Yet underneath the facade of normalcy lies a controlling and violent nature. Rape is often called a crime of passion, completely misleading society as to the true nature of sexual assault. In reality, rape has very little to do with sexual arousal. For the predator, it s not about sex or physical pleasure, it s about power and dominance. By reducing the victim to nothing more than an object, the predator uses sex as a weapon with which to control, humiliate, and harm his victim.
Sexual assault is purely a crime of violence.
Though an assault can happen in less than just minutes, the lasting emotional and mental effects can interfere with a victim s everyday life, even decades after the rape. Stan Pettegrow began his work with Sexual Trauma and Recovery Services by becoming a volunteer for the crisis hotline. He noticed that many of the calls received came from adults who had been assaulted many years prior, and were still struggling to cope. He found that much of the struggle could be directly traced to a lack of support and intervention for the victims after they were assaulted. The sad fact in our society is that rape victims get little support.