Victim Blaming Women

In American society, 1 out of 3 women deal with the issue of rape and are facing double-standards surrounding victim blaming. In contrast to men, women often blamed for being in the wrong locations, wearing the wrong type of clothing, being around alcohol or drugs. Experts might say that the trend of blaming and victimizing women for crimes committed against them represents the overall issues of hatred towards the female gender in the United States. The offense of rape has been denied in our society over and over again for centuries. In fact, adding other physical and mental trauma of not validating a victim 's experience lends to making her feeling useless and unsafe. The blaming of a rape victim before, during and after the act of sex marginalizes …show more content…
In addition to her rape, the rapist used a shoe lace string to tie her hands up and a knife from her kitchen. During the attack, she was blindfolded and could not see anything but pitch black. Also, he had on a mask. That same night the rapist took pictures of her and went through her things. In addition to that he knew her name and pleaded that if she told anyone, he would put her pictures on the internet. According to "Research suggests that sexual assaults involving nonstrangers are particularly unlikely to be reported.It is unclear, however, whether victims of sexual assaults are more reluctant to report the incident than victims of physical assaults when they know the offender. Perhaps the reluctance to report reflects more general inhibitions related to knowing an offender and it does not matter whether the aggression has a sexual element. Only a comparison of reporting for sexual and physical assault will reveal whether sexual assaults by nonstrangers are particularly unlikely to be reported"(Sarah M. Guerette, Sandra L. Caron). When Marie go raped she did not turn to the police first instead, she called her mother and then decided what to to do. Then after they called the cops but the situation did not seem so real that they made a report about her rapist due to everything that he used was in her home and was very careful about what he did. According to studies "In another case, relationships between the victim and known assailant are …show more content…
In Marie’s care, her family was not sure about her raped case due to her actions. She did not seem like she was upset. She started to call many people telling them about her situations and to make them know someone came into her home and what they did. Also, her family thought that she was lying about her situation. To demonstrate one day Marie and her mother went shopping to buy her new bedspreads because they took her old one for evidence, Marie decided to pick out the same exact bedspread that she had when she was sexually assaulted. Following, her decisions, thus made her mother very skeptical about if she got raped because nothing seems to change with her behavior. Besides Marie is doing what she did before she got raped when her mother questioned her about getting the same bed spread this made Marie anger. According to studies “Victims of acquaintance rape often do not report their ordeal to the authorities. Due perhaps to beliefs surrounding sexual assaults of this nature that portray ‘‘acquaintance’’ rape as less ‘‘real’’ than ‘‘stranger’’ rape and, therefore, less likely to go to trial and receive a conviction(La Free, 1988). For example, Marie experienced her rape situation very different from how her family, thought she would have reacted. After being raped, she was scared and shaking. Traumatized by the situation and thinking could have lost her life that night. A few days later she decided to call a