About Sexual Violence

Sexual violence occurs whenever a person is forced, coerced, and/or manipulated into any unwanted sexual activity, including when s/he is unable to consent due to age, illness, disability, or the influence of alcohol or others drugs.

Rape or sexual assault, child sexual assault and incest, unwanted sexual contact/touching, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, showing one’s genitals or naked body to other(s) without consent, masterbating in public, watching someone in a private act without their knowledge. (NSVRC)

Five types of sexual violence were measured in the National Intimate Partner Sexual Violence Survey. These include acts of rape (forced penetration), and types of sexual violence other than rape.

• Rape is defined as any completed or attempted unwanted vaginal (for women), oral, or anal penetration through the use of physical force (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threats to physically harm, and includes times when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. Rape is separated into three types, completed forced penetration, attempted forced penetration, and completed alcohol or drug facilitated penetration. –Among women, rape includes vaginal, oral, or anal penetration by a male using his penis. It also includes vaginal or anal penetration by a male or female using their fingers or an object. Among men, rape includes oral or anal penetration by a male using his penis. It also includes anal penetration by a male or female using their fingers or an object.
• Being made to penetrate someone else includes times when the victim was made to, or there was an attempt to make them, sexually penetrate someone without the victim’s consent because the victim was physically forced (such as being pinned or held down, or by the use of violence) or threatened with physical harm, or when the victim was drunk, high, drugged, or passed out and unable to consent. –Among women, this behavior reflects a female being made to orally penetrate another female’s vagina or anus. Among men, being made to penetrate someone else could have occurred in multiple ways: being made to vaginally penetrate a female using one’s own penis; orally penetrating a female’s vagina or anus; anally penetrating a male or female; or being made to receive oral sex from a male or female. It also includes female perpetrators attempting to force male victims to penetrate them, though it did not happen.
• Sexual coercion is defined as unwanted sexual penetration that occurs after a person is pressured in a nonphysical way. In NISVS, sexual coercion refers to unwanted vaginal, oral, or anal sex after being pressured in ways that included being worn down by someone who repeatedly asked for sex or showed they were unhappy; feeling pressured by being lied to, being told promises that were untrue, having someone threaten to end a relationship or spread rumors; and sexual pressure due to someone using their influence or authority.
• Unwanted sexual contact is defined as unwanted sexual experiences involving touch but not sexual penetration, such as being kissed in a sexual way, or having sexual body parts fondled or grabbed.
• Non-contact unwanted sexual experiences are those unwanted experiences that do not involve any touching or penetration, including someone exposing their sexual body parts, flashing, or masturbating in front of the victim, someone making a victim show his or her body parts, someone making a victim look at or participate in sexual photos or movies, or someone harassing the victim in a public place in a way that made the victim feel unsafe.

Black et al. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary

Warning Signs: What To Watch For

Have you ever seen someone playing with a child and felt uncomfortable? Maybe you thought, “I’m just over-reacting,” or, “He/She doesn’t really mean that.” Don’t ignore comments or behaviors, learn to talk about them or ask more questions about what you have seen. The checklist below offers some warning signs.

Do you know someone who:

• Refuses to let a child or teenager set any of his or her own limits (tells a teenager that only a parent can decide when privacy is allowed in the home, even in the bathroom)?
• Insists on hugging, touching, kissing, tickling, wrestling with or holding a child even when the child does not want this affection?
• Is overly interested in the sexuality of a particular child or teen (talks repeatedly about the child’s developing body or interferes with normal teen dating)?
• Manages to get time alone or insists on uninterrupted time alone with a child?
• Spends most of his/her spare time with children and has little interest in spending time with people his/her own age?
• Regularly offers to babysit many different children for free or takes children on overnight outings alone?
• Buys children expensive gifts or gives them money for no apparent reason?
• Offers alcohol or drugs to teenagers or children when other adults are not around?
• Frequently walks in on children/teens in the bathroom?
• Allows children or teens to consistently get away with inappropriate behaviors?
• Often has a “special” child friend, maybe a different one from year to year?
• Spends most spare time on activities involving children or teens, rather than other adults?
• Does not have any close adult friends?
• Makes fun of a child’s body parts, calls a child sexual names such as “stud,” “whore,” or “slut”?
• Talks again and again about the sexual activities of children or teens?
• Encourages silence and secrets with a child?
• Talks about sexual fantasies with children?
• Was exposed to violence, pornography, or sexual behaviors as a child and has not dealt with it in any way?
• Downloads pornography off the Internet where children are involved?

Any one of these behaviors does not mean that a child is in danger. But if you answered “yes” to more than one of these questions, begin to ask your own questions and get help. Trust your gut. For information and advice on how to talk to someone, or for resources, please call the toll-free Helpline at 1.888.PREVENT (1.888.773.8368).

Taken from: Let’s Talk- Speaking Up to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse