Child abuse happens daily in society many people are survivors. People where and are abused because their parents couldn’t deal with their responsibilities.…
help. Unknowingly, we interact with victims of abuse every day and either don’t want to…
People are changed by those around them, both directly and indirectly. Melinda’s tale is one that is relatable to many, and one of truth. There are things in life that may hurt, and there are people in life that can hurt. Melinda proves that it is far better to speak up and face the result— positive or negative. Whether it ends in more understanding about the problem— or even less— speaking up is the way to be free from grief and internal pressures (like the ones Melinda faced). Melinda wraps up her experience in one final statement: “IT happened. There is no avoiding it, no forgetting. No running away, or flying, or burying, or hiding. Andy Evans raped me in August when I was drunk and too young to know what was happening. It wasn't my fault. He hurt me. It wasn't my fault. And I am not going to let it kill me. I can grow”…
Fact, sexual assault is a crime of any type of forced or coerced sexual contact or behavior that happens without consent. Fact, many people will not talk about their own experience with sexual assault. This is a problem no matter what sex, gender, race, class, or age a person is, they will have to endure this through life. Many people ask “why is it so hard for victims to speak out?” and there are reason for it. There are great number of societal barriers within society and many relating to fear. In the story “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson she explores the concept between the connection of fear and sexual assault. In “Speak” Anderson demonstrates that the fear of retribution, guilt and shame, are factors why Melinda is scared to share her…
No one knew it but me. For years I’d suffered silently from the effects of sexual abuse… There are times when we have to choose to fight or give in. This is one girl’s response. It’s hard, enthralling, terrifying, and beautiful…[it] brings people together, empowers them to face the truth and offers hope by knowing that we are not alone” (Andersen). Speak deals with a sensitive subject, and by reading and discussing a sensitive and painful moment, healing takes place. Melinda represents many girls that are raped or intimidated into sexual intercourse. Each person handles traumatic events differently. Some may have the resources and encouragement to seek help. Others, like Melinda, feel alone and unaware of someone to turn to for help. Anderson explains, “It’s because boys are inundated with very explicit sexuality in the media and they don’t have enough trusted loving adults in their lives to explain the emotional side of human sexuality and the consequences of some of these actions.” With this book, people are inspired to speak up about their abuse. Speak has influenced many people to finally reveal their secrets and not to feel ashamed of what was done to…
“For every 100 rapists, only three will go to jail, and even then they can get out early for good behavior. Even though more people are reporting rape cases, there is still 54% of victims who won’t report a crime” (RAINN of Justice Department Data). Rape is any sexual contact for which someone doesn’t give permission. Today’s society is helping the rapist by victimizing the victim even more. By making a mockery of it, or by entertaining the thought of letting the rapist go free with just a slap on the wrist. As a result, society has started to excuse rapist by giving custody of the child, not taking the allegations seriously, and by trying to silence the victim and the people who knew something about it.…
So, the government and community organizations should come together to build strong policies and strategies to prevent the violence against women. There should be zero tolerance policy and nurse or other health professionals should screen for women abuse as they are accessible, enjoy a high degree of public trust, and work in a variety of settings. Also, the screening process provides increasing opportunity for women to disclose abuse and increasing opportunity for nurses to identify women who have been abused; it helps to identify the health impacts; afford opportunities to assist children of abused women and inform women about violence against women services and other options that are available (RNAO, 2005). Overall, this will help to create the healthy violence free community. However, nurses must develop skills to foster an environment that facilitates disclosure; they should know how to ask question and how to respond. Nurses should also develop screening strategies and initial responses that respond to the needs of all women taking into account differences based on race, ethnicity, class, religious/spiritual beliefs, age, ability or sexual orientation. Also, nurses must know the legal obligations when disclosure of abuse is made (RNAO, 2005). Further, health care organization should work with the community at a system level to improve collaboration and integration of services between…
When Andrea reported what happened to her to her college campus they failed to provide resources for her. Since her school failed to help her she went and searched for help from her peers. Andrea started a facebook campaign speaking out about her sexual assault incident to educate other students on her campus. Through her facebook…
Everyone involved in an individual’s life has a responsibility and duty of care to report any signs of abuse including friends, relatives, support staff and outside agencies to uphold their human rights.…
The story consists of a series of flashbacks from one girl’s life of seemingly violent acts. It begins in present day, after witnessing a fight on campus, the thoughts arise as to what could have caused such violence to overtake the two men who were fighting, which, in turn, results in the thoughts of all the violent acts she has witnessed throughout her life.…
The purpose of victim awareness assistance programs is a service of an organization that works to provide comfort and assistance to victims of crime and witnesses (Schmalleger, 2010). With the support from mostly volunteers for the victims the programs endure the quality of comfort mostly of rape from years ago. In 1975, a national survey identified only 23 victims’ assistance programs in the United States (Schmalleger, 2010). By 1986, the programs of victims assistance has grown to a wider range stemming from the basic counseling, daycare during court, transportation, and referrals to social service agencies (Schmalleger, 2010).…
As research unveils that women, regardless of age and race, have a high risk of experiencing sexual assault, the U.S. Government has responded with differing attempts at definition of sexual assault and legislature that protects victims. Over the years, these laws and policies have transitioned into providing more concrete definitions of sexual assault and rape, who is at risk, and where do victims go for help. For example, the Uniform Crime Report (2004) defines forcible rape as “[t]he carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” A further definition of carnal knowledge is provided and incidents where it would be considered forcible rape. More recently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2009) released a Frequently…
Rape survivors who speak out about their assault experience are often punished for doing so. They are subjected to negative reactions from support providers. These negative reactions may thereby serve a silencing function, leading some rape survivors to stop talking about their experiences to anyone at all. For example, Courtney Ahrens (2006) examined the impact of negative social reactions on the disclosure of rape. The study focused on the qualitative narratives of eight rape survivors who initially disclosed the assault but then stopped disclosing for a significant period of time. The results of the study revealed that negative reactions from professionals led survivors to question whether future disclosures would be effective, negative…
Pandora’s Aquarium is a free online support group, where victims of rape and sexual abuse can connect. There is no professional facilitator running the support group, because its basic features are to provide peer-to-peer support only. You must be 16 years of age or older, male or female, to utilize the online support community. The advantages of this self-help group is that is allows individuals to openly express themselves while remaining anonymous and connect with peers, provide feedback and receive feedback about their threads. There is freedom to create threads of various on various subjects, such as healing quotes and fear of future assault. There are general rules and guidelines which cover topics such as harassment and respect. The disadvantage to this self-help group is that those who share may become triggered by threads and there is no professional support available. Participants are able to respond to threads, but the content isn’t closely monitored to ensure respectful communication is taking place. According to Zastrow (2015), online self-help groups can occur in real time or require members to post messages and respond at anytime. The advantages of the use of technology with this self-help group, is that members of the group are allowed to create a threat and post response messages at anytime.. According This self-help group The disadvantage of the use of technology is that not all clients will be familiar with navigating the resource. Depending on the participant, they may face challenges when reading and comprehending the disclaimers, and may accidently share information that could reveal their…
This trauma was something she would have to deal with for a big part of her life. While in her recovery process, she would have to learn how to let go of the fear of someone coming into her room and touching her while she was sleeping; and also learn how to sleep with the door unlocked, and even eventually with it open. The physical pain she would develop in her childhood would last a lifetime, from curling up…