Raising Awareness Newsletter - Rape

27 July 2008

Intro - I have decided to begin a bi-monthly newsletter bringing awareness to important issues which are often overlooked, misunderstood or swept under the carpet. The aim of such a newsletter is to help support those who have been effected by issues like these, to help raise awareness of the facts and figures surrounding these issues, and to help others to understand a little more about these issues - eliminating someone of the common myths.

The first topic featured here is rape - a very serious and emotional topic to discuss so I will tread gently.

Definition of Rape - The act of forcing another individual to engage in sexual acts, in particular intercourse.

- Rape in the western world is a crime but never the less it still goes on and often goes unreported or unpunished.

Here is an example of some rape statistics through the work of some of our DA artists:



Stats from [link]

About Rapists
Approximately 73% of rape victims know their assailants.
Only 6% of rapists will ever spend a day in jail.
About Victims
1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be a victim of sexual assault in their lifetime.
College age women are 4 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

Here are some examples of photography on rape:



Now as you may have noticed nearly all these submissions depict the idea of a woman being raped by a man but this is not always the case:

Myth - Women cannot rape
Fact - Although the majority of rapes are by males (around 98%) men can be sexually assaulted by woman and in some cases forced to submit through blackmail.

Myth - It is only gay men that sexually assault other men
Fact - Most men who sexually assault other men consider themselves to be heterosexual

Myth - Male victims do not suffer the same as female rape victims.
Fact - Actually males who have been raped are more likely to commit suicide as a result of rape. They also run a higher risk of contracting HIV as a result of rape.

Here are some examples of drawings depicting rape and its effects:



I hope that you have found this article helpful or informative in some way or another. If you have any suggestions for future articles please feel free to contact me. If you have been effected in any way by this issue I suggest this as a good support and recovery site [link].

Thanks for reading.