The chance of a women being raped, in most cases, has a high correlation with their lifestyle they choose to live. The lifestyle exposure theory can help explain the probability of a rape occurring. Where a women lives, the time of day she choose to travel, the type of transportation she uses, her economic statues, if she has any family obligation, and what type of societal and cultural constraints that are imposed on her all effect the type of lifestyle she lives. In turn affects how and what type of potential offenders she will come into contact with.
Victimization Type
There is a word in our vocabulary that can elicit an emotional and defensive stand in almost all people in our society- the word is rape. By just reading the word most people feel some type of negative reaction whether it is: disgust, embarrassment, fear, repulsion, concern for the victim, hatred for the offender, or all of these or more. How is the word rape definite? In January of this year the DOJ changed the definition of rape- “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.”, that is used in the UCR (UCR Part I Offenses), which was categorized as “forcible rape” and had remand unchanged since 1929 and excluded victims of anal/oral sex, rape with an object, male rape and statutory rape (Shields). To a wider, more inclusive definition with the title of “rape” to show that all forms of rape could be considered under this definition-“The penetration, no matter how slight of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, without the consent of the victim.” (Attorney General). With the change in the definition that law enforcement used to define rape there was a shift from the type of violence and aggression that just included women and ignored males and a number of other aspects to situations where it wasn’t a gender specific crime and the penalties for rape were on similar punishment scale.
The crime of rape is still a very women dominated on the victim side
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