Experiences of Sexual Violence Myth Following Different Types of Sexual Violence

Abstract

Sexual violence myth has a substantial influence on the occurrence/overcoming/signifying of, and response to sexual assault. This study starts from a critical view on how victims of sexual violence experience misconception in different relationships and under different conditions. We surveyed 235 victims and conducted 14 in-depth interviews to look into how they experience sexual violence myth depending on their relationship with perpetrators, their age when the incident took place, and whether the incident was rape or not. The results show that victims are more vulnerable to sexual violence myth during investigation or court trial, by people around them and media, especially when the victims are adult women, and they knew/were close with/went on dates with/had drinks with the perpetrators on their own will. Victims of sexual aggression by stranger or rape are relatively less prone to experience rape myth in which their sufferings are questioned, denied, downplayed, and even attributed to them. Damages of sexual violence cannot be measured objectively by its types. It varies depending on the relationships and circumstances surrounding the incident. Therefore, no one but the victim can define the damage and its significance for each case. Nonetheless, rape myth instigated by family members, acquaintances, and media, often during investigation/trial procedures, assumes that feelings suffered by victims/women such as discomfort, anger, false accusation, and betrayal, can be easily edited and altered. Impacts of sexual assault are not a matter to be accepted based on biased social misconceptions. It should be about how much the society can empathize with the challenges that victims/women face.