9781422276075

Copingwith Sexual Assault

Some attackers have weapons, and that, too, makes resistance seem like a bad idea. • Shock. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 3 out of 10 rapists are strangers. The other 7 out of 10, therefore, are someone the victim already knows. Among college students, that number can jump to 8 in 10 or even 9 in 10. That complicates the resistance question

immeasurably . If the attacker is a friend, family member, or authority figure, it can be extremely

difficult to abruptly switch to a mode where you fight a person you trusted until a few moments earlier. Because you have a social relationship with this person, you may find it impossible to believe that something terrible is even happening until it is too late.

People who have survived a trauma can be highly self-critical about how they behaved while the incident was occurring.

• Alcohol and drugs. About half of all sexual assaults have alcohol consumption (either by the attacker, the victim, or both) as part of the equation. This can be a big factor in limiting one’s ability to resist. You may not entirely understand what’s happening, or you might understand but not be able to defend yourself. And, of course, so-called date-rape drugs (such as Rohypnol or GHB) render a person unconscious, which totally eliminates any choice about resisting.

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