Sexual assault: Always believe the victim

“In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account, and we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced,” “Rolling Stone’s” Managing Editor Will Dana said after releasing a story on Dec. 4 about Jackie, a sexual assault victim at the University of Virginia. The story laid out chilling details of a UVA freshman’s experience with rape at a fraternity party in September 2012.

In other words, a major magazine has just apologized for a trauma victim’s account of her rape experience at a very traditional and highly esteemed university. Furthermore, this magazine, in apologizing for Jackie’s account of her experience, has inadvertently supported sexual assault on college campuses.

The following statistics should provoke society’s outrage toward sexual assault on college campuses and sexual assault in general.

n 1 in 5 undergraduate women experience sexual assault while in college. Of them, 34 percent are forced, 57 percent are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and 4 percent are given drugs without their knowledge.

n Women are more likely to be sexually assaulted during their first two years of college, and the most commonly reported days are Friday and Saturday.

n 4 percent of undergraduate men experience sexual assault while in college.

n 2.5 percent of male undergrads admit to have attempted or committed sexual assault since starting college.

n 63 percent of men who admit to having committed rape say they did it multiple times, according to researcher David Lisak; and 5.8 is the average number of rapes committed by these repeat rapists.

n 4 percent of college sexual assault victims report the incident to police or security.

n 1 percent of assailants are arrested, charged or convicted.

n False rape reports account for, at most, 8 percent of reports.

When a trauma victim tells her story, “she stops and she starts, she contradicts herself, she goes backward and forward, what she says doesn’t make sense, so when she is describing it, she’s not crying, she’s totally flat,” says Dr. Rebecca Campbell, renowned researcher, author and speaker on the neurobiology of trauma.

Does this sound similar to the case of Jackie in the “Rolling Stone” article? In the managing editor’s apology, didn’t he state that her account was inconsistent and ultimately untruthful? Well, here is the truth behind what happened to Jackie and many others who have been sexually assaulted. There is a biological “thing” that happens to our body while we experience a trauma, such as trauma induced by a sexual assault, that affects the organization of our memories, but not the memories themselves.

Recently, RAVE hosted a presentation for several different agencies in Ionia and Montcalm counties on the neurobiology of trauma by Campbell. She has spent 25 years conducting research focused on rape crisis centers in the legal, medical and mental health arenas, learning the best way to respond to adult, adolescent and pediatric victims of sexual assault. She has published 75 scientific papers and two books, and conducted more than 150 presentations on this topic at the state, national and international levels.

During the presentation, Campbell emphasized the biological reaction of the body while experiencing a sexual assault. She said that certain parts of the brain remain active during a traumatic encounter and focus on keeping the body alive by releasing a surge of hormones responsible for “Fight, Flight or Freeze.” This process keeps the body going, prevents pain, and drives “good feelings” intended to help the person survive.

The flood of hormones released during the traumatic event interfere with the brain’s ability to keep and store memories in an organized fashion, so they are scattered and often remembered from sensory cues, instead of sequentially and in order. Campbell likened the memory retrieval by a traumatized victim of one small detail at a time to thousands of small, multi-colored Post-it notes scattered across a desk. This process of the brain is a survival mechanism for the organism.

If the story is fragmented, sketchy and inconsistent, chances are it is true, said Campbell. Related to “Rolling Stone” magazine’s apology for the inconsistencies in Jackie’s story, there is a very clear-cut and research-based explanation. It is called, “The Neurobiology of Trauma.”

We only have one college campus in Ionia and Montcalm counties, but sexual assault is still prevalent in our community. It is happening with children of all age groups, with married couples, with teenagers going to parties on the weekends, on the dating scene. So why are we not hearing about the prevalence of sexual assault? The answer is simple. As stated above, only 4 percent of victims report the crime, and only 1 percent of the assailants are held accountable for their actions.

Locally, the RAVE Domestic Assault Response Advocate Team (DARA) is poised and ready to respond to sexual assault victims in Ionia and Montcalm counties. Sexual assault victims can be our daughters, our sisters, our brothers, our mothers and our cousins. Why is such little attention being brought to the forefront when it comes to sexual assault?

As a society we must work on raising awareness of sexual assault. We must educate people, help survivors and, always, believe victims!

—Amanda Peterson is the DARA coordinator for RAVE – Relief After Violent Encounter. Visit www.raveim.org for more information about RAVE’s services. Call RAVE’s 24-hour Crisis and Support Line at 800-720-SAFE (7233) for help.