Thursday, March 28, 2024

AdvertiseDonateSubmit
NewsSportsArtsOpinionThe QuadPhotoVideoIllustrationsCartoonsGraphicsThe StackPRIMEEnterpriseInteractivesPodcastsBruinwalkClassifieds

The Aftermath

By Daily Bruin Staff

Oct. 22, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Wednesday, October 23, 1996

Rape: Some victims assaulted by acquaintances find it even
harder to come forward than those attacked by strangersBy
Gülgün Ugur

Daily Bruin Contributor

Only for the past six months has Stephani Crespin been able to
speak nonchalantly about an incident she has been evaluating for
the past nine years.

"I thought that rape was by strangers. When a woman was being
careless … in a back alley … at night …

"I didn’t realize it was rape; it was just a bad
experience."

Twenty-four-year-old Crespin, a ’96 UCLA graduate, is a survivor
of acquaintance rape. Her story mirrors that of a terrifyingly
large minority of university women. Anywhere from one in eight
­ according to a National Women’s Study at the Medical
University of South Carolina ­ to one in four ­ according
to a Ms. magazine survey financed by the National Institute of
Mental Health ­ American women will survive rape or attempted
rape by the time they graduate from college.

While these statistics and the controversy which shrouds them
are familiar, the aftermath of rape remains unexplored.
Victim-blaming and the immensely private nature of sexual assaults
keep them the most underreported and difficult to prosecute of all
crimes affecting both the number of victims who come forward and
the likelihood their cases will go to court.

Fear of retaliation, incrimination of one’s own actions,
mistrust of the criminal justice system and shame are major forces
specific to sexual crimes which keep people from reporting assaults
according to Ellen Okamoto, community education coordinator of the
Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.

"They may not even label what happened to them as being rape,
especially if it was someone they know," Okamoto says. "They can’t
take in that someone they liked, and trusted would do that to
them."

The questioning and self-blame that often accompany acquaintance
rape contribute to the low rates at which the crime is reported,
says Okamoto.

Based on the definition of rape as "an event that occurred
without the woman’s consent, involving the use of force or threat
of force, and involving sexual penetration of the victim’s vagina,
mouth or rectum," the 1992 National Women’s Study found that 75
percent of victims were assaulted by someone they knew.

"It wasn’t real rape. It was my friend," is a common statement
heard by Kathy Rose-Mockery, director of the Women’s Resource
Center.

Crespin, who was assaulted by her boyfriend, did not realize at
the age of 15 that what had happened to her was rape. Until she
spoke to other victims of sexual assault, she didn’t realize her
tendencies to avoid intimacy and sudden outbreaks of sobbing during
consensual intercourse were common reactions.

"I went from thinking I was insane and ridden with anxiety about
sex, to realizing that I had real symptoms as a result of being
violated," she said. "I was comfortable and confident in believing
that (other survivors) were raped and would relate their stories to
my situation and realize I was raped. Initially I just blamed
myself."

On a yearly basis, the Women’s Resource Center at UCLA sees 60
to 80 students for post-sexual assault related service,
approximately 75 percent of which were assaulted by
acquaintances.

These local percentages support the national statistics that
reveal the majority of sexual assaults occur between people who
know each other. The center example also highlights the
discrepancies in sexual assaults committed and those that are
actually reported.

According to the campus police, only one stranger and six
acquaintance rapes were reported to have occurred on university
property last year.

Estimates of the rate at which women report sexual assaults to
the police vary greatly. Only 5 percent are reported according to
the 1985 Ms. study and an FBI study estimates 3 to 10 percent.
Despite the variation in findings, these statistics are revealing
in that even the most liberal findings in the 1993 Criminal
Victimization in the U.S. handbook of the Bureau of Justice
Statistics reports that two out of three assaulted women do not
report the incident to police.

Crespin did not report to authorities, among other things, she
felt her privacy would be invaded.

"I didn’t want to get up on a stand and have my whole entire
family have to hear about my sexual experiences," Crespin said. "I
didn’t want to talk about my sex life. I didn’t want to, allow me
to use this analogy, be raped again."

In the course of a trial, a victim’s story, and their whole
sexual history can be revealed on the witness stand or in the media
­ recreating the loss of control felt at the initial assault
said Assistant Head Deputy of the Sex Crimes Division of the Los
Angeles District Attorney’s Office Susan Powers.

"It’s common for victims to call and say that they are scared,
or that they are uncomfortable or they’re not sure if they’re doing
the right thing because they are very vulnerable," Powers said.
"It’s an adversarial system."

Crespin explains that the focus put on the victim is unique to
sexual assault cases.

"You just know this kind of trial is different. Having everyone
come to their own conclusions, not being believed ­ I knew it
was more than I could handle," Crespin said.

Okamoto explains that acquaintance rape cases like Crespin’s are
the most complicated in trials. While the victim can identify the
perpetrator, it is more difficult to prosecute because he is an
acquaintance, presenting a dichotomy in the prosecution of
acquaintance rape.

"For example, if you got drunk and high with someone and then
you went home with them, and then got into some heavy petting and
you didn’t want to go any further, but they did, and you were
raped, 12 jurors aren’t always going to consider that," Okamoto
said, noting that jurors often lose sight of the law when they hear
of the circumstances.

As a representative group of the general population, jurors
aren’t the only ones who still believe that victims deserve to be
sexually assaulted because of the way they were dressed, or what
they were doing, or where they were, or whom they were with.
According to Rose-Mockery, it is necessary to change perceptions of
sexual assault to alleviate the incidence of rape.

"We need to get the word out that this (rape) is not acceptable
­ not only is it not acceptable, it’s a crime. It’s a
violation of campus codes. It’s a violation of criminal codes. It’s
a felony ­ it’s a crime."

Share this story:FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
COMMENTS
Featured Classifieds
More classifieds »
Related Posts