Sex Crimes Part 2: Rape (Sexual Assault)

Rape is any illegal sexual contact that involves forcing a person without their consent or inflicting such contact with someone who is unable to give consent due to age or physical or mental capabilities.

Rape is a violent crime using sex as a weapon—rape is used to assert one’s domination over another. It is not committed to satisfy a sexual urge.

Rape is about power, not sex. A rapist uses actual force or violence — or the threat of it — to take control over another human being.

Some rapists use drugs to take away a person's ability to fight back. Rape is a crime, whether the person committing it is a stranger, a date, an acquaintance, or a family member. No matter how it happened, rape is frightening and traumatizing. People who have been raped need care, comfort, and a way to heal.

There are several types of rape, generally categorized by reference to the situation in which it occurs, the sex or characteristics of the victim, and/or the sex or characteristics of the perpetrator. Different types of rape include but are not limited to:

• date rape,
• gang rape,
• marital rape or spousal rape, incestual rape,
• child sexual abuse,
• prison rape,
• acquaintance rape,
• war rape
• statutory rape.

Signs and symptoms of someone who has been sexually assaulted or raped tend to include a variety of emotional, behavioral, social, and work-related problems.



Facts about rape in Malaysia:

• 80% of all rape victims know their attackers for example, relatives, friends, partners.
• Approximately 70% of rapes happen in safe places like at home, at school, a friend’s house.
• Only 1 in every 10 rapes are reported; rape is one of the most under-reported crimes in the world.
• In 2003, 1,479 police reports were lodged by rape victims. The figure doubled to 3,098 in 2007.
• Malaysian law narrowly defines rape as the penetration of the penis into the vagina of a woman without her consent.
  
• According to DSP Zaiton Che Lah; head of the Sexual Crimes Unit under the Sexual Crimes and Children Investigation Division (D11), about 50% of the total number of rape cases each year involve victims aged 16 and below.
• Sex with or without the consent of a girl below the age of 16 is considered statutory rape. The punishment for rape is prescribed under Section 376 of the Penal Code.
  
• Marital rape is not criminalized in Malaysia . Under the law, a husband can only be charged with causing hurt or fear of death, to his wife or any other person in order to have sexual intercourse with her (Penal Code, Section 375A).

Effects of Rape:

• Victims of rape can be severely traumatized by the assault

• may have difficulty functioning due to the assault

• disruption of concentration, sleeping patterns and eating habits, for example may feel jumpy or be on edge

• After being raped, it is common for the victim to experience acute stress disorder, including symptoms similar to those of post traumatic stress disorder, such as intense, sometimes unpredictable emotions, and they may find it hard to deal with their memories of the event

• In the months period, these problems may be severe and upsetting, may prevent the victim from revealing their ordeal to friends or family, or seeking police or medical assistance.
  

• Additional symptoms of Acute Stress Disorder include:

1. depersonalization or dissociation (feeling numb and detached, like being in a daze or a dream, or feeling that the world is strange and unreal) difficulty remembering important parts of the assault
2. reliving the assault through repeated thoughts, memories, or nightmares
   
3. avoidance of things, places, thoughts, and/or feelings that remind the victim of the assault anxiety or increased alertness (difficulty sleeping, concentrating, etc.)
4. avoidance of social life or place of rape

What should I do if I had been rape?

Take care of yourself in the best way for you. For some people, that means reporting the crime immediately and fighting to see the rapist brought to justice. For others it means seeking medical or emotional care without reporting the rape as a crime. Every person is different.

There are three things that everyone who has been raped should do, though:

1. Know that the rape wasn't your fault.
2. Seek medical care.
3. Deal with your feelings.

Please remember:

Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault. No one has the right to have sex with you against your will. The blame for a rape lies solely with the rapist.

Sometimes a rapist will try to exert even more power by making the person who's been raped feel like it was actually his or her fault. A rapist may say stuff like, "You asked for it" or "You wanted it." This is just another way for the rapist to take control. The truth is that what a person wears, what a person says, or how a person acts is never a justification for rape.

Most people who are raped know their rapists. That can sometimes lead the person who's been raped to try to protect the perpetrator. Make protecting yourself your priority. Don't worry about protecting the person who raped you.

If you want to report the crime to the police, do so. Reporting a rape may help protect others from that person — and may help you feel a little less like you were a victim.

But making a report to the police may be difficult for some people. If you don't feel comfortable reporting it, you don't have to. You may prefer to get advice about what to do from an experienced adult who can be sympathetic to you. Do whatever helps you to feel safe and heal without blaming yourself.

credit to:

http://www.medicinenet.com/rape_sexual_assault/article.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape
http://kidshealth.org/teen/safety/safebasics/rape_what_to_do.html#
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2010/8/1/nation/6775682