Lewis, K. R., Robillard, A., Billings, D., & White, K. (2019). Differential perceptions of a hypothetical sexual assault survivor based on race and ethnicity: Exploring victim responsibility, trauma, and need for social support. Journal of American College Health 67(4), 308-317.
This article highlights one of the major gaps in the complex topic of the scientific approach to helping women survivors of rape. A number of women from a college campus took part in a survey in which a few hypothetical date rape scenarios were proposed. Coded racial innuendos and varying levels of pressure within the questionnaire scripts emphasized the ambiguity of each case. This was done to uncover stereotypes about rape in normative thinking. The results of the study highlighted that most of the psychological and social practice is focused on assisting specifically to white women.
In some cases, in which African American and Latinos gender stereotypes were described, survey respondents as a result adhered to justifying the sexual experience. The study points to underestimating racial and gender stereotypes as well as distorted perceptions of women’s responsibility after a traumatic experience. A questionnaire also contained questions that were designed to statistically determine the level of guilt or shame attributed to the victim of an assault. Research has proven it essential to ensure that there is support for survivors of sexual assault, regardless of race or social status.
O’Donohue, W., Carlson, G. S., Benuto, L. T. and Bennett, N. M. (2014). Examining the Scientific Validity of Rape Trauma Syndrome. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 21(6), 858-876. Web.
This article addresses the problem of accurately defining and sealing scientific research into the traumatic syndrome experienced by women after being raped. The authors draw on research from the second half of the 20th century to sharpen the complexities of academic research on Post-Rape Syndrome. Having described the main criteria by which the phases of this state are considered, the researchers focus on inaccuracies in surveys and studies. Some terminological formulations in previous studies are used outside the general psychoanalytic context. Also, many polls do not take into account the previous life story of the respondent, possible distortion or omission in the description of experienced or experienced experiences.
These studies, as a result, do not have a sufficient database to confirm, and also do not pass Popper’s falsification criterion, and therefore are categorized as semi-academic, junk science. Thus, despite the fact that there is a certain demand for a more detailed development of Post Rape Studies, at the moment there is a certain number of gaps that hinder the functioning of this discipline.
Rickard, D. (2016). Sex offenders, stigma, and social control. Rutgers University Press.
This book addresses the problem of integrating sex offenders into American society from an academic sociological perspective. Rickard (2016) presents a portrait of such a social unit not only from the point of view of public censure, but attempts to expand this view. Using an extensive database, the researcher describes the path of such a criminal back into society and the numerous legal, psychological and social obstacles. The main format of the book is a series of interviews in which male offenders share their experiences through the sociopsychological perspective of the interviewer and analyst.
This format of interviewing reveals sex criminals from the other side, showing a portrait that goes beyond the stereotypical prejudice. Difficulties with integrating into society, the inability to get a job, the doom to be an outcast – all these topics are discussed in detail in the book from the perspective of individuals who experience it. The former sex offenders, interviews with whom form the basis of the book, are looking not only for their place in society and realization in the world, but also for their real identity in general, an adequate sense of themselves.