RAPE
CENTER
CRISIS
pressured into sexual relations as a child (incestuous; older females), the offender has commonly been assaulted as a child by strangers.
This type of sexual offender has been classified by researchers as either "fixated" or "regressed". The fixated offender maintains a persistent interest in children throughout life. Offenses usually begin during adolescence. The regressed offender, on the other hand, will turn to children as substitutes for adult interpersonal relations when peer relations become conflictual.
Sexual assaults against youth occur either as "sex-pressure" or as "sex-force" offenses. In the sex-pressure situation, the offender uses power and authority as ways to entice and entrap a child in return for a form of reward. The child is perceived as warm, loving, open, clean, innocent, and undemanding. Participation in sex is presented to the child as a game or a party. Because the offender and victim
Rape Crisis HOT LETTER
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center
3201 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland 44104 391-3912 (answered 24 hrs., 7 days)
The Adolescent Offender
The activities of the adolescent sexual offender tend to be dismissed as part of the spectrum of normal teenage.development. People fear stigmatizing adolescents with labels and feel concern for their chances in adult life. Although these concerns have a sincere basis, not to question a possible offender's activities is to abandon the child. Professionals tend to avoid serious counselling with adolescents who commonly use a great deal of denial, demonstrate little evidence of self-reflection, and fear judgments made by adults. The frequent use of the diagnosis "adolescent adjustment reaction" offers little help in planning counselling. Since adolescents already find themselves in turmoil over major life issues, adults listening to them may blur suggestions of rape with teenage sex. Currently no programs or facilities have been designed for adolescent sexual'
Cleveland Rape Crisis Center 1977 Stotistics:
The number of persons receiving counselling and support doubled, totalling 715. Almost 2300 calls for information, either about CRCC, the crime of rape or for friends and relatives of victims, were answered. CRCC also spoke to 180 school and community groups.
Assailant statistics:
16.3% involved 2 or more assailants
40.1% assailants were strangers
30.9% assailants were acquaintances of their victims
6.1% assailants were relatives of their victims
10.1% of the assailants used knives 16.3% of the assailants used guns
5.4% of the assailants used other weapons 68.2% of the assailants used no weapon
Statistics on location:
20.0% in victims's home
7.8% in assailant's home
5.4% in other homes
10.6% outdoors
3.1% at bus or rapid stop 4.0% in parking lots
usually know one another, the child feels an affiliation and dependency on the adult. Frequently when such situations are discovered, the child will reveal that long-term, ongoing sexual activity has been operating in the guise of a secrecy pact with the child.
The "sex-force" offense involves the use of overt threat or force, especially intimidation with a weapon, to enforce sexual demands. The offender sees the victim in a more negative light, as helpless and vulnerable. Risk of physical injury in this premeditated assault is highly common. The offender does not usually know the child.
Child and adolescent victims tend to withdraw socially, run away from family members, and appear apathetic and listless in school. The young victims learn that sexual activity serves a means to an end; they may accept early introduction into pornographic exploitation or prostitution. Besides the potential for early prostitution, adolescents become involved in drugs and alcohol, espcially if they have run away. After the assaults have been discovered, the family may recall these signs and find that all of them now make sense but previously confused them.
14.0% in a car 9.9% in other places
Victim statistics:
62.7% received hospital treatment 62.7% reported crime to police 11.3% arrests were made
Victim's age:
.7% -1-4 2.1% -5-9 6.6% -. 10-14 30.7% 15-19
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32.5%-20-29 9.7% -30-39 3.8% -40-49 2.4% -over 50
Geographic location:
9.4% -West
30.9% -East
46.0%-Total Cleveland 13.9% -Eastern suburbs · 8.0% -Western suburbs
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21.9% -Total suburbs 2,6% -Other cities
offenders, whose actions clearly cry out for help.
Teenage rape occurs when the offender and victim are of the same age range. Teenage group rapes tend to have a ritualistic quality, in which all the assailants rape all of the victims. The confidence style of assault usually happens in familiar neighborhoods. Once the victim has been raped, she finds that other boys see her as more accessible and may hassle her. Afterwards, the victim needs to settle each rape in a group rape separately. She must settle each event in her mind.
The older or elderly victim of rape is generally classified as such if she is at least twice the age of the assailant. Offenders of older victims are generally white, single, between the ages of 12-38 years. Prior sexual offenses include indecent exposure, obscene phone calls, and theft of undergarments. Growing up in an unstable family, this kind of rapist feels alienated from both parents: the father com. monly reported as cruel, alcoholic, presenting himself as a "non-entity" for the son; and a highstrung, promiscuous mother. Early child abuse is
common.
The elderly victim either does not know her assail
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ant or maintains a casual association with him. The rapist selects the place of attack within a car or the victim's home. Multiple sexual acts are common, before and after death. Marital disputes, anger at a mother's restriction on freedom, or a fight with his girlfriend may trigger the feeling of rejection that is projected onto the elderly victim, who must undergo pain, humiliation and degradation.
Counselling the Rape Victim
Counsellors of all kinds should treat the problem of rape with the attention it deserves, such as including relevant questions on histories while taking interviews. The counsellor can attempt to obtain a sexual history by using concepts contained in the following questions: "It's important for your health care that I know your sexual history: Have you ever been pressured or forced to have some form of sexual relations? Have you ever pressured or forced anyone to have some form of sexual activity? Do you think that your symptoms are rape-related?"
The evidence of incest within the nuclear family or among kin relationships probably constitutes the most delicate and explosive counselling situation. The clinical picture of incest involves the total family's dysfunction rather than the act of one member. The child victim usually feels divided loyalties to each parent, may often identify with the offenderparent (because this may be the only source of attention given to the child), and will fear abandonment. The child's feelings and conflicts need full expression.
The child victim frequently experiences symptoms similar to the rape-trauma syndrome: nightmares, minor mood changes, difficulty separating the offender's behavior from that of general male/female behavior. The child often wishes to sleep with one parent. Fear of public exposure involves the real issue of children's rights. Parents often blame themselves after discovering incest, realizing how they missed clues which now present a total picture. The "innocent" parent's feelings can be used as the basis for a contract if the family tries to remain together. The contract should be stated clearly, i.e., no future sexual contact, responsible parental behavior (if the offender is also the parent), regular talking sessions. Since the offender often establishes a bond with the child as a substitute outlet for dependency needs, the counsellor must try to avoid favoring either parent. The child could be neglected in this process.
Handicapped victims present a complicated challenge for the rape crisis counsellor, who must be alert to the technical ways in which the impact of rape differs for the victim. Language barriers and cultural differences especially affect the adolescent community, wherein cultural meanings of rape and pregnancy vary from one subculture to another.
The clinical picture of rape still appears complex and uncharted. A clinical lew also requires the political, economic and cultural dimensions of rape in order to grasp its impact completely. The rape workshop focused attention on reaching community people who work with either the rape victim or offender in some way. Most often such work needs multi-disciplinary cooperation that precludes professional conceit and territorial possessiveness. At the center of cooperation, the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center has been working in counselling and education of agencies for the past four years. If you need help in any way, it's the best place to start.
--compiled and written by Carol Epstein
February, 1978/What She Wants/page 7"