Child Rape, Essay Example

Child rape is a severe child abuse crime, and it also constitutes a serious criminal offense; it is the forced sexual relationship with a child of any gender that involves an adult or another child. There are various circumstances under which child rape may take place – children may be raped by criminals in the streets if they are not watched by their parents or caregivers with due diligence, and children may be stolen by child molesters or rapists. Another circumstance may be the home child abuse in the conditions of which one of the parents may have pervert inclinations, and may rape or molest the child secretly, intimidating him or her, and forcing them to keep silence about the repeated events of rape. Older siblings may also represent the child’s abusers. Finally, the commercial sexual exploitation of children may also be considered child rape, since children who voluntarily sell sex for money are considered people not mature enough to make such decisions about the use of their body, and entering a sexual relationship. Hence, people who have sex with children or watch videos with children having sex are considered child molesters, and are prosecuted by law.

Taking into account that in every country and every state, there are the minimum age requirements for a child to be considered eligible for sexual relationships and marriage, the simplest method of measuring rape may be the correlation of three factors – the presence of the fact of a sexual relationship, the absence of one of desires to have sex, and the age of the partners. In case one of the partners is under age, and the other partner is an adult, that sexual relationship may be considered a rape in case the under-aged person indicates he or she was not aware of the intent with which the other partner approached him or her, and did not want to have sexual relationships. Hence, in case a child was not initially aware of the sexual intents, or could not assess the essence of relationships adequately due to age, the relationship may be considered rape.

Visiting the site of Rape Victims Advocates, one can see that many stereotypes about rape are in fact not true, and that rape is a much more complex and diverse crime by its nature. Thus, for instance, many people associate rape with a crime of passion and lust, since rape constitutes a sexual act towards a man or a woman. A stigmatic perception of rape has emerged, associating this crime with a violent sexual desire to possess a person, but stemming from the inability to possess him or her as a result of natural ways of seduction and romantic conquest. Therefore, men and women committing rape are usually perceived as those having no sexual relationship, or being long and desperately in love with their victims. Another stereotypical vision of rape is the psychological result of some sexual trauma or tragedy, making men and women revenge for themselves or their close people. However, as it comes from the account of the Rape Victims Advocates site, rape is a pre-planned, cold-blooded criminal offense that usually involves people with normal backgrounds, and without any history of maltreatment, violence, and offense (Myths & Facts, 2013).

Perceiving rape as a criminal offense and not a sexual act may change the overall state of affairs in the field of managing such crimes and preventing their occurrence. It is true that many victims of rape prefer not to report it because they are ashamed of having been involved in it. It is also stereotypical to consider women the voluntary victims of crime because of their reckless behavior and sexy dressing, which, as the Rape Victims Advocates factsheet states is not the reason for rape in the majority of cases (Myths & Facts, 2013). Making an assumption that rape is a crime of passion and lust is false; hence, deriving the logical inferences from this point, one can assume that since no lust and passion is involved in the rape instance, there is no reason to assume that sexy behavior, looks, or dressing of women leads to its occurrence. Judging from that point, one should understand that women do not cause the rape instances by their behavior and appearance, and there should be no shame regarding reporting such cases, even if they were committed by spouses and/or acquaintances.

One of the shocking facts that can be found at the Rape Victims Advocates site is that the gang assault is one of the most widespread kinds of rape; it may be explained by the fact that criminals feel more comfortable and confident when they are in a group, and they also secure the chance of getting their victim rapes (Myths & Facts, 2013). When a person is conducting a rape alone, the victim may resist the attack, and may run away, which constitutes a danger of being caught and sent to prison. However, when the victim is alone, and the rapists are numerous, they secure their position, and manage to keep the victim still during the rape with much more success. The present fact is indeed a novelty, since the major stereotype of a rape is that of a one-on-one basis, since sexual assault may be seen as a more or less intimate act, even for the criminal.

Finally, a very outstanding fact revealed by the Rape Victims Advocates is that there are many instances of spousal rape. The stereotype held by the majority of people around the world is that a marriage is based on the feelings of trust, love, and romance. However, the factsheet presented at the site revealed that 14% of women reported being raped by their husbands at least once, which gives an additional shade of meaning to the notion of rape (Myths & Facts, 2013). Rape may be committed not only by a stranger, a criminal, or a street gang in the dark corner, when helpless women go home from work. This crime is ever-present in the life aspects that used to be considered secure, e.g., the family home. Hence, the legal enforcement bodies have to understand the complex nature of rape as a crime, and the possibility of involvement in it in virtually every place, every surroundings, and from any person.

Judging from the information presented above, the definition of rape may be changed to “an instance of non-voluntary sexual act in which a victim is involved by another person, constituting a criminal offense and not depending on the victim’s behavior or dressing”. This way, the impersonal nature of the crime may be revealed. Though some rape is the result of unsatisfied passion and sexual desire, in its majority, rape is a pre-planned, violent criminal offense based on the desire to humiliate and dominate the victim, and not the desire to satisfy one’s unfulfilled sexual drives.

References

Myths & Facts (2013). Rape Victims Advocates. Retrieved from http://www.rapevictimadvocates.org/myths.asp