SEXUAL ASSAULT: FACT OR FICTION?
Fact: “Rape is often not reported or convicted.”
A person may choose not to report to law enforcement or tell anyone about a victimization they experienced for many reasons. Some of the most common include:
- fear of not being believed
- fear of retaliation
- shame or fear of being blamed
- pressure from others
- distrust towards law enforcement
- a desire to protect the attacker for other reasons
(National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2010)
Fiction: “If a victim of sexual assault does not fight back, he/she must have thought the assault was not that bad or wanted it.”
Many survivors experience a “freeze response” during an assault where they physically cannot move or speak. Also referred to as “tonic immobility,” it is a state of temporary, involuntary motor inhibition that occurs in states of intense fear.(
Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2014)
Angela Kang, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in New York and New Jersey with a private practice in Pelham and a member of Project Community.