Erin Kronell

Dr. Aaron Martin

April 21, 2016

Reflective Essay: Sexual Assault Aftercare

Over the course of the semester I explored the aftermath of sexual assault with my group
and the major faults that cause additional trauma to survivors of sexual assault. We focused the
research on the aftercare of victims of sexual assault because we do not believe the criminal
justice system is properly equipped with the sensitivity training techniques towards victims of
sexual assault. This thought of our results from the fact that only 36 percent of rapes, 34 percent
of attempted rapes, and 26 percent of sexual assaults were reported between 1992 and 2000 in
the United States. After further research we decided that this lack of reporting had to do with
rape culture and victim blaming. Rape culture describes the cultural makeup of our society
where rape is pervasive, normalized, and criminalizes sexual desire. In other words, our culture
sees rape as a crime that is more easily written off because it is a crime mistakenly associated
with sex, when it is actually a crime involving power and control. The difficulty our society has
differentiating rape as a crime and rape as sexual desire is a modern problem our society has. By
modern, I mean that rape has always occurred in our worlds history, but only recently have we
begun to speak up and say that it is not okay and it should be criminalized.
I see this difficulty separating rape from sex resulting into victim blaming, which is the
part of rape culture that makes up excuses for the perpetrator of a rape. Examples of victim
blaming would be asking the questions, What was she wearing? How much did she have to
drink? Was she flirting with him or provoking him? to excuse the perpetrator of his/her actions.
Through research, I have found victim blaming to be apparent in law force as well as in the
minds of everyday people. Beginning with law force, in a reported acquaintance rape, responding
police officers will assess the victims conduct before the rape to determine if the case is
unfounded. Law enforcement can base this on the victims dress, alcohol consumption, social
status, or relationship to their attacker yet none of these factors are relevant to whether or not a
rape occurred. This is an example of police protocol for sexual assault investigations that begin
with a victim bias that continues throughout the investigation and prosecution. Apart from the
victim blaming present in our criminal justice systems, through research I have found victim
blaming spilling from the mouths of regular, and even rather important, people in our society. For
example, John Kasich said only several days ago, I have two 16-year-old daughters, and I dont
even like to think about it. Id also give you one bit of advice: Dont go to parties where theres a
lot of alcohol. Essentially he is advising women to avoid parties in order to avoid rape instead
of perhaps advising young men not to rape at parties and what not.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a large amount of rapes and sexual assaults that go
entirely unreported. Rape is a traumatizing experience itself and I firmly believe that women
should not be traumatized when they disclose formally (to the police) or informally (to friends or

family) that they have been raped. My group volunteered at a Take Back the Night event
through the Sasha Center and it was shocking to see the amount of people there, many of whom
were survivors of sexual assault. Stories were shared through the written words of survivors on tshirts lining the walls or verbally by survivors themselves up front with a microphone in their
shaky hands. With a society rooted with rape culture, we do not normally get to here survivors of
sexual assault speak about what happened to them, besides at events like these. Therefore, I think
that the first steps to fixing this underreporting problem with survivors of sexual assault would
be to encourage survivors of sexual assault to speak up, feel comfortable enough so that they can
speak up without facing shame or re-victimization, and feel supported because what happened to
them is not their fault.

691 words