatment should be based on an empirical understanding of rape and rapists, and evidence-based knowledge of treatment outcome with rapists. In this paper we comprehensively review the characteristics of rapists, etiological features implicated in the commission of rape, and relevant treatment outcome research. We pay particular attention to contemporary knowledge about the core vulnerabilities and features required to understand and treat rapists effectively, and, where possible, highlight similarities and differences between rapists, child molesters and non-sexual violent offenders. We use an epistemological framework to (a) critique the various etiological accounts of rape available and (b) help guide professionals' use of such knowledge in both treatment design and evaluation. Gaps in the understanding of rapists' characteristics and etiological features are highlighted, as are discrepancies between current knowledge and treatment approaches. We conclude by highlighting areas for future research and practice innovation.

British Journal of Psychotherapy, 1988

This paper looks at child sexual abuse from a child's viewpoint, and postulates three levels at which the child experiences the abuse, both at the time fit, occurrence and during later development. It is suggested that the greater the child's difficulty in integrating the experiences from these three different levels the poorer the healing process after abuse and the worse the effectwill be on the child's subsequent mental health. Clinical examples are given of some of theconcepts described.

PHILOSOPHY, 2001

Philosophers have identified the harm involved in stranger rape in various ways. This article reviews these with a view to making sense of surveys on date and acquaintance rape and minor sexual assaults: how much should these be bracketed with stranger rape as a major and ...

2012

The purpose of this study is to revisit the concept of rape as represented by professionals in the literature as well as its perception (beliefs and attitudes) in the population at large and to propose methodological improvements to its measurement tool. Rape is a serious crime threatening its victim-s physical and mental health and integrity; and as such is legally prosecuted in all modern societies. The problem is not in accepting or rejecting rape as a criminal act, but rather in the vagueness of its interpretations and "justifications" maintained in the mentality of modern societies - known in the literature as the phenomenon of "rape-myth". The rapemyth can be studied from different perspectives: criminology, sociology, ethics, medicine and psychology. Its investigation requires rigorous scientific objectivity, free of passion (victims of rape are at risk of emotional bias), free of activism (social activists, even if wellintentioned are also biased), free o...

Journal of Social Issues, 1981