by Joy Mosenfelder

Created on: December 21, 2008   Last Updated: January 06, 2009

Studies indicate that victims of sexual assault are subject to a greater degree of scrutiny and doubt than victims of other violent crimes from the moment they report the crime until long after the trial is over. Cultural mythology would have us believe that this increased scrutiny is justified due to assumptions about victims of sexual assault. Before jumping to conclusions about these unfortunate victims it is important to understand what these assumptions are and how they hold up under careful study.

When questioned about sexual assault victims compared to victims of other violent crimes respondents will often cite the cultural perception that these victims are more likely to lie about what happened. There are a number of problems with this assumption. For starters, one can find examples of false reports in any category of crime. Research has shown that only 2-3% of all reported assaults are deliberate falsifications. These numbers are equivalent to false reports of other crimes. Far more significant than the small percentage of false reports to law enforcement is that 60% of known victims, those assaulted who have sought treatment or come forward in another way, never report their assault to the police. If one accounts for victims who never try to seek treatment or share their story the actual number of unreported sexual assaults is likely to be much higher. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) estimates that due to under reporting and other factors working against victims only 6% of all rapists will ever spend a day in jail.

The cultural stigma surrounding sexual assault still prevents many victims from seeking recourse for their trauma. While research has demonstrated time and time again that those who commit sexual assault are almost certain to re offend if unchecked in their criminal behavior, the tendency is still to blame the victim. You would never hear someone suggest that a mugging victim who was walking late at night with an exposed iPod was asking to be beaten up and robbed. Yet, it is all too common to hear the suggestion that a women wearing revealing clothing was "asking for it" when she was sexually assaulted, or that a gay man who suffered an assault should have presented himself differently. All too often victims of sexual assault find they have more to lose by reporting the crime than they do by keeping quiet, leaving assailants walking free to assault again.

Perhaps the cultural bias comes from a lack of education about why and how sexual assault occurs. Victims are far more likely to be assaulted by someone they know and trust than they are by a random stranger. Rape and sexual assault cases challenge our cultural assumptions about who is a criminal. It is easy to look at a mugger and see a bad guy. Making the leap from teacher, doctor, uncle, or friend to rapist is more of a challenge for many people. Sometimes even survivors struggle with how to classify their assailants. The closer the relationship was before the breach of trust, the more a survivor has to fear from coming forward about the assault. She or he may be afraid of losing friends, a job, or even his or her home if he or she is not believed. At the very least, a survivor choosing to report will have to recount the experience detail by detail to the medical examiner at the hospital, to the police, to the district attorney and countless others before the case can be brought to trial. Given that sexual assault is arguably the most violently invasive and psychologically traumatic experience the survivor will undergo in his or her life, fear of reliving the assault in order to recount it to strangers keeps many survivors silent.

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