“MARRYING MY RAPIST?!”

Rape is one of the most under-reported crimes in the U.S., and yet it is one of the most vicious, devastating, and violent of all crimes. But getting justice for victims has not always been easy. Often the victim is criminalized, demonized, sexualized, or otherwise attacked for her own part in the rape. But over the years, laws have changed and prosecuting rapists has become more common.Taking the Standdescribes the criminal prosecution of rapists from the perspective of the women who survived their violence and explores if, when, and how the criminal justice process can work for them. Walking through the various responses rape victims have had to the criminal justice process, Konradi's vivid analysis provides new information to help raped women decide whether and how they should participate in prosecution, to help friends and family assist them, and to improve criminal justice practice for crime victims generally. Taking the Standfollows 47 rape survivors of varied ages and ethnicities, from the terror and trauma of rape through reporting to law enforcement, police investigation and indictment, hearings for probable cause and trials, plea bargaining, and sentencing. It focuses on women's experiences throughout the process and demonstrates how every experience is different. The problems that rape survivors face in the criminal justice process are not simply the result of the adversarial nature of court, defense tactics, or their own emotional reactions to violent sexual domination. Problems emerge from: (1) the social networks in which survivors are situated, (2) their variable access to emotional and financial resources, (3) their lack of knowledge about the formal and informal practices of courtrooms, (4) their lack of structural power in the criminal justice process, and (5) standard procedures employed by prosecutors and police. By recognizing individual differences in rape survivors, and their rape experiences, criminal justice personnel can better serve victims, and by understanding the layers of criminal investigation and prosecution, survivors and their families can play a more active role on their own terms in an effort to bring about justice. A rape survivor herself, Konradi exposes in the raw language of the victims the very sensitive nature of the topic and the personal obstacles survivors face. By addressing each stage of the criminal justice process, she makes it easier for those who seek justice to make decisions and choose behaviors that will positively affect their outcomes and their personal experiences with the system.

Supportive group work for women who have been victimized by the trauma of rape has been used as a therapeutic model for psychological integration, healing and recovery. To offer group members the opportunity to attain these goals, it is important that the group facilitator develop a working understanding of the impact of rape and the rich contribution that the mutual aid group modality provides in addressing members' issues and needs. This article attempts to illustrate and illuminate the effects of group treatment within distinct developmental stages of a community rape survivors' support group.

BackgroundDespite international acknowledgement of the linkages between sexual violence and conflict, reliable data on its prevalence, the circumstances, characteristics of perpetrators, and physical or mental health impacts is rare. Among the conflicts that have been associated with widespread sexual violence has been the one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).MethodsFrom 2003 till to date Malteser International has run a medico-social support programme for rape survivors in South Kivu province, DRC. In the context of this programme, a host of data was collected. We present these data and discuss the findings within the frame of available literature.ResultsMalteser International registered 20,517 female rape survivors in the three year period 2005–2007. Women of all ages have been targeted by sexual violence and only few of those – and many of them only after several years – sought medical care and psychological help. Sexual violence in the DRC frequently led to social, especially familial, exclusion. Members of military and paramilitary groups were identified as the main perpetrators of sexual violence.ConclusionWe have documented that in the DRC conflict sexual violence has been – and continues to be – highly prevalent in a wide area in the East of the country. Humanitarian programming in this field is challenging due to the multiple needs of rape survivors. The easily accessible, integrated medical and psycho-social care that the programme offered apparently responded to the needs of many rape survivors in this area.

This is a course discussing historical education of gender sensitive thinking in Chinese women and society. Half of the Population of Human being are women. The history of women has been changed from ancient into the fore at present. It is an interesting subject that has attracted the attention of historians.Traditionally, patriarchy was prevailed in China. Women’s social position was low. In traditional Chinese society woman's education received less attention than man. There's the saying that ”the less educated women are better virtuous”. But since the introduce of Western thought of woman's liberation into China, woman began to have more education and liberated gradually. This course discusses both traditional and modern education tracing ancient thinkers thought of gender thinking and the introduction of Western education which had influenced the Chinese society greatly. Of course, this course will discuss women's living condition in traditional time and the changing of their modern education, marriage, career and social position and gender consciousness with comparative illustrations. Students taking this course should come to understand the Chinese society from gender humanistic point of view.

An evolutionary analysis of psychological pain following rape:: I. The effects of victim's age and marital status

Mental pain has been hypothesized to reflect psychological adaptation designed by selection to detect and cope with the occurrence of social problems that reduced individuals inclusive fitness in human evolutionary history. According to the hypothesis, mental pain is brought about by social tragedies in the lives of individuals and focuses an individual's attention on the events surrounding the pain, promoting correction of the pain-causing events and their avoidance in the future. The hypothesis applied to rape victims argues that in human evolutionary history raped females had increased fitness as a result of mental pain, because the pain forced them to focus their attention on the fitness-reducing circumstances surrounding rape, which are discussed. Some of the hypothesis' predictions about the psychological pain of rape victims are examined using a data set of 790 rape victims who were interviewed about their psychological traumatization within five days after the assault. Earlier analyses of these data have indicated that, as predicted, both a victim's age and marital status are proximate causes of the magnitude of psychological pain following rape: Reproductive-aged women appear to have been more severely traumatized by rape than older women or girls and married women more than unmarried women. The analyses herein indicate that, as predicted, reproductive-aged women are more likely to be victims of force and/or violence during rape than are older women or young girls. When force and/or violence was controlled, reproductive-aged women were still more psychologically traumatized by rape than were either older women or young girls. The results suggest that the psychology that regulates mental pain processes information about age and mateship status in the event of a woman's rape. The analyses reported here indicate that stranger rapes are more forceful and violent than either friend or family-member rapes.

My work on rape trauma started as a research project. Credit for any of my contributions to the science and sociology of rape trauma must include my colleague, Lynda Lytle Holmstrom. Without her, I never would have started the study. Both of us were newly hired at Boston College. Holmstrom had just finished a research project on two-career families and was searching for a topic that was relevant to women’s lives and to the relationship between men and women. She had heard many reports by women at consciousness-raising groups in the late 1960s about physical assaults that had been made on them by men. And yet, it seemed that despite the common occurrence of assault against women and its strong impact on the people involved, researchers seldom picked up on this behavior as a research topic. Thinking about this disparity led Holmstrom to the idea, initially only vaguely formulated, of studying rape and especially rape victims. Her next step was to meet with me (Burgess), with whom she had done some interdisciplinary teaching at Boston College, to discuss how one might go about such a study. As I listened, I did a memory search on what I knew about rape and its victims. I came up with a blank. Having been educated in Boston, I had learned mainly the psychoanalytic theories, so nothing Holmstrom wassaying about rape matched what I was taught-which piqued my curiosity. It led me to tell her that if she wanted to add a clinical or counseling component to the study, I would be interested in collaborating with her. We then discussed how an interdisciplinary approach might be an especially fruitful way to deal with the problem, and how the academic expertise of a sociologist and the clinical expertise of a psychiatric nurse complemented each other. We became a team (Holmstrom & Burgess, 1978).

Sexual violence is one of the acts of direct violence, the act involves other people in the desired sexual activity. Sexual violence that occurs in the community is a particular concern, especially for women. The general public often blames victims who dress openly, this is usually said to be victim blaming or victim blaming, which means that victims of crime are held accountable for what happened to them. The psychological impact experienced by the victims is mostly mental trauma, fear, shame, anxiety, and even suicide attempts. This form of literature research aims to find out the application of therapeutic communication in an effort to recover victims of sexual violence against women and children. In this study, the researcher uses qualitative methods, data collection with interview methods and descriptive observations strengthened by using literature studies with literature searches using therapeutic communication keywords in an effort to recover victims of female sexual violence. Based on the cases faced by providing assistance and counseling to victims, counselors must master the stages in the therapy process, this is aimed at the smooth healing process for victims who experience sexual violence. The stages that must be mastered are; pre-interaction stage; orientation stage; stages of work; and termination stage. Of course, the Friendly People in this case are considered to be quite competent in dealing with victims of sexual violence.

This research is entitled "The Reception and Effect of Charles Dickens' Works in cross-cultural Communication", which can analyze the reception of Dickens' works in China and its deep penetration into Chinese society, culture and literature in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Focusing on the period from 1895 to 1915, when Western ideas flooded into the land of China, Dickens, one of the leading figures in Western literature, whose passages were translated into China, immediately triggered profound reverberations. This paper begins with an overview of the initial transformation of Dickens' works in the Chinese environment, and studies the translation methods, publication history, and the reaction and experience of the early readers. Further, by depicting the Chinese society from 1895 to 1915, it reveals how Dickens's works interwoven dialogue with the ideological changes in China at that time, especially insight into how the intellectual elite reflected on and challenged the established social structure with Diellet's words, and further promoted social changes. Then this study also focuses on the localization process of Dickens' works in the Chinese cultural circle, focusing on the reshaping of themes, the adaptation of literary techniques and narrative techniques, and the driving force of these variations on the evolution of modern Chinese literature. Finally, individual texts such as Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities are analyzed to deepen the insight of illusion and innovation in cross-cultural communication. The conclusion shows that China's absorption of Dickens goes beyond mere literary transaction, and actually reflects the confrontation and fusion of the blend of Chinese and Western. These imported works not only broadened the Chinese people's vision of literature and art, but also boosted the modernization of Chinese society and brought new vitality to the prosperity of Chinese literature. This study contributes a new view into the Sino-English cultural intersection in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and also provides a valuable reference for further research on the acceptance and influence of cross-cultural literature.

This study expands the empirical and theoretical understanding of attitudes toward rape victims. Six hundred and eight adolescents and young adults were given three brief questionnaires assessing attitudes toward rape victims, attitudes toward women, and sex-role orientation, in addition to three sexual coercion vignettes. The results demonstrated that a significant proportion of students held unfavorable attitudes toward rape victims, perceived the victims as being responsible for the rape, and perceived the victims as contributing to their assault. Negative stereotypes about rape were also related to conservative and traditional beliefs about women's social roles. Gender and educational level differences regarding rape victims were also found. The direct implications of these results for enhancing the efficacy of rape prevention and education programs is discussed in terms of both content and target group.

The current study surveyed 530 college students to investigate perceptions of victim responsibility or blame in heterosexual stalking situations using a vignette design. The vignettes manipulated the gender of the victim and offender, as well as the prior relationship between the victim and offender. Regression results revealed that while perceived victim blame was low overall among the sample, victims of known offenders received the most blame, especially if they engaged in casual sex practices. Gender of the victim and offender in the vignette did not significantly affect the perceptions of victim blame. Contrary to previous literature, male respondents were significantly less likely than female respondents to assign blame to the victim, particularly when the victim was a male being pursued by a female stalker. Also, white respondents were significantly less likely than nonwhite respondents to attribute blame to the victim. Implications for educational programs or other campus initiatives to address victim-blaming attitudes and stalking are discussed.

Rape is considered a stressful trauma and often has long-lasting health consequences. Compared with adult females, limited data exist on the psychological impact of rape in adolescents. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of emotional distress in a cohort of adolescent rape survivors in Cape Town. Participants in this prospective longitudinal study were 31 adolescent female rape survivors recruited from a rape clinic in Cape Town and assessed within 2 weeks of the assault. Assessment measures included a sociodemographic questionnaire and initial screening with the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey (CATS), the patient-rated Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), and the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC). The CATS, CDI, and MASC were repeated at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months post enrollment. Psychiatric diagnoses were made with the clinician-administered Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview-Child and Adolescent version (MINI-Kid). At baseline, on the MINI-Kid, a definitive diagnosis of major depressive episode was endorsed in 22.6% of the participants. Stress-related disorders were found in 12.9%, whereas 16.1% had anxiety disorders. There was no diminution of symptoms on self-reported psychopathology measures at follow-up assessment over the five follow-up time points, suggesting persistent psychopathology over a 1-year period despite repeated clinical assessments and supportive counseling. Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder in this sample of adolescent female rape survivors were high at enrollment and found to be persistent, underlining the need for long-term support, screening, and evidence-based follow-up care.

Reviewed by: Worlds of Hurt: Reading the Literatures of Trauma Tony Williams Kalí Tal. Worlds of Hurt: Reading the Literatures of Trauma. New York: Cambridge UP, 1996. 296 pp. Kalí Tal’s Worlds of Hurt is a significant pioneering venture into an area deserving serious attention. As a development of the author’s outstanding doctoral dissertation “Bearing Witness: The Literature of Trauma” (1991), it contains new material and further insights into the field it explores. Tal begins by commenting on the irony of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s designation of Henry Kissinger (who wasn’t “there”) as a fellow survivor in 1991. This leads the author to question the process whereby Wiesel becomes the voice of a survivor as well as to examine the conflict between individual psychic trauma and cultural representations of traumatic events. Tal concentrates upon three main areas of traumatic representation: Holocaust survival, the Vietnam War, and narratives of rape and incest victims. “The subject of this work is psychic trauma; its cultural-political inquiry moves back and forth between the effects of trauma upon individual survivors and the manner in which that trauma is reflected and revised in the larger, collective political and cultural world.” Three main strategies of cultural coping usually occur: “mythologization” often reduces a traumatic event to a set of standardized narratives; “medicalization” regards traumatic victims as objects who can be “cured” within existing institutional structures; and “disappearance” works at undermining the credibility of the victim and refusing to admit the existence of a particular trauma. To her credit Tal interrogates the dominant mechanisms of these three discourses and argues for the crucial role of the victim’s identity and testimony. Holocaust survival, Vietnam War trauma, and incest-victim narratives all involve a struggle for memory and a vehement opposition to revisionist mechanisms. Tal critiques various attempts to place the unique nature of the conflict into convenient literary and mythological categories making the event another tragic episode in the fall of the American Adam. “The incapacity of traditional criticism to deal with the literature of the Vietnam War is exemplified in its inevitable and total reduction of the war to metaphor.” Better interrogative cultural, sociological, and historical approaches avoiding certain postmodernist pitfalls of dismissing valid testimony and denying “the specific effects of trauma on the process of narration” are definitely needed. [End Page 1065] As in her dissertation, Tal includes a valuable chapter on the Vietnam poet and writer, W. D. Ehrhart, who exemplifies the major qualities of an artist searching for a “whole new mode of speaking in order to articulate his subject.” This “Farmer of Dreams” engages in an important literary exploration frequently misjudged by proponents of academic creative writing programs. Ehrhart’s later poetry reflects a breakdown of coping mechanisms and an “ability to once again fully experience the range of human emotion” leading away from death and toward life and uncertainty. The final chapters deal with the emotionally disturbing but poignant nature of narratives by rape and incest survivors. Much of this material is upsetting to read, but it is also different from most literary narratives. It expresses traumatic feelings in ways that urgently need to be understood and disseminated to a world often expressing willful ignorance about these experiences, whether in academic or everyday life. Tal has performed a valuable task in depicting this painful world and arguing for its inherent relevance. Traditional conceptions of literature and taste are irrelevant toward understanding the nature of these different voices. She cogently argues, “Literature of trauma is written from the need to tell and retell the story of the traumatic experience, to make it real both to the victim and to the community. Such writing serves both as validation and cathartic vehicle for the traumatized writer.” The various psychic journeys undertaken in trauma literature involve a move from fragmentation to wholeness marked by struggle in which survivors fight ideological battles over a struggle for meaning. Throughout this book, Tal often sees remarkable unities between the diverse narratives she examines, such as those linking Louise Wisechild’s The Obsidian Mirror with Ehrhart’s prose narratives. Tal contends, “Both authors insist firmly on allowing the protagonist to speak for himself/herself, and...

A model of cognitive-behavioral treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in rape survivors is presented. Emotional processing theory, which proposes mechanisms that underlie the development of disturbances following rape, is reviewed. A combination therapy that includes education about common reactions to trauma, relaxation training, imaginal reliving of the rape memory, exposure to trauma reminders, and cognitive restructuring is presented. The case example of a young female rape survivor is described in detail, including her assessments before and after therapy. In this case, issues of prior substance dependence and intense shame and guilt are highlighted. The therapy was successful in reducing the client's symptoms of PTSD as well as her depressive symptoms, and these gains were maintained at a 1-year follow-up assessment. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among rape victims and war refugees is high. Cognitive-behavioral interventions have demonstrated effectiveness in alleviating PTSD in rape survivors. Effectiveness of such interventions when rape is perpetrated as part of war hostilities has not been examined. Rape and plunder of civilian populations characterized the 1991 to 1995 war in the former Yugoslavia. Rape camps terrorized civilians on all sides of that conflict. This case study illustrates a course of cognitive-behavioral treatment for PTSD with a female, Bosnian refugee and rape survivor. At post treatment, the client no longer met criteria for PTSD, and improvements were evident at 6- and 12-month follow-ups. Approaches to treating PTSD in war refugees are discussed.