Rape of person with disabilities: A psychological study

Pages: 1658-1661
MD Intekhab UR Rahman (Department of Psychology, B. N. Mandal University (North Campus), Sabaila, Madhepura, Bihar)

Rape is the non-consensual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth by the penis or any other object the perpetrator chooses to use. Rape is an act of sexual violence that is primarily about anger, revenge, and control of others rather than sex. This violent act has a significant impact on the victim, affecting her in physiological, psychological, and spiritual ways. Victims of rape often have severe difficulties overcoming a rape due to their sense of a loss of control over their own bodies. Many have been physically threatened, and were afraid of not living through the experience. Rape is not just an issue of females either. Young boys have often been victims as well, though they often never tell anyone of the experience until much later. Literature on rape particularly rape of disabled persons have extensively reviewed and it is pointed out that as far as sexual assaults are concerned with disabled persons, almost 80% of people with disabilities are sexually assaulted on more than one occasion and 50% of those experienced more than 10 victimizations . Women with disabilities are raped and abused at a rate at least twice that of the general population of women. It is revealed that among adults who are developmentally disabled, as many as 83% of the females and 32% of the males are victims of sexual assault. How a survivor responds to and heals from sexual violence particularly in case of rape can be greatly impacted by many variables. Some of the impact of the trauma depends upon things such as age, how the person was before the traumatic event, the victim’s coping abilities and who the offender was. What happened during the crime can affect the survivor’s experience, too, including the severity, frequency and duration of the violence and the degree of personal violation. It is concluded in the present paper that Victims of sexual assault, particularly disabled persons from poor and marginalized communities, lack effective legal assistance. The national and state governments have taken several initiatives to support sexual assault victims, but without a monitoring and evaluation framework, they largely remain inadequate or ineffective.