Analysis of the Case Study of Melody in Chapter Nine

Analysis of the Case Study of Melody in Chapter Nine

Generally, rape or sexual assault involves forceful penetration into an individual without their permission through either anal, vagina, or maybe verbal sexual harassment. Additionally, touching someone’s private body parts or sexual organs by force may also be illustrated as sexual harassment, which is illegal and highly punishable by the laws and regulations of the land. Typically, most of the sexual delinquents become very cruel and regularly apply force to harm the victims, or at times they end up killing them after assaulting them sexually. However, even though both women and girls become the most affected victims of sexual assault reported cases, there also exist some rare cases whereby men have also been sexually assaulted by women. However, they seldom say such incidents for fear of being regarded as the weaklings. Similarly, the society itself does not believe that a male gender can get sexually harassed by the opposite gender (woman); hence it would be a challenging situation for a man towards substantiating he alleges of being assaulted sexually by a different gender particularly in a society where women get considered as a weak human being.

Most often, rape case occurs on those individuals regarded to be very vulnerable within society. Typically, the victim of the sexual harassment forcefully gets abducted and taken to a lonely place or maybe a room that may be difficult for her to acquire assistance when he or she calls for it. The majority of the sexual offenders possess some dangerous weapons that they usually apply towards scaring away those individuals who may come to know what occurs as well as decide to come to assist the victim.

There exist different forms of sexual harassment. First, there exist those types which involve force, while there exist other types of abuse, which in general may be either psychological, physical, or even indecent exposure, an assault, and many more. For instance, in Melody’s case, this becomes a forced form of sexual harassment since it occurred at gunpoint. Melody, a 50-year-old teacher became very vulnerable to the sexual assault since she stays typically alone at her homestead, she got divorced seven years ago as well as also her two children had been admitted to college. During the sexual assault, Melody tried to scream for assistance, but unfortunately, nobody could come to offer her help. Also, Melody’s 50-year-old woman became very aged and hence, lacked adequate strength to defend as well as protect her from the assault. Additionally, she got sexually assaulted at gunpoint; Melody had no alternative but to surrender to the rapists’ demands, or else they would have shot her to death should she had resisted.

The following become some of the significant reasons why rape cases occur in today’s world — first, gender superiority whereby man perceives a woman as a weak or lesser being. Secondly, taking into consideration while watching some of the pornographic movies, female gender gets made as to the sexual objects being used by men for their sexual satisfaction. Similarly, most societies treat women as subjects to men, which could be one of the significant reasons for sexual harassment.

Components of Crisis

The Secondary Victimization: Usually, after the victim has been exposed to the sexual assault, there exists a probability that his or her close family members or even friends will accuse the victim of being careless, and they eventually abandon them. Hence, this particular problem will cause the victim to feel very lonely, worthless, or can be degraded and again, leading to low self-esteem. Therefore, the requirement for the secondary crisis intervention program to the victim to help in educating individuals who may be close relatives or friends to the victim on how to handle or take good care of the victim of rape in the society.

Post Traumatic Stress: This particular trauma occurs immediately after the victims have been forced to sexual assault by rapists. Usually, when the victim gets sexually harassed as well as specifically at gunpoint, they always get scared, hence, leading to them suffering from post-traumatic stress. In this case, Melody became very scared after the event of sexual harassment, as we can be able to tell from her conversation with the counselor from the Metro Sexual Assault Unit. Usually, getting through the driveway could become one of her most dominant fears she has ever experienced in her entire life.

Difficulty in getting back the rape victim to her normal life before the rape incidence: One of the critical questions that need an elaborate answer includes how fast can the rape victim get back to her normal life before the sexual assault event? In most situations, it may not be straightforward as they can still fear the worst incidents more so when they stay alone. Hence, they should have someone to reside with them before they fully heal up. For example, in this situation, Melody’s brother (Tom), who formally was a Marine, had to play significant roles towards ensuring that his sister Melody comes back to her healthy life before rape incidence. The crisis worker psychologically made Tom ready to take good care of Melody.

Also, there exist various intervention strategies that can assist in lowering the occurrence rate of sexual harassment incidents. First, the government should build several counseling institutions easily accessible in which the victims of sexual assault can adequately receive quality and most effective counseling services from the professionals to conquer this particular psychological trauma. For instance, considering Melody’s case, she suffered from an injury as well as it could have been a challenging situation for her to do appropriate thinking; hence, the counselor’s services could be regarded as very significant since it would assist her to heal that given wound. Second, the government should also set up many more crisis centers to help in treating those victims of sexual assault. These given centers will assist in collecting accurate data regarding the rape cases that had occurred in certain areas. Therefore, this given data collected may be very significant in determining the trends that cause a high rate of occurrence of sexual assault cases, hence may help to quickly identify as well as solve these given cases before they occur. Some of the rapists may be under the influence of drugs or drug addicts, and therefore, relevant institutions would first help in solving the challenges of drug addiction to assist in lowering rape cases. For example, it took a lot of time for the victim, Melody, to be able to access the rescue center, a situation that could have been solved effectively should there exist several crisis centers.

Third, arresting as well as strictly prosecuting the culprits of the rape cases becomes an appropriate intervention strategy towards preventing several individuals from participating in that terrible act when long-term imprisonment comes into their minds. For instance, that individual who sexually assaulted Melody had committed a criminal act, and therefore, the most appropriate place for him would be just the prison.

Additionally, social media could also play a pivotal role by promoting or running a given campaign that helps in condemning these shocking acts being done by rapists. Creating public awareness through the education process on various effects of sexual harassment acts as well as what precisely the victim’s experiences after the rape incident. The media could have helped in airing experiences like that of Melody. This particular strategy would generally assist individuals inappropriately dealing with the victims as well as preventing the rapists from doing the same act to another person in society.

Personally Recommended Intervention Strategy for Change

Since there has to be a change as well as lower various sexual assault cases within the society, I would propose that our community deal with this particular challenge holistically. The relevant authorities should identify sequentially all the multiple factors leading to the high rate of rape cases in the society. Again, the main argument should get handled and solved individually separately from others. Also, men should get educated on the importance of respecting women and treating them as equal gender within the society, since, with respect and equality, no sexual assault cases can exist.

Similarly, those older women regarded as very vulnerable in society should get educated on the basic guidelines of self-defense as well as protection strategies as this strategy could help them from getting attacked by the rapists. Lastly, I would also propose for the community policing strategy as well as promote the initiative of ‘be your brother’s keeper’ within the society to help in taking good care of your neighbors’ whereabouts and offer them assistance whenever they get attacked by the perpetrators. This given strategy will help in reducing the occurrence of a high rate of rape cases in the society.

References

Meier, K. J., & Nicholson‐Crotty, J. (2016). Gender, representative bureaucracy, and law enforcement: The case of sexual assault. Public Administration Review, 66(6), 850-860. Retrieved from the

www.tandfonline.com › doi › full

Schneider, L. J., Ee, J. S. C., & Aronson, H. (2014). Effects of victim gender and physical vs. psychological trauma/injury on observers’ perceptions of sexual assault and its aftereffects. Sex Roles, 30(11-12), 793-808. Retrieved from the

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc › articles › PMC5576571