Instances Of Rape Research Articles

Posttraumatic stress disorder and its associated factors among people living in Dabat district, northwest Ethiopia.

The conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in the Dabat district of Ethiopia has led to significant civilian casualties, instances of rape, sexual abuse, and property theft. These traumatic events contribute to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among local residents. However, there is currently no available data on the prevalence of PTSD and its associated factors in this region. This study seeks to fill this gap by assessing PTSD prevalence and identifying related factors among residents of the war-affected Dabat district in northwest Ethiopia. A community-based correctional study was conducted in the Woken and China kebeles of Dabat district, northwest Ethiopia, spanning from July 13 to September 19, 2023. A total of 410 participants were selected using systematic random sampling, making a 100% response rate. The study utilized an interviewer-administered questionnaire, which included the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL-5) to assess PTSD. The research investigated the association between PTSD and various demographic and psychosocial characteristics using both bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses. Statistical significance was set at a P-value of 0.05. The majority of participants in the study were male (62%) with a mean age of 33 ( ± 1.67) years. The overall prevalence of PTSD was 30.7% (95% CI: 26.6-35.10). Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified several factors significantly associated with PTSD: symptoms of depression (AOR=3.5; 95% CI: 1.13-6.89), age between 45 and 67 years (AOR=1.68; 95% CI: 1.04-5.78), experiencing stressful life events (AOR=1.63; 95% CI: 1.05-7.86), experiencing sexual abuse or rape (AOR=1.53; 95% CI: 1.07-6.75), chewing khat (AOR=1.48; 95% CI: 1.08-4.56), being female (AOR=1.43; 95% CI: 1.13-3.67), and having an income of 34.6 USD (AOR=1.28; 95% CI: 1.07-4.67). This study reported that the prevalence of PTSD was high. As a result, the study suggested that governments and other stakeholders should be involved in implementing efficient interventions and quick measures to mitigate the effects of war on mental health following the conflict. The government and nongovernmental organizations were also advised by these studies to continue providing humanitarian assistance, which should include access to food, clean water, clothing, shelter, and education. This study also suggested that people living in conflict zones should be legally protected from rape, sexual abuse, arson, detention without cause, and kidnapping.

Otherness in Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness”

This research delves into an examination of the marginalization process by closely analyzing Arundhati Roy's work, "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness." The objective is to uncover how Roy employs her artistic prowess to bridge the gap between marginalized segments and the mainstream, thereby attempting to rejuvenate the former glory of the Indian societal framework. Through the lens of oriental discourse, this study scrutinizes the novel, particularly emphasizing the strategic foothold achieved within the established system through acts of rebellious creativity, unconventional thinking, and alternative lifestyles. This study elucidates the intricate interconnections among the novel's multi-layered narratives, which lay bare the harsh realities of society, such as the dire circumstances faced by minority groups, the degrading existence of transgender individuals, the lackluster state of governance, the struggles of Naxalites, instances of rape, murder, social inequality, and preconceived biases. In "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness," Arundhati Roy explores societal categorization through the lens of “Otherness”. Characters like Anjum embody the challenges faced by those deviating from societal norms, particularly in terms of transgender identity. The narrative extends this exploration to figures like Musaa and Talio, engaged in the Kashmiri conflict, highlighting a political form of “Otherness”. The central aim of this research is to identify and delve into India's marginalized "Others," encompassing the impoverished, those deemed as "apostates," outsiders, and third-gender individuals, who are often subjected to subjugation or victimization. This study focuses on the theory surrounding the analysis of orientalist discourse and focuses on the “Otherness” of the novel‘s main character Aunjum or Aftab who rejoice in their wretched condition and the survival creativity of these “Other” in their conditions of acute Precarity.

Why Rape Law Revisions should be Consistent with Anderson’s Negotiation Model

In this essay I argue that the current law structure unobjectionably fails to protect women against cases of rape and needs reform. I further maintain that Anderson’s suggestion of ‘negotiation consent’ is the most appropriate line of reform, and I will defend her proposal in the face of potential objections. The current rape law in the UK was implemented in 2003, which revised previous laws firstly defined in the Sexual Offenses Act of 1953. Despite the ostensibly ‘objective’ nature of this law, which will be further examined in this essay, many feminist philosophers have noted the biases within the law which favour male interests. This essay explores the present issues within UK law, as well as our current understandings of what constitutes ‘a reasonable belief of consent’, that fail to protect women in instances of rape. This foundational attitude towards such matters influence performative revision models, such as the No Model and the Yes model, which I consider within this essay. Yet the inadequacies of such approaches, as I demonstrate, mirror some of the current issues with rape law in the UK today; such as the lack of recognition of men’s frequent inability to interpret women’s nonverbal behaviour and disregard for instances where one person changes their mind.
 Furthermore, I advocate for Anderson’s proposal of the negotiation model as an alternative reform of the law as well as society’s attitude towards sex and how consent can be clearly obtained. This model, when legally applied, will not only legally protect women in cases of rape, but eventually protect them from the present societal norms that perpetuate the imminent risk of rape and sexual exploitation.
 Through making the act of negotiation a legal requirement, I maintain that there would be a ‘ripple effect’ throughout society that would, eventually, lead to a change in public expectations of men and women.
 Anderson’s emphasis on either party being able to initiate the negotiation establishes a much more open-minded attitude towards gender roles and expectations of individuals based on their gender. This is the greatest strength of Anderson’s argument, as this equality-driven initiative would eventually seep into society’s wider expectations of individuals when initiating sex, and create a world where understanding what the other person is anticipating in a sexual situation is the norm.

Stoicism: Portrayal of Women in Khamosh Pani, Pinjar and Eho Hamara Jeevna

Women bodies are the victim of sheer oppression and violence due to their vulnerable status since time immemorial. Instances of rape, murder, abduction, honour killing, and domestic violence are quite common in the case of women even in the contemporary world. They were the principal victims of the communal violence at the time of partition as well. They were murdered and humiliated before their loved ones; abducted and forcefully married after conversion or even sold out like inanimate entities. To avert the worst, copious of them committed suicide or others were killed by their family members for the sake of honour. The plight of these misfortunate women has been depicted by many writers very often through their works and even by cinema industries. The present paper tries to explore the fate of these wretched women which have been depicted on the silver screen in Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters), Pinjar (The Skeleton) and Eho Hamara Jeevna (Such is Her Fate). Women characters in these movies are trapped in a quagmire of hideous social evils, inflicted upon them by society, which has left them with nothing but trauma, violence, suffering, identity crises, atrocities and so on. All these women are Sikh women, who are swirling in the gyre of ‘in-betweenness’ due to their past traumas and the kind of life they are living right now. Keeping aside their emotions, these women do not lose their self-control and always try to strike a balance to live a harmonious life even after such atrocities. Their stoic personalities have encouraged them to undergo the sufferings inflicted upon them but their soul is completely torn due to these inhuman atrocities.

Increasing Trend of Sexual Assault Cases in Nepal

Rape and sexual violence is a deep-rooted issue in Nepal, as it is around the world. The number of reported rape cases continues to rise despite strict laws in Nepal. The topic is framed as part of women issue of gender based violence. This article tries to highlight the trend and situation of sexual assault (rape) analyzing the existing rape cases. The study is based on descriptive as well as analytical in nature. Sources of information in this study are secondary data like published and un- published research papers, journal articles and survey reports with desk review method. Although most countries have laws prohibiting sexual assault and violence. While the number of rape cases and sexual violence has increased in several nations in recent years, there are still countries where no rape incidents have been documented. The Nepal Police in 2021 reported that up to seven women and girls are raped every day in the country, most of them by neighbors, relatives and acquaintances. Therefore, the state should not fail to protect the rights of the victims.” The incidents of murder and murder after rape have increased drastically in the recent times. According to statistics, 17 women were murdered after rape in the past four years. One point that has come under intense scrutiny is that law in Nepal specifies women and girls as the victim in case of rape. Despite the Constitution and law guarantees, instances of rape are increasing in Nepal. In the other, sexual violence by intimate partner is largely unreported due to social stigma as well as the belief that forced sexual relation by a husband without the consent of the wife doesn’t constitute violence. Many cases of rape and sexual violence go unreported to police because of social stigma, lack of trust in the justice system and lack of protection of victims.

Greer\u2019s \u2018Bad Sex\u2019 and the Future of Consent

Germaine Greer’s polemic ‘On Rape’ has proved controversial and has served to further divide feminist opinion on the way to move forward from #MeToo in consent reform. Greer’s work, along with other second wave feminists, has been rejected by third wave feminist scholarship for simultaneously minimising the harm caused to victims of sexual violence and claiming that rape is not ‘catastrophic’, with Naomi Wolf being Greer’s most vocal and powerful opponent. Yet, I claim that in maintaining this position in opposition to Greer we are missing the real transformative power of Greer’s revival of second-wave arguments in relation to reforming our laws on consent post #MeToo. The consent framework and the definition of consent under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 has been readily criticised for its vague definition of ‘freedom’ and ‘capacity’ in that such a definition misses the subtler, yet powerful, ways in which victims are coerced and abused—those which are most insidious, since they are embedded within the fabric of our society, and within the ‘tissue’ of heterosex. Greer’s position that rape is ‘bad sex’ may well hold some truth—since bad sex for women has long been accepted as part of life albeit reduced to sufferance and duty. Inevitably, this leads us to the conclusion that there are many more instances of rape than we thought, and many more women suffering, than we thought. This article examines this position and argues for urgent research on women’s sexuality, and radical intervention in the law and academia, in the quest for consent law reform.

Le mythe du nettoyage par les vierges : actualité d’un archaïsme magico-religieux

In the medical anthropology section of the Nanterre Hospital (France) for migrants and refugees, three cases were recorded of "virgin cleansing" in sub-Saharan African countries. These consisted of sexual assaults (2 instances of rape and 1 of sexual interference) on sexually immature females (young girls) by patients with sexually transmitted infections (mainly HIV, syphilis) hoping they might thereby be cured. These particularly atrocious hetero-aggressive sexual practices based on magical arguments are unfortunately universal and are not limited to a specific culture. At the medical anthropology level, the belief in cleansing by virgins is based on the notion that the patient is dirty and impure. In the same way that emetics and/or laxatives are prescribed in the case of intestinal disorders (to "eliminate" the disease), some subjects use diuretics for urinary abnormalities or, literally, "clean vaginas (or anuses)" to purge their own miasma. The rising tide of population migrations (some of whom carry chronic infections), refugee camps, prolonged incarcerations, etc., makes observations of such phenomena increasingly frequent. Belief in cleansing by virgins (and the fatal consequences thereof) will be difficult to eradicate. The education of populations and health professionals should promote absolute respect for the body of children, and, more generally, of others, particularly since at this time of increasingly marked migratory flows, this problem sadly risks becoming widespread.

“To Talk or Not To Talk”: Parents Perspectives on Sex Education

Sex education is a crucial facet of health education. Sex education can help improve parent-child communication on sexuality and help in preventing instances of rape and sexual abuse in future. The goals of the present study were to gain a deeper insight on the attitudes of parents towards sex education and to apprehend the differences in the attitudes they have towards sex education. The target population of the present study included 29 parents including 15 mothers and 14 fathers having children in the age group of 8-12 comprised of both genders. A qualitative method was adopted. Data was collected using semi structured interviews with parents independently. Data was analysed using thematic analysis.

Jus in bello, Rape and the British Army in the American Revolutionary War

This essay offers a case study in jus in bello in the American Revolutionary War by focusing on responses to sexual violence committed against American women by soldiers in the occupying British army and their Loyalist auxiliaries. Two main bodies of sources are juxtaposed in order to explore the contexts and manner in which jus in bello was adjudicated: British courts-martial and American Congressional investigations documenting British and Loyalist breaches of the codes of war. By putting the fragmentary evidence of instances of rape in the context of contemporary legal and sociocultural practices of sexual violence in peacetime, as well as of the British army's disciplinary regime, we can elucidate the horizon of experiences and expectations against which survivors, assailants and prosecutors acted. The British army disciplined some soldiers for sexual offenses that violated military law and the codes of war, and it executed a few of them at a time when even their home society featured very low prosecution and conviction rates for the capital crime of rape. Prosecutorial discretion on the part of individual British officers helps explain the discrepancy between the formal law of rape and its application in the theater of war. The inconsistency in British responses to rape in turn supported American allegations that the British violated jus in bello. The new American state invested in unprecedented legalistic, empiricist efforts to expose enemy violations of the codes of war. In their quest to assert national difference and to claim the moral high ground vis-à-vis Britain, and to establish America's place among the ‘civilized’ nations of the world, the Revolutionaries both reflected existing notions of jus in bello and sought to define them further. The ethical dimension of jus in bello thus resided in formal law, in the choices made by British officers concerned with force discipline, military–civilian relations, and the codes of war, as well as in the American state's forensic exposure of the enemy's illegitimate violence.

Abortion in Sri Lanka: The Double Standard

In Sri Lanka, women do not have access to legal abortion except under life-saving circumstances. Clandestine abortion services are, however, available and quite accessible. Although safe specialist services are available to women who can afford them, others access services under unsafe and exploitative conditions. At the time of this writing, a draft bill that will legalize abortion in instances of rape, incest, and fetal abnormalities awaits approval, amid opposition. In this article, I explore the current push for legal reform as a solution to unsafe abortion. Although a welcome effort, this amendment alone will be insufficient to address the public health consequences of unsafe abortion in Sri Lanka because most women seek abortions for other reasons. Much broader legal and policy reform will be required.

Vocabulary used by sexual offenders: meaning and implications

This paper examines how some sexual violence offenders use culturally acquired vocabularies to describe episodes of rape. The paper is based on an analysis of 12 accounts obtained from death-row inmates in Kenya who had been convicted of violent crimes and sexual violence. The accounts were elicited while conducting a larger study to explore the individual motivations, and social and cultural factors that predispose men to acts of rape. Findings suggest that some sex offenders are immersed in normative cultural expectations about sexuality and gender and that, within this framework, they endeavour to create a picture that shifts the blame from themselves to their victims. They attempt to foster the belief that women and girls, in one way or another, provoke rape. Such vocabularies are used to trivialise and neutralise instances of rape within the wider society.

Rape and Sexual Assault Education: Where is the Law?

This article considers the effectiveness of rape awareness programs in reducing or preventing instances of rape. There is a plethora of existing research, which is briefly considered. Research in this area is usually based on the assumption that behavioral change requires a corresponding change in attitudes toward sexual behavior and rape. For this reason most research analyzes the effect of rape awareness programs on attitudinal change. It will be argued that rape prevention research needs to be approached from a different angle, and should consider whether individual sexual behavior can change in the absence of altered attitudes. Te premise here is that a sound knowledge of rape law may itself affect behavior. Tis is based on the empowering nature of knowledge, which may legitimize female sexual choices and deter men from offending behavior, even if rape myth acceptance remains. Tis perspective necessitates a shift in program content, where the focus is placed on the law governing rape. Te article considers recent research conducted from this alternative perspective and assesses the impact of the program on legal knowledge and sexual behavior. Te article concludes with a consideration of current efforts in the United Kingdom to tackle the prevention problem and offers suggestions for improving the content of rape awareness programs.

Examining Sexual Violence in the Military Within the Context of Eritrean Asylum Claims Presented in Norway

Discussion of rape by soldiers as a form of persecution has largely been directed towards the context of war or actual conflict. Nevertheless, there is a need for attention to be directed towards the phenomenon of rape within the military in the post-conflict period. This article discusses asylum claims presented in Norway by Eritrean female soldiers claiming risk of persecution in the form of sexual violence, rape, or torture within the military. First, presentation is made of the history of Eritrean women's participation in the war of independence and the ensuing political and legislative gains won at the end of the war against Ethiopia. Review of Eritrea's report and responses to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) reveal a state of backlash against women in the post-conflict period. Second, examination of how rape within the military and desertion may fall under the criteria of the definition of a refugee according the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees is pursued. Comparison is drawn to instances of rape of women soldiers in the US and Israel, as well as sexual violence by United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) peacekeepers, revealing common challenges affecting prevention and protection strategies. Third, a comparative review is conducted of evidentiary standards in order to highlight the importance of maintaining a flexible approach responsive to the special circumstances of sexual violence. The Norwegian practice indicated a tendency to provide protection for compassionate grounds or humanitarian protection, rather than asylum. This resulted in non-recognition of the legitimacy of claims based on gender related persecution as requiring legal protection under the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees.

Implantable hormonal and emergency contraception

Recent publications about emergency and implantable contraception focused on increasing the awareness about emergency contraceptive methods and on updating readers about the controversies surrounding Norplant. Both emergency and implantable contraception have excellent safety and efficacy profiles, yet neither has realized its potential for widespread use. This review addresses these concerns and attempts to place these issues in perspective.

Changes in marriage and fertility behavior. Behavior versus attitudes of young adults.

Hoping to determine whether recent changes in marriage and fertility behavior are simply temporary or more permanent, the attitudes and values of young adults were compared to the recent trends. The data come from the 1987 wave of the National Survey of Children, which has tracked a nationally representative sample of young people since 1976. The following behaviors and their corresponding attitudes are discussed: sexual activity, pregnancy, nonmarital childbearing, abortion, marriage and cohabitation, and divorce. Also considered are how blacks and whites differ in their behavior and attitudes. Since the 1970s, the incidence of premarital intercourse has increased substantially among adolescents and has resulted in a rise in the pregnancy rate. Adolescents strongly disapprove of sexual activity among younger teens, but accept it for older adolescents. Nonmarital childbearing increased by about 50% from 1970 to 1987. Adolescents, however, generally hold negative attitudes toward adolescent pregnancy, and the majority of sexually experienced teens report wanting to avoid pregnancy. In 1985, over 40% of teens who became pregnant obtained an abortion. Adolescents are divided on the acceptability of abortion -- except in instances of rape, in which case most accept abortion. Young adults strongly favor delayed marriage and oppose divorce, feeling that couples should not get married unless they intend to stay together for life. About 1/2 of young adults approve of cohabitation and only 1/5 are opposed to nonmarital childbearing. Based on the policy implications of the findings, it is concluded that the attitudes and values of young adults do not reflect the demise of the family, as has been predicted.

Crime or affliction? Rape in an African community

Amongst the Gusii of southwestern Kenya instances of rape are frequently reported; this was true also in the colonial period and yet it seems that those cases which come to the notice of the authorities are few compared with the numbers which actually occur. While certain features of the traditional culture seem to have encouraged violent sexual assault, because in a patrilocal society miscreants are likely to victimize their relatives, that is women who are sexually taboo, the crime is considered a sacrilegious matter to be dealt with in the family, not by the secular authorities. Given the sacrilegious nature of the act the Gusii are convinced that such behavior is involuntary and that the criminal is not a criminal but an afflicted person, motivated by the malevolence of the ancestral spirits or of jealous neighbors and kin. The author uses case material to illustrate various aspects of the Gusii belief system in regard to criminal behavior in general and rape in particular.