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Show Myths, facts told about rape By SHARON MORREY Fact : rape is a violent crime. Myth: rape is a sexually motivated crime. Fact: rape victims include both genders, all ages, any religion. Myth: only bad girls who ask for it get raped. These myths and others about the traumatic and violent crime of rape still exist and are still promoted to an extent by authority figures, says the director of the Salt Lake Rape Crisis Center, Christine Watters, and that need to change. Watters talked to a group of Utah Press Women gathered for their annual fall workshop recently and explained that while some progress has been made in the public's understanding un-derstanding of rape, much is still left to be done. "Rape is the fastest growing violent crime in Utah and the most unreported crime," said Watters. "Much of the problem in dealing with the trauma of rape comes from the victim's feeling and believing that somehow they caused the crime to be committed. And that notion is unconsciously promoted." Watters said that it is dangerous and incorrect to teach girls and women that their manner of dress or talk can draw a rapist's attention to-them, to-them, inviting a rape. "That's - shifting the blame for who is responsible to say, "If you dress and act in a certain manner, you can be a victim.' " Watters said there are things women (and men and children) can do to decrease their state of vulnerability -- steer clear of dark lonely streets at night, avoid situations where help is not readily available - but that no one "asks to be raped." "A young girl hitchhiking is picked up and raped. Immediately the focus is on the victim, she was asking for it, right? No. The issue is clear. The victim was asking for a ride and was in a vulnerable circumstance. cir-cumstance. "If we believe that only bad girls get raped, then the victims believe that, and that just isn't true." Watters said the youngest victim the Crisis Center has treated so far is a five-and-a-half-month old infant boy, the oldest a 94-year-old female Senior Citizen. "A sexually assaulted person can be any person," she stressed, "from any religion, any social or economic background." Men are committing the majority of assaults, said Watters, but women are perpetrators as well. Watters called raped a "pseudo-sexual "pseudo-sexual act" because genital organs are involved and used as weapons but the crime itself is misunderstood when it's assumed to be sexually motivated. "One person is taking control over another person." she explained. "It's gaining power in a violent manner." Watters asked the press women to take care in the reporting of sexual assault cases and avoid "trap" leads and headlines that tub the victim as the one at fault, for example: "17 year-old hitchhiker raped and killed" as opposed to "Man rapes and kills girl." The tragedy for many victims, said Walters, is that he or she is traumatized many times over by the legal and medical professions and the media. "The trauma is a psychological one," she reiterated. "We must do all we can to be sure we do not add to that victim's tremendous burden ol guilt and rage." |