N.C. Lock Service LLC Myths & Facts
MYTH:Sexual assault is a crime of passion and lust.Sexual assault is a crime of violence. Assailants seek to dominate, humiliate and punish their victims.
MYTH:You cannot be assaulted against your will.
Assailants overpower their victim with the threat of violence or with actual violence. In cases of acquaintance rape or incest, an assailant often uses the victim's trust in assailant to isolate the victim.
MYTH:A person who has really been assaulted will be hysterical.
Survivors exhibit a spectrum of emotional responses to the assault: calm, hysteria, laughter, guilt, anger, apathy, shock. Each survivor copes with the trauma of the assault in a different way.
MYTH:Sexual assault is an impulsive act.
Seventy-five percent of all assaults are planned in advance. When three or more assailants are involved, 90% are planned. If two assailants are involved, 83%. With one assailant, 58% are planned.
As many as 80% of all assaults involve either a known acquaintance, or someone the victim has had contact with, but does not know personally.
MYTH:Gang rape is rare
In 43% of all reported cases, more that one assailant was involved.
MYTH:Many women claim they have been sexually assaulted because they want revenge upon the man they accuse.
Only 4-6% of sexual assault cases are based on false accusations. This percentage of unsubstantiated cases is the same as with many other reported crimes.
MYTH:Persons who dress or act in a sexy way are asking to be sexually assaulted.
Many convicted sexual assault assailants are unable to remember what their victims looked like or were wearing.
MYTH:All women secretly want to be raped.
While women and men may fantasize about being overpowered during sexual relations it is usually with a person of their choosing, who they trust. They are in control of the fantasy. No one wants the physical and emotional pain caused by a sexual assault.
MYTH:Only young, pretty women are assaulted.
There is no such thing as a "typical victim." Both men and women are assaulted by both male and female assailants. Victims have ranged in age from newborns to 100 years old.
MYTH:It is impossible to sexually assault a man.
Men fall victim for the same reasons as women: they are overwhelmed by threats or acts of physical and emotional violence. Also, most sexual assaults that involve a male victim are gang assaults, by other males.
MYTH:If you do not struggle or use physical force to resist you have not been sexually assaulted.
If you are forced to have sex without your consent, you have been assaulted whether or not a struggle was involved.
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