RAPE CRISIS CAMPAIGN LOOKS AT HOW VICTIMS REACT
I realised he wasn’t going to stop. I felt utter fear. Mymind went blank ..It was like my head had just shutdown
Anne’s experience after brutal abuse by her partner highlights how people who have been sexually assaulted may be too traumatised to fight off their attackers and are often terrified to report their ordeal to anyone
It caused me pain to think about it and I was scared I wouldn’t be believed ANNE
A HARD-HITTING campaign launches today to dispel myths about how rape victims react when they are attacked.
Rape Crisis Scotland are raising awareness online with I Just Froze, which highlights how victims can be so paralysed by fear that they don’t fight back.
Many leave it days, months or years to report an attack because they feel ashamed, are scared they won’t be believed or they can’t face the horror of the crime.
The animations in the Rape Crisis Scotland campaign are designed to tackle ignorance that could influence how a victim is perceived, including by potential jurors in a rape trial.
Sandy Brindley, national coordinator for Rape Crisis Scotland, said many of us assume we know how people would respond to rape.
But she said: “The truth is there is just no knowing. Responses to rape can be so very different to how we would expect or imagine that some people find them hard to believe.
“Survivors of rape often tell us that they just froze, that they couldn’t move, or cry out. This is a normal response to trauma.
“We hope that the ‘I Just Froze’ campaign shows exactly why it’s so important that everyone understands this because one day, maybe a friend, partner or family member might tell you that they have been raped.
“Or one day you might be on a jury listening to someone say that they thought they thought they’d fight back but they just froze.”
Research found that most members of mock juries assumed a rapist would use force and that a woman would fight back and defend herself.
Many also felt that a delay in reporting the crime significantly weakened the prosecution’s case.
The issue is a focus of the rape storyline in ITV drama Broadchurch. In the first episode of the new series, farm worker Trisha – played by Julie Hesmondhalgh – suffered an attack, which she doesn’t report for 48 hours.
The Broadchurch team did extensive research with Dorset Rape Crisis and learned that victims can take years to report.
Producer Dan Winch said: “We wanted to bring awareness and deal with some of the myths of the more stereotypical rape cases portrayed on television.”
The programme shows that police will believe victims, regardless of how long it has taken them to report.
Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, said no two reports of rape are ever the same.
He said: “Every single person will react and engage with us differently.
“We need to tailor our response to the needs of each individual. People should be reassured when they report, we understand, we will listen and we will investigate, whether the offence was yesterday or decades ago.”
Anne, 34, from Edinburgh, was raped by a partner who abused her emotionally, physically and sexually.
He had turned from a charming boyfriend into a controlling bully after she moved in with him.
She said: “I knew I had to be submissive or there would be consequences when he lost his temper. He would hit me or smash things up.”
One night when they were staying at a friend’s house, he raped her.
She was scared to refuse sex. But when he started insulting her, she told him to stop and tried to push him away.
She said: “I asked him to get off me and he wouldn’t. I remember looking in to his eyes and he was staring straight through me.
“I realised he wasn’t going to stop. I felt fear, utter fear. I just remember not wanting to see his eyes.
“My mind went blank and all I could see was the sky. It was as though my head closed down.
“I was brought up to think that if something like that happened to me, I would fight them off but I couldn’t. I had no control. I was terrified and my body shut down.
“I questioned how I reacted and if I could have somehow stopped it.”
He told her that she had deserved it. Anne said: “I pulled the covers around me and I couldn’t stop shaking.”
She didn’t report it immediately because she was still living with him and couldn’t face what had happened.
Anne planned her escape but when she told him she was leaving, he brutally assaulted her and she fled to the police.
They referred her to Rape Crisis Scotland and only with their support did she eventually report the rape, a year after it happened.
She said: “I didn’t use the words rape for up to a year later. I tried to put it to one side because it was causing me so much pain to think about it. I just wanted it go away.
“I was scared I wouldn’t be believed. He was a charming successful guy. I didn’t think anyone would believe he was capable of that.”
When Anne told friends about her rape, some asked why she hadn’t fought back.
She hopes that the campaign will tackle that ignorance.
From next month, new legislation allows for judicial direction in rape cases in Scotland.
Judges can, where relevant, give juries clear, factual information to help explain that someone might not fight back during an attack or report it straight away.
Karen was regularly raped by her boyfriend but seven years after she left him, she still hasn’t reported it.
She said: “It took probably almost a year to say out loud what he had done to me.
“I had counselling from about nine months after I left him and it took three years before I actually told her everything that he had done because I was so ashamed.
“I felt because I hadn’t fought back, that I was somehow to blame. And that took a really long time to come to terms with.”
Karen is now a neuroscientist and has researched the “freeze response”. She said: “The body’s natural instinct is to protect yourself.
“This is why this campaign speaks to me a lot – it’s so important to understand that your body takes over, it’s instinctive to protect yourself.
“People believe that rape only happens when a man jumps out of an alley, beats a young woman over the head, she fights back and screams and it’s a very dramatic Hollywood version of what it’s actually like.
“It is violent crime but not in the way people think. You don’t immediately fight back. Your body just takes over.
“I think this is a huge thing for people to understand. It’s natural to freeze. You can’t be angry at your body and you’re not complicit just because you didn’t fight back.” ● To see the campaign, go to www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/ campaigns-projects/i-just-froze