Lecture 10: Sexual Violence & Consent Flashcards
What is Sexual Assualt?
What are some points that come up that are a trending pattern
- any form of sexual activity that has been forced onto another person
- non-consensual body contact for a sexual purpose
- considered an act of power/domination
- Can be committed by a victim’s spouse
- Consent for one type of sexual behavior does not automatically mean consent for another type of behavior
- Laws are gender neutral
- There is no statute of limitations for persecution of sexual assault
- Central issue is consent – has it been given freely?
What are the type of sexual assualt that take place?
- stranger sexual assualt (18%)
- Acquaintance sexual assault (82%) - most cases happen with someone we know
- Date sexual assault
A common form of acquaintance sexual assault
More likely to occur under the influence of alcohol
Perception of willingness to return to man’s house
Resistance as being coy or game-playing
It can be more challenging for the courts to determine if consent was given in cases of established relationships.
Incidences in Canada:
In Canada in 2015, the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) indicated that:
* Over 21 000 sexual offences were reported to the police.
& The General Social Survey (GSS) calculates self-reported crime rates with a representative sample of Canadians aged 15 and older: * 677, 000 incidents of sexual assault in Canada What do the differences in these values indicate?
The difference in these values (e.g., 21,000 vs. 677,000) indicate that there is a large difference between the number of sexual assaults reported to the police and those that actually take place.
Why do more people not report sexual assault cases?
- Very hard to find statistics about males being raped.
- Victims fear no one will believe them.
- Victims that do report feel mistreated and not believed by police.
- On average 86% of cases are dropped on first visit.
- Only 3% actually makes it to trial and even fewer gets convicted, about 1%.
- Police complain there is not enough evidence to prosecute. There is reason to believe police are not getting adequate training on how to deal with sexual assault victims.
What is secondary victimization?
- refers to the attitudes of police officers, their beliefs and from a victims’ perspective, how it feels like victim shaming and blaming.
What are the consequences of secondary victimization?
- 90% of any Secondary Victimization behaviour during initial conversations with police.
- If the initial first response (police reporting) does not believe you, who am I going to get help with?
- Police might not even realize the person was abused, if they believe abuse is a certain kind of thing in the sense that it has to be violent, except it does not have to be.
- if an officer is telling me i dont think it’s serious enough then this will discourage people to report these cases.
- The perpetrator might do it again
Give an example of what secondary victimization might look like.
- Quote from Sex Crimes Unit Detective, 15 years experience: “The stuff they say makes no sense”
Sexual assault case attrition:
Secondary victimization: the stuff they say makes no sense. So no I don’t always believe them, and I let them know that - “ police does not believe and tell the victim.
Consequence - victim say never mind; they don’t want to do that anymore. Ok, fine.
Case doesn’t make any further: “complainant refused to prosecute. Case closed”
What are the brain hormones involved in trauma?
- HPA Axis balances the body following stress by releasing of various hormones.
- Catecholomines – like adrenaline, fight, or flight response.
- Cortisol – helps conserve energy.
- Opiods – prevents pain.
- Oxytocin – promotes good feelings.
what regions of the brain work together to encode memories?
what is the issue ?
- the hippocampus and amygdala work together in encoding memories.
- both structures are sensitive to hormonal fluctuations
What regions of the brain are invovled in memory process that are influenced by trauma?
- Hippocampus: processes info into memories
- Encoding: organizing sensory info
- Consolidation: grouping info into memories and storing them
- Amygdala: specializes in the processing of emotional memories (works with the hippocampus)
How are hormones that are released during a traumatic experience impact memory or a person’s ability to respond when being interviewed ?
- Catecholomines: fight or flight responses… impairs rational thoughts.
- The memories are there, but victims may need time to put their thought together. That is why answers may look fragmented.
- Cortisol: a high concentration of corticosteroids can lead to tonic immobility – body freezes and just shuts down. Police may wonder why victim did not fight back.
- Oxytocin: prevents pain …causes flat affect – biological reason. Police may think why victim is not showing emotion because abuse never happened.
What are two take-aways or things that can occur dring trauma/sexual assault?
Neurobiological changes ( increased stress hormones) result in two important changes:
* Can lead to flat affect/strange emotions/emotional swings.
* Can make memories consolidation and recall difficult – may need time to gather and put memories together. Depends on how the initial conversations goes with police officers.
True or False?
Consent between men and women are usually given verbally
False! Consent is usually given indirectly (non-verbally)
What are some effects that myths cause?
- Increase self blame.
Reduce likelihood of seeking help
Denies the attacker responsibility.
What are some myths about sexual assault & consent?
- no means yes
- violence does not happen in long-term relationships
- sexual assault is not always violent
- silence is consent
- lack of resistance is consent
