Staggering rape numbers for Indiana, youths

8-12-2012 Indiana:

About one in five Hoosier women have been victims of rape at some point in their lifetime, according to recent shocking statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)).

And most know their rapist.

Very well.

“People think there are just these crazy rapists here and there that just attack people,” said Dr. Julia Heiman, director of Indiana University's The Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender and Reproduction. “And there are some, but the majority of this happens between people who know each other.”

Husbands, boyfriends, friends and acquaintances are more common offenders than the random rape acts headlined in the media. And Heiman said many victims are afraid no one will believe those intimate with them assaulted them, which is one reason less than half of rape and assault cases being reported to authorities.

That's a statistic that has stunned many local officials in light of a recent study showing female Indiana high school students have the second-highest rate in the nation of forced sexual intercourse at 17.3 percent. And if most never report the abuse, educators are left to wonder how many students are being assaulted before graduation.

Michelle Sulich, Guidance Director at Merrillville High School, said she was surprised at the numbers.

“The data is rather shocking and alarming. ... We need to make resources available for these kids so they know where to go if they do experience something.”

Barbara Bullock, a clinical social worker at IU Northwest, said about every three weeks someone new comes to her seeking help after being sexually assaulted or finding out they have an sexually transmitted disease.

She said she thinks the assault numbers are rising in part from “faceless dating” that comes with the growing popularity of social media. People arrange for meetings with different expectations and before really knowing the other person, she said, and a few chats mentally equating to dates in the minds of a techie generation.

But other aspects of popular culture have also contributed to the problem, Bullock said, with children listening to violent rap songs and watching graphic videos at younger and younger ages.

“Those videos tend to objectify females, denigrate women with derogatory names and they portray women often as property,” Bullock said. “And a lot of that, it gets normalized somewhat in our society amongst our youth.”

Heiman said youth need good images of men and women in the media that don't include sexual force or showcase sexual aggression as being a desirable trait. And unwanted sexual contact is not just a result of physical force, she said, but verbal coercion can also result in sexual assault. ..Continued.. by Sarah Tompkins