Date Rape :: essays research papers

How many of you know someone who has had something stolen from them? How many of you know someone who has been held at gunpoint? How many of you know someone who has been date raped? You might and not even know about it. In 1985, Mary Koss, a professor at Kent State University, surveyed approximately 7,000 students on thirty-two campuses on behalf of Ms. magazine and found that one in eight women were the victims of rape. Experts estimate that as many as 90 percent of all rapes are never reported. But When you hear the word "rape," what do you think of? If you imagine a stranger jumping out of the bushes on a dark night and attacking someone, you are only partly right--because most rapes are not committed by strangers but by men who know their victims, who often have gone out with them previously and are supposedly their friends. Acquaintance rape is forced, unwanted intercourse with a person you know. It can be that cute neighbor, the blind date your friend set you up with, even your husband of boyfriend. The fact is, if you said no, it’s rape. Date rapes typically occur when a woman is alone with a man. If you go to a man's room or apartment or even get into his car alone, you are vulnerable. Date rapes can occur when others are relatively close by; for example, they can take place in an upstairs bedroom while fifty people are attending a party on the first floor. Alcohol and drugs are sometimes a significant factor in date rape. Many victims say later that they drank too much or took too many drugs to realize what was going on; by the time they realized their predicament, it was too late. Sometimes a woman passes out and awakens to find a man having sex with her. On the other hand, some date rapes occur when alcohol is not involved or when the victim has had little or nothing to drink but the man has been drinking and becomes sexually aggressive. Mixed signals are another element in date rape. The woman acts in a friendly manner; the man interprets this friendliness as an invitation to have sex. "No" is heard as "maybe" and even a strong protest can be ignored under the delusion that women say "no" when they mean "yes." Some men find it sexually exciting to have a woman struggle. If the woman protests only mildly, the man may think he is merely "persuading" her, not forcing her to have sex (He may think the