Date Rape Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Date Rape - Essay Example While majority of date rape victims are women, men can still fall victims to such violation. The rape need not occur during a date, and such things happen even among married couples. It is in fact a bothering estimate of â€Å"14-30% of all adult women have been raped or experienced attempted rape† (Burgess & Burpo, 2012, p.749). It is even more bothering that college-aged women make up the largest share of this percentage. Furthermore, it is not comfortable to know that â€Å"84% of rape survivors knew their assailants† (Burgess & Burpo, 2012, p.749). The staggering number of date rape incidence and all the factors surrounding it such as misconceptions, social stigma, and abuse and misuse of drugs and alcohol should be prevented in order to correct any erroneous beliefs, remove social stigma that silences the victims, and educate other people on the effects of substance abuse and misuse to eventually lessen the incidences of date rape. Interesting Facts 71% of rapes ar e planned or premeditated. Women are the ones most likely to be vulnerable when spending time along with a man. One of the major problems of date rape is that majority of the effects are unseen or even unheard. This means that many incidents may have been left unreported. It is said that less than 5% of college women who are victims of date rape report the incident to the authorities. However, around two-thirds of these victims confide into someone about their ordeal. In another study, 40% of these college-aged victims do not report the date rape because of fear for reprisal or social stigma (Sampson, 2002, p.4). One report states, â€Å"30% of respondents said a woman is partially or totally responsible for being raped if she was drunk† (Grubb & Harrower, 2009, p.63). Furthermore, in a large study, it is reported that 22.8% of college rape victims already experienced some form of sexual assault before. There is also a possibility of that serial rapists are common among date rapists, for there is a report saying that 96 males were responsible for 187 incidences of rapes (Sampson, 2012, p.10). The numbers continue to shock when a National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that 75% of male students and 55% of female students had been drinking alcohol or taking drugs before the date rape. Considering the fact that most date rapes are unreported, there is still an average of 25% females who are reported to be victims of date rape. Passive and Active Causes Misconceptions, social stigma, and abuse and misuse of drugs and alcohol should be looked into as major components of this horrific violence against women, mainly. One, some people have particular prejudice, false beliefs, and even stereotypes about rape, rapists, and rape victims. For example, it is a widespread idea that a woman’s dress may provoke a man to be sexually aggressive. There may also be incidences when flirting may be misinterpreted as interest in having sex. There are also gender ed social roles that makes one think men should pursue women, and that women should be passive and unassertive. Men might erroneously think that women expect aggression or compulsion in sexual acts. Worsening these misconceptions is the lack of knowledge. According to Burgess & Burpo (2012), there is a: number of women who have experienced events that meet the legal definition of rape, but fail to describe these events as rape;