MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT

• Myth: Victims provoke sexual assaults when they dress provocatively or act in a promiscuous manner.

  • Fact:  Rape and sexual assault are crimes of violence and control that stem from a person’s determination to exercise power over another. Anyone can be sexually assaulted. Rape victims include people of color, lesbians/gays, disabled people, and persons of every race, nationality, religion, and income level. Most sexual assault victims are wearing regular clothes like blue jeans or pajamas when they are assaulted. Power over another, not clothing, is the rapist’s motivation.

   

• Myth: Most sexual assaults are committed by strangers.

  • Fact:  Over 75 percent of all sexual assaults and rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. Sexual assault can be committed within any type of relationship, including in marriage, in dating relationships, or by friends, acquaintances or co-workers.

   

• Myth: Rape is sex.

  • Fact: Rape is not sex. Sex is when two people agree to be together sexually. Rape is a crime that comes from the need to control, shame, and harm. Rapists use sexual violence as a weapon.

   

• Myth: She had sex with him before so it cannot be rape.

  • Fact: If a woman does not agree to have sex with a man, even if she has in the past, that is rape. Even if he has bought her gifts, he cannot demand sex in return.

   

• Myth: A woman should know not to go to someone’s room or house; if she does, she risks sexual assault.

  • Fact:  This “assumption of risk” wrongfully places the responsibility of the offender’s actions with the victim. Agreeing to go to a man's room is not an agreement to have sex. The partners must talk and agree to have sex and either partner may change her or his mind at any time. When someone says “No” or “Stop,” that means STOP. Sexual activity forced upon another without consent is sexual assault.

   

• Myth: It’s not sexual assault if it happens after drinking or taking drugs.

  • Fact:  Being under the influence of alcohol or drugs is not an invitation for non-consensual sexual activity. Many state laws even hold that a person who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not able to consent to sexual activity. People drink for many reasons; this does not automatically mean a person wants sex. Men who believe that alcohol makes a woman more willing to have sex also see a woman who drinks as wanting to have sex.

   

• Myth: Rape can be avoided if women avoid dark alleys or other dangerous places.

  • Fact: Rape and sexual assault can occur at any time, in many places, to anyone. Over half of sexual assaults occur in the residence of the victim, the offender, or another individual and are committed by someone known to the victim. Victims assaulted in their homes may suffer increased shock and upset because the violation occurred at a place where they believed they were safe.

   

• Myth: A woman who truly resists can't be raped. If she didn't fight back, she must have wanted it.

  • Fact:  Many states do not require a victim to resist in order to charge the offender with rape or sexual assault. Victims should trust their instincts and intuition and do what they think is most likely to protect them from injury and keep them alive. Intimidation and threats alone are often enough to overpower the victim. Not fighting or resisting an attack does not equal consent.

   

• Myth: A person who has really been sexually assaulted will be hysterical.

  • Fact: Victims of sexual violence exhibit a spectrum of responses to the assault, including calm, hysteria, withdrawal, anger, apathy, denial, and shock. Reactions to the assault and the length of time needed to process through the experience vary with each person.

   

• Myth: All sexual assault victims will report the crime immediately to the police.

  • Fact:  Reporting a sexual assault incident to the police is the exception and not the norm, and for many reasons. Just because a person did not immediately report or chooses not to report an assault does not mean the incident didn’t happen.

   

• Myth: Only young, pretty women are assaulted.

  • Fact:  The belief that only young, pretty women are sexually assaulted stems from the myth that sexual assault is based on physical attraction. Sexual assault is a crime about power and control, NOT about physical attraction or sex. Offenders often choose to attack people whom they perceive as most vulnerable.

   

• Myth: Rape is mostly an interracial crime.

  • Fact: The vast majority of sexual assaults and rapes happen between members of the same race. This is not true, however, for rapes and sexual assaults committed against Native women. Approximately 8 in 10 rapes or sexual assaults against American Indian victims are perpetrated by whites. Native women also experience a higher rate of sexual assault victimization than any other race.

   

• Myth: Rapists are lonely, sexually unfulfilled men.

  • Fact: Studies have shown that more than 60 percent of adult rapists were married, and almost all had normal sex lives with women at the time they committed the assault. Seventy-five percent of convicted rapists are white males, and most are under the age of 40. Sex offenders come from all income levels and they usually begin assaulting victims when they are teenagers. One-third are arrested for sexual assault before the age of 24.