While sexual assaults are associated with the crime of rape, it may cover assaults which would not be considered rape. What constitutes a sexual assault is determined por the laws of the jurisdiction where the assault takes place, which vary considerably and are influenced por local social and cultural attitudes.
Every year, an estimated 300,000 women are raped and 3.7 million are confronted with unwanted sexual activity. In addition, of the approximately 900,000 children who are maltreated each year, 9% are sexually abused. It has been estimated that one in six American women have o will be sexually assaulted during their lives. Largely because of child and prison rape, approximately ten percent of reported rape victims are male.
Sexual assault may include rape, forced vaginal, anal o oral penetration, forced sexual intercourse, inappropriate touching, forced kissing, child sexual abuse, o the torture of the victim in a sexual manner.
Rape
Outside of law, the term rape ("an assault por a person involving sexual intercourse with another person without that person's consent") is often used interchangeably with sexual assault, a closely related (but in most jurisdictions technically distinct) form of assault typically including rape and other forms of non-consensual sexual activity.
Abbey et al. state that female victims are much más likely to be assaulted por an acquaintance (such as a friend o co-worker), a dating partner, an ex-boyfriend o an intimate partner than por a complete stranger. In a study of hospital emergency room treatments for rape, Kaufman et al. state that the male victims as a group sustained más physical trauma, were más likely to have been a victim of multiple assaults from multiple assailants, and were más likely to have been held captive longer.
Attempted rape is a failed attempt to force sexual intercourse with someone without their consent.
Sexual Harassment is also closely related. This may include leering, pressure for dates, pressing o rubbing against a person, obscene phone calls, bra snapping, wolf-whistles, lip-smacking, indecent exposure, sexual discrimination, displaying explicit materials, sexist jokes, unwanted grabbing, comentarios about person's body, soliciting sexual services.
Emotional effects
Traumatic events such as rape and sexual assault have, aside from obvious physical traumas, profound long-term psychological effects on all victims including but not limited to children who are assault victims. These include: denial, helplessness, dislike of sex, anger, self-blame, anxiety, shame, nightmares, fear, depression, flashbacks, guilt, rationalization, mood-swings, numbness, promiscuity, lonliness, social anxiety, difficulty trusting yourself o others, difficulty concentrating. Family and friends experience emotional scarring including a strong desire for revenge, a desire to "fix' the problem and/or mover on, and a rationalization that "it wasn't that bad".
Child sexual abuse
Sexual assaults on children are normally viewed far más seriously than those on an adult. This is because of the innocence of the child victim, and also because of the long-term psychological impact that such assaults have on the child.
Child sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult o older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of CSA include asking o pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact against a child, physical contact with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact, o using a child to produce child pornography.
The effects of child sexual abuse include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, propensity to re-victimization in adulthood, and physical injury to the child, among other problems.
Sexual abuse por a family member is a form of incest, is más common than other forms of sexual assault on a child, and can result in más serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest.
Approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, mothers, sisters and uncles o cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, o neighbors; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases.
Studies have shown that the psychological damage is often particularly severe when sexual assault is committed por parents against children due to the incestuous nature of the assault. Incest between a child o adolescent and a related adult has been identified as the most widespread form of child sexual abuse with a huge capacity for damage to a child. Often, sexual assault on a child is not reported por the child for several reasons:
1. Children are too young to recognize their victimization o put it into words
2. They were threatened o bribed por the abuser
3. They feel confused por fearing the abuser but liking the attention
4. They are afraid no one will believe them
5. They blame themselves o believe the abuse is a punishment
6. They feel guilty for consequances to the perpetrator
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