Running Head: Rape Trauma Syndrome

Kianna Walls
Forensic Psychology
March 26, 2015

Abstract Rape is commonly defined as using force to make someone do a sexual act against their will. Rape can cause a person to experience symptoms that are very similar to post-trauma stress disorder. The person experiences symptoms such as nightmares, constant reliving of the event, and denial. Victims experiencing this go through rape trauma syndrome. RTS is not commonly used in court rooms as it is easily dissuaded. When it used in the courtroom, it is used more of a defense than to show that a victim can experience this. This paper explores what RTS is and how it used in courtrooms. It also explores why RTS should be used courtrooms, not as a defense but to show that it exist and that victims can experience this.

Rape Trauma Syndrome
There have been many trials that use rape-trauma syndrome as either a defense mechanism or as a way to say that rape happened and this was a consequence. But not many trials with expert testimony on RTS as allow to be used. Yet it should be as many people, both female and males, are raped and experience RTS. Rape trauma syndrome is defined by Gupta (2013) as a type of PTSD that consists of physical and emotional traits from post-rape that many people are rape victims share (pg. 415). RTS is very serious and those that have experienced this syndrome deserve to have it recognized in court.
There are many misconceptions of rape. Greene and Helibrun (2011), describe four different attitudes that add to the misconceptions of rape: “1. Women are seen as responsible for preventing their own rape, 2. a desire for sex is seen as the main motive for rape, 3. severe punishment is advocated for rapist and 4. a woman is seen as instigating rape through flirtatious behavior or provocative dress” (pg. 335). Three out of the four attitudes blame woman the woman for rape, which contributes to the shame that many woman feel after being raped. Attitudes like these are part of the reason why many people do not know a lot about rape trauma syndrome. The definition of rape is supposed to be clear cut, but as rape continues to be something that happens daily, it is obvious that this definition can be blurred. According to Ann Burgess (1983), rape includes “lack of consent, force or threat of force, and sexual penetration” (pg. 97). Today, over two hundred thousand people are sexually a year. In the 1970s rape was unreported, today more victims are reporting rape. Yet, the television shows, such as Law and Order: SVU, show rapist constantly getting off on charges because the victim misidentified the man or because there was DNA evidence. In real life courtrooms, it is similar to television courtrooms. More than ninety-seven percent of reported rapist do not go to jail. Because of this, prosecutions should use RTS more often. If more jurors saw what happens to rape victims, then they would see that rape is not just something that happens and the victim gets over immediately. In fact many authors believe there are multiple stages that happen to the victim after rape that fall under RTS. The stages as described by Nina Gupta (2014) the first stage of a victim with RTS go through is the acute phase. The acute phase happens immediately after the event and the reactions vary. Some of the victims “will express fear and anger” which is understandable (pg. 416). To have your body used by someone else without permission, would result in anger and fear. Anger over the fact that they had been abused and fear that it will happen again. Sometimes it is anger over the idea that they may have caused it. It is not abnormal for rape victims to have misplaced guilt and shame, even though it is not their actual fault. After the first phase comes the long-term reorganizational phase in which the victim may make a life changing decision but the victim may experience headaches and nightmares. Even more than phases, some scientist speculate that there are diagnostic criteria that help in understanding rape trauma syndrome. The second criteria is re-experiencing the trauma, which can happen through nightmares. The nightmares are can be of three different types:
Dreams may be of three types: (1) replication of the state of victimization and helplessness ("I use my mace and it turns to water"); (2) symbolic dreams which include a theme from the rape, as in one case in which a victim pleaded unsuccessfully her fear of pregnancy and had recurrent dreams of eggs pouring out of her and babies rolling down the hill and dying; and (3) mastery dreams in which the victim is powerful in assuming control ("I took the knife and stabbed him over and over") ( Burgess, pg. 103)
There is one thing that the researchers do agree on: numbness. For some the numbness includes the victims refusing to acknowledge the rape (Gupta, pg. 416) but for others the numbness includes shock which includes (Burgess, pg. 103) feeling as if the event did not happen. Once raped, many victims feel paranoid that it might happen again, another downside that comes with the shock of being raped. Paranoia is said to be a mental condition. Something that affects the status of the mind and prohibits people from making rational decisions.
One study on rape trauma syndrome was done in correlation with people who have intellectual disabilities. The study (Shabalala and Jasson, 2011) showed that certain characteristics led to people who had been raped, to experience RTS, “such as lower socioeconomic status or pre-existing mental health problems” (pg. 424). To know that certain people who have experienced rape have a high probability for getting RTS is interesting. It was found through the study conducted on rape victims with ID, that some of the victims experienced “avoidance symptoms like problems with accessing memories of the trauma” (pg. 432). Many victims of rape have symptoms like this though, not just those who have intellectual disabilities.
Foa, Steketee, and Rothbaum, (1989) speculate that the victims of rape who have RTS often becomes anxious when they are talking or even think about the rape, “and thus, when the rape victim describes her experience, she becomes anxious” (pg. 158). Once a person is violated in a way such as rape, to have to relive the event by telling it, to become anxious is normal. Many people do not want to face their fears, and rape is something many people fear, Stone (2013), stated that “fear affects many people” (pg. 55). Being raped, forces people to confront their fears, but rape is not a confrontation of a victims fear. Being rape is another type of fear one hopes to never face, yet it is extremely common and often times is unreported because of shame. Shame unfounded for it is not the victim’s fault that they are raped and their bodies abused by people. Statistics show that majority of a rapist know their victim and the victims have a right to see their rapist be punished.
It could be said that the fear many victims have after experiencing rape comes from the knowledge that their rapist may not go to jail. They know that their rapist, will still be out there, not just terrorizing their dreams and nightmares, but probably doing the same thing to other people. An example of this was Ronald Cotton. A Man convicted of raping of woman. After the initial rapist, ran away from the house, he raped another woman. When some people are raped they fear that they will be raped again because their rapist is out in the streets free. Victims who feel shocked that an event like rape could happen deserve to be able to look at their rapist and see that they will get punished.
Rape trauma syndrome is rarely used in courts. Frazier and Borgida (1985) states that “rape trauma syndrome… describes the constellation of symptoms that result from a sexual assault) (pg. 984). RTS is similar to PTSD in that a traumatic event had to happen for the victim to experience it. Many psychologist who go to court for expert testimony often try to explain this jurors. Oftentimes lawyers call the experts to the stand because the defendant claims the act was consensual and because it goes back to he said she said speculation. The defendant is more likely to say rape did not happen compared to the victim who said it did, which makes it hard for the juror’s to make a choice. It is assumed that the juror’s do not have enough knowledge of RTS to make an adequate decision.
In the courtroom, Frazier and Borgida (1985) held that in the court case of State v. Saldana, “post-traumatic stress disorders symptoms associated with rape could follow any psychologically traumatic event and that not every case of rape results in the symptoms described in the syndrome” (pg. 986). Many of the symptoms of RTS are similar to PTSD, and this is a way for the attorneys to discredit the victim. If the victim is experiencing symptoms of PTSD, then there is no definitive way of saying if the victim was truly raped. State v. Saldana, is one of many examples that show how RTS is not always accepted in court rooms.
In the courtroom, many of the jurors’ do not know anything about RTS. Many people know about the symptoms of PTSD because it is something that is well known. Television shows portray many people having PTSD after events such as the war, but not the portrayal of RTS. In order to show that RTS is real and different from PTSD, jurors’ must be educated on the differences between the two and what RTS really is. Victims who feel shocked that an event like rape could happen deserve to be able to look at their rapist and see that they will get punished.
Rape trauma syndrome should be more widely used in courts not only because it offers the victims closure but it also educates people on RTS. People need to be educated about RTS so that everyone knows what it is. In the courtroom, jurors’ will be able to see that victims who have RTS have been traumatized and that their victimizers should be punished. In the court system we punish men and women who commit murder or rob banks, yet ninety-seven percent of rapist go free. If RTS was accepted in courts more often, than people who have RTS may be more likely to report what happened to them and jurors’ may be less likely to acquit someone who is being accused of rape. If RTS is used more often in courtrooms, it would show that people actually experience this and that though similar to PTSD, it is not PTSD. Recognizing RTS in a courtroom would go a long way in convicting rapist.

References
Burgess, A. W. (1983). Rape Trauma Syndrome. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 1(3), 97- 113.
Foa, E. B., Steketee, G., & Rothbaum, B. O. (1989). Behavioral/Cognitive Conceptualizations of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Behavior Therapy 20(2), 155-176. Doi: 0005- 7894/89/0155 -017651. 00/0.
Frazier, P., & Borgida, E. (1985). Rape trauma syndrome evidence in court. American Psychologist, 40(9), 984-993. Doi: http://dx. Doi. Org/10. 1037/0003-066X. 40. 9. 984.
Greene. E., & Helibrun, K. (2011). Wrightman’s Psychology and the legal system. Australia: Wadsworth.
Gupta, N. (2013). Disillusioning the prosecution: the unfulfilled promise of syndrome evidence. Law & Contemporary Problems, 76(3/4), 234-431.
Shabalala, N., & Jasson, A. (2011). PTSD symptoms in intellectually disabled victims of sexual assault. South African Journal of Psychology, 41(4), 424-436.
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