Rape is a serious crime punishable by law. Widely spread in our society, it is nevertheless subject to an unbearable form of complacency. A better understanding of the causes and consequences of rape reminds us of the urgency of the fight against sexual violence and the system that causes it.
Rape is in no way caused by a woman's dress or by her attitude. Rape is not the result of any so-called "irresponsible" behavior on the part of the victim (going out late at night, going home alone, accepting a drink, etc.). Rape is never caused by the victim.
It is fundamental to say it: rape is caused by the rapist. No matter what the circumstances. Rape is a conscious choice to impose one's domination on the other and to coerce them. It is not a sudden sexual impulse, but a conscious decision to seriously assault another person. Nor is it excusable because "he was drunk". On the contrary, the consumption of alcohol is an aggravating circumstance for the aggressor before the law.
Rape is above all the result of the unequal system in which we live. The patriarchal model that characterizes our society generally places women and children under the domination of men, under their authority. Women and children are thus the first victims of sexual violence. Although many advances have been made in recent years, certain ideas characteristic of rape culture persist: women's bodies, objectified and hypersexualized, are still considered accessible to men, and even owed to them within the framework of the couple.
Moreover, women who suffer from several factors of discrimination (racialized women, women with disabilities, lesbian women, trans women, women from less privileged socio-professional categories) are all the more vulnerable to sexual violence.
Sexual violence is a serious violation of the fundamental rights of every human being and results in a myriad of possible consequences for the victim. The cost of such violence (psychological, social, and financial) is very high for the victims.
Physical consequences resulting directly from the rape: acute pain, vestibule wounds, hymenal perforation, etc., as well as the possible transmission of a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Physical consequences that can be felt afterward: chronic pain, intense fatigue, headaches, digestive and gynecological problems, palpitations, neurological disorders, etc. Sexual violence can have long-term consequences that affect the physical health of individuals, particularly in relation to the intense stress that it generates.
The psychological consequences also occur in the short, medium, and long term. If the victim is not accompanied by specialized professionals, these consequences can worsen. A non-exhaustive list of examples is given here:
Obsessive behavioral disorders (OCD), disturbed eating behaviors
Total or partial traumatic amnesia about the attack; difficulty in recalling the facts accurately, because they are stored in the traumatic memory and not in the conscious and controlled autobiographical memory
All the phenomena described above are normal reactions of the human psyche to abnormal situations. During a sexual assault, the victim is paralyzed by the horror of the situation and stunned. This situation generates immense psychological distress, and the level of stress felt increases severely. However, the brain cannot manage this excessive emotional response and "switches off": the cortex, which helps to assimilate events and make decisions, is then disconnected from the amygdala, which receives the emotions.
Those surviving sexual assault, the amygdala continues to receive distress, terror, and pain but is isolated from the rest of the brain. Thus, the victim is in a dissociative state: she suffers immensely, but cannot produce an emotional or physical response because her cortex no longer functions properly.
She is as if emotionally anesthetized (although part of her brain continues to receive this terror and will later transform it into traumatic memory) and unable to react. This state of dissociation, if not taken care of, can lead the victim to adopt "dissociative" behaviors later on (alcohol, drugs, risk-taking, violent relationships, etc.) that allow him/her to regain this state of emotional anesthesia so as not to face the memory of the aggression.
It is important to note that since these psychotraumatic consequences are still largely unknown, they can sometimes be used to discredit the victim's statements. For example, thinking that a person has not really suffered and that it must not have been "that bad" because they appear calm and detached, when in fact they are deeply dissociated.
A better knowledge of these elements would therefore make it possible to improve the reception of victims of sexual violence and their access to justice.