(March 8, 2015 at 9:47 pm)Nope Wrote:(March 8, 2015 at 4:54 pm)rexbeccarox Wrote: I don't know what you mean by "they". If a rape victim tells me he or she wants to kill him or herself, I have to tell the authorities, and yes, the victim will more than likely end up in a hospital for observation.
Sorry about the way I worded my post. Yes, I meant the victim. In your experience does being hospitalized have any effect on the victim's willingness to press charges against his/her attacker?
Psychoslice, I am sorry for what happened to you
Oh no: it's fine. I wasn't as clear as I should have been. Sometimes I get caught up in things and terms I know a ton about and figure out later that people aren't understanding me. Sorry about that.
I don't actually find out anything about the case beyond the small forensic exam room I'm called to. My job is to go in, make the victim as comfortable as possible, have a conversation with them about anything other than what they've just been through for as long as it takes for the exam and interview to conclude- sometimes two hours, sometimes six. Then, I say "goodbye" and never see or talk to the victim again. I could dig in to find out, but in my training, we had a ton of focus on self-care, and that's part of it- mostly because the outcome is depressing more often than not. I'm actually really looking forward to my commitment coming to an end because the whole thing is a gigantic mind fuck for me. I'll be using my training in some other volunteer capacity, and I'm glad I'm doing this, but I'll be glad when it's over.
Sorry again for the major thread derail, Creed. An interesting set of (reported) statistics from the Oceanside, CA PD section of my training:
-85% of sexual assaults involve alcohol and/ or drug use by the victim.
-97% of victims are female
-98% of suspects are male
Now, since it's only the actual reports we're going off of, the heavy concentration of Marines in the area makes me highly doubtful that WAY more men aren't being sexually assaulted but not reporting it- by both sexes. We did talk extensively about rape in the military.
One thing we didn't really discuss a lot in my training was the idea of "being made to penetrate". I'm going to email my trainer and request she add that to future classes. We really didn't hold back in, so I'm surprised we didn't go over it.
