The Law's No Friend To Victims Of Rape

By Julie Bengston Sweet
Special to The Times

ONE in every three women in the United States will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. But only about one in five of those will report the crime to the police.

In my year of work as a volunteer advocate on a rape crisis line, I've come to understand why this is true. And I've come to realize this: The law is no friend to rape victims.

For those who do report a rape, only about a third of their attackers will be arrested. Of those suspects arrested, only about half will be convicted. That means for every 100 sexual assaults, only one attacker will go to prison.

Washington State defines rape as forcible sexual intercourse without the person's consent. Most degrees of rape under state law require signs of physical force and a reasonable attempt by the victim to overcome the force.

Technically, rape in the third degree is considered when there is lack of consent clearly expressed by words or conduct. Yet, prosecution is extremely rare without physical evidence of a struggle, such as bruises or broken bones.

These definitions ignore an essential fact broadly accepted by experts: Most victims - perhaps as many as three in every four - know their attackers. In these cases, it is unlikely police will find evidence of physical violence. Often, coercion is a complex combination of emotional and verbal intimidation. Usually, the victim is groomed by the rapist. She feels at ease in his company. Her friends know him, thereby making it more difficult for the victim to later tell her story and feel she will be believed by others.

The law's strict standard of physical proof perpetuates stereotypes of rape: a virgin taken forcefully by a deranged man as she makes her way across campus.

That myth has kept the vast majority of victims silent. The callers I talk to on the crisis line have been raped by boyfriends, bosses, friends. They are usually not virgins prior to the rape. They may have been drinking prior to the attack. Women under 18 are often too terrified to tell their parents because they were drinking or hanging out with the "wrong crowd" when they were attacked.

"Among the top four concerns expressed by rape victims were their families finding out they had been raped, people believing the rapes were their fault, people outside the family learning that they had been raped, and their names being made public by the news media," Howard Swindle writes in his book "Trespasses: Portrait of a Serial Rapist."

These fears not only keep victims from reporting, they also severely limit access to resources and support for the survivor. Many callers tell me that they've never told anyone else about the rape. They are afraid of being judged and not being believed. This inability to tell their story keeps them powerless. They continue to be terrified of the rapist, who is often someone they have to see again in social, education or business settings. They blame themselves for the rape and ask, "Why did he do this to me?"

After hearing that question several times, I tried to find an answer. Why do men rape? (Ninety-five percent of rapists are male, and 91 percent of victims are female, according to the FBI.) Just as there is the victim myth, there is a predator myth. Characterized as having insatiable sexual needs, the mythical sexual predator is the crazed man in the bushes. He is the wide-eyed transient preying on little girls.

The truth is, there is no stereotypical rapist. Rapists are found in all races, classes and neighborhoods. FBI statistics show that 95 percent of offenders are of the same race and socioeconomic class as their victim.

In his book "Men who Rape," Nicholas Groth dispels the predator myth by showing that rape is a "sexual expression of power and anger."

"To regard rape as an expression of sexual desire is not only an inaccurate notion but also an insidious assumption, for it results in the shifting of the responsibility for the offense in large part from the offender onto the victim," states Groth.

In his work with convicted offenders, Groth has used clinical data to define sexual predators by their motive.

There is the sadistic rapist, thought to be the most rare; he is actually the closest to the myth found in movies and books. These rapists are motivated by a combination of power and anger that becomes eroticized. They find gratification in tormenting others, and use sex as a weapon in that torment.

The anger rapist seeks gratification not from a sexual release, but from the discharge of his anger. In addition to the sexual assault, anger rapists are usually physically and verbally violent toward their victims. They often leave physical evidence like bruises and broken bones. But when the victim knows the offender, she is often too terrified of him to report the offense.

Finally, there is the power rapist. He is thought to be the most prevalent type and his motivation fits the description of the many rapes women talk about on the crisis line but never report. The power rapist uses rape as an expression of power over others. His sexuality, Groth writes, becomes a "means of compensating for underlying feelings of inadequacy." He typically does not use physical force unless it's necessary to complete the rape.

When a caller asks, "Why did he do this to me?" I don't try to explain Groth's three types of rapists. Rather, I tell her it wasn't her fault. It's the truth, and the most important thing she must believe in order to heal from the trauma. Yet, I cannot reassure her that the law will protect her.

Society and the law have convinced victims that they could have done something to prevent rape. Even at the risk of her own life, she is expected to physically resist as much as possible. As if being sexually violated is not enough, the victim must offer a broken body in hopes a court of peers will believe her and see that justice is done.

"There is no place, season or time of day in which a rape has never occurred, nor any specific person to whom it has never happened," writes Groth. Until this is understood by society and reflected in our laws, rape will continue. Women will fear reporting and rapes will go unpunished. I will continue to tell callers it wasn't their fault - and wait for society to believe me.