Lesson 8 Flashcards
Chapter 9 (301-307)
Terms
Sexual abuse
Involves any sexual contact or sexual interaction between a minor and an adult
1 in 5 girls in the US is sexually abused during childhood
A child is incapable of consenting to sexual activity
Most abuse comes from men they know and trust
Incest
Sexual abuse by family members
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Common among abused women
Three categories of symptoms: Feel on edge, re-experience the assault over and over again, feel numb and avoid interactions with people or things that remind them of the attack
Symptoms last a month or more
Treatable
Three-stage cycle of violence
Tension building phase
Violent episode
Reconciliation
Violence tends to get worse the longer a woman stays with an abuser
Tension building phase
The abuser becomes increasingly angry and unreasonable
Verbal abuse may escalate
Woman feels increasingly anxious and fearful and may try to meet every need and request of the abuser or simply to be invisible to him
Violent episode
Abuser physically attacks the woman
Timing is unpredictable
Reconciliation
Abuser becomes extremely loving, attentive, repentant, swearing never to abuse again
May use illogical but appealing arguments to explain violence
Abuser acts like the ideal partner
False sense of security
Sexual assault
Situation in which a man physically forces himself on a woman in a sexual manner without physical penetration by the penis
Rape
An act in which a man penetrates a woman with his penis vaginally, anally, or orally when she does not consent to such activity
Includes situations in which woman can not consent
Acquaintance rape
“Date rape”
Occurs when a woman is forced into sex by a man known to the woman
Most common type of rape
Marital rape
Specific type of acquaintance rape in which a man rapes his wife
Correlation with physical abuse
Stranger rape
Man rapes a woman who is unknown to him
Typically most violent form of rape and most likely to cause psychological symptoms in survivors
Rape myths
Socially propagated beliefs about female-male relations that make rape seem unimportant or even acceptable
Ex: “No” = playing hard to get and means “yes”
Women secretly desire being raped
Letting a man pay for a date means she consents to sex
Women dress in ways that provoke men to rape
Rape trauma syndrome
Experience 2 major phases of dysfunction Disorganization phase (anger, saness, fear; life is falling apart; withdrawn for several weeks) Then long period of symptoms that gradually improve (anxiety, depression, fearful of men, nightmares, ill feeling; can last several months to several years)
