by Lisenga Sutter

Created on: January 11, 2009

Should rape victims be interviewed by members of the same sex?

I am the victim of rape, and a very proud survivor, I was so young when it had happened that I wasn't even aware of my sexuality or even what sex was. I was raped by my teacher when I was in the second grade, to the point that it was years afterwards that I even realized what exactly had taken place in my life so many years prior. I knew that something was wrong, and that I wasn't the same any more, what I didn't know was what it was that had happened to me. I saw this article topic and realized that there are a lot of women in the world that feel so alone when something this violent happens to them, they feel betrayed, frightened, and unsure of any man at that point. There is a level of embarrassment, and all of the I wish I had, or I could of done something that comes into the minds of women. In second grade, granted these are not the thoughts that plagued my thoughts and my mind, but they are what entered into thought as I got older and realised what it was that had actually happened to me, and then in the process of dealing with this tragedy, I was raped again at an older age. Now that I was older, with full understanding of what was happening to me, I was also very grateful for a woman officer being there when this happened to take my statement.

I know how hard it was for me to deal with this ordeal at all, and I have never felt so alone prior to this happening or since then. Knowing that this was now the second time that I endured such pain, made it even worse, I felt abandoned by all that loved me, even by God, and then to look into a mans eyes was the last thing in the world that I wanted to have to do. Being able to talk to a women I felt that even though she may not of gone through this that there was a look of understanding in her eyes and a sympathythat I am not sure a male officer would of been able to posses. Not that a man couldn't be as sympathetic as a women, but right at that moment at that split second between the incidentand the outcome, a women was able to reach me in a way that I don't believe a man could of. I was so frightened, feeling as if I was the soul survivor of a world ending type of movie, and I was the soul survivor, cursed to walk the world alone until God saw fit to allow me to pass on. I wanted to be held to be told that someone else out there understood all of these feelings that I was going through. Talking to a women officer gave that to me, the comfort I found

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