One myth about sex crimes is that sexual assault is triggered by the victim’s actions, behaviors, or the way they dress. A few years ago, in 2015, I was walking with a group of men on the road. A lady wearing a very short dress such that one could see almost every part of her body was walking on the other side of the road, and she drew everyone’s attention. It is at this place where I heard someone saying that such type of dressing is the one that contributed to the increased cases of sexual crimes in the area.
However, sexual assault is not the fault of the victim. To the victim, it is a degrading and humiliating act; thus, no one needs to experience an attack (Balfour, 2021). Through socialization, the roles of every gender are reinforced through the creation and maintenance of expected gender-specific behavior (Balfour, 2021). This is influenced by the family which acts as an agent of socialization. In some cases, the system of criminal justice might be affected by moral panic; therefore, through moral panic, we can demonize the court’s defendants and aggravate punishment.
Not all sex crimes are actual sex crimes; for instance, urinating in public in the United States is considered a sexual offense even though it is not a real sex offense. Therefore, not all sex crimes are sex crimes in the U.S. (Balfour, 2021). One activity that is considered a sexual crime is rape. It is non-consensual sexual intercourse of any type accomplished through threats or force, either emotional or physical (Balfour, 2021). Our perception of deviance affects how we react to sex-related behavior on the basis that the offender was satisfying their needs.
Reference
Balfour, J. (2021). Myths about sexual violence. Web.