(00:00:05) A national conference on sexual assault is underway in Minneapolis this week. It opened about midweek and is drawn several hundred people from around the country members of the National Coalition against sexual assault work in Rape Crisis centers and other groups which try to help victims of a variety of sexual assault crimes Becky Montgomery's with us today to hopefully debunk hopefully some of the myths and misinformation that are common about sexual assault just a moment. We'll open the phone lines to give you a chance to ask your questions about these crimes Becky is a sexual assault Program Coordinator at the rape and abuse Crisis Center in Fargo Moorhead, which also serves parts of Western Minnesota certainly is a pleasure to have somebody with us from the Fargo Moorhead area and PR has a station up there of course and we transmit up there but we don't is often have a chance to visit with some of you folks in the st. Paul area. So it's a real pleasure to have you. Tell us just a little bit about what you mean by the term sexual assault. Is it exclusively rape or other some other things (00:01:09) involved sexual assault includes has any act sexual in nature against a adult or child it includes rape as well as sexual harassment as well as attempted sexual assault. It can include obscene phone calls gestures things of that nature anything that is sexual in nature that is not consensual on the part of the (00:01:34) victim how widespread the problem is (00:01:36) it statistically one out of four women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime (00:01:41) one out of (00:01:42) four. That's correct for women of color minority women. The chances are one out of two. So it is quite prevalent most rapes. Do not go go unreported. The victim feels really hesitant roll embarrassed and real afraid to report and so most of the rapes that we know of Not get (00:02:03) reported. Now. Are you talking with these statistics of one out of four and one out of two is this rape or is it are these maybe some of the other kinds of the salt that you mentioned the non-consensual things that could be the all the gestures and the language and that kind of thing. It's predominately rape it is what what sorts of programs are there for these people who have been through that with one out of two my goodness. It seems like it would be a massive numbers of people that would be going to these Crisis Intervention centers. What do you offer? (00:02:37) I think Minnesota is a state that's real fortunate because we do have a real comprehensive sexual assault program. There are sexual assault centers that cover I believe all the counties in Minnesota. There may be a distance to find a sexual assault Center, but there is Outreach and services are available to every sexual assault victim in the state of Minnesota in the metro area. There are I believe two or three centers. There's a center for Native Americans who have been sexually assaulted in particular and in the rural areas their sexual assault centers, basically what the center's offers support support to the victim of a sexual assault victims go through a lot of feelings a lot of since to the sexual assault and is it is real helpful to have somebody there somebody who understands the range of feelings that they're going over we provide services to all victims of sexual assault adults and children male and female both not only do we provide support but we also provide advocacy Services which means when a victim does choose to go through the legal system does choose to receive a medical exam does choose to prosecute and meet with the county attorney either a staff member or volunteer from Sexual Assault Center goes with the victim to those various meetings and access is not only support but a buffer for the victim to provide her with support to explain to her what will be happening because a lot of times victims are not told what's happening to them and they've just been through an incident of rape which is a very violent attack but is also as a tack Since their person their sense of control over themselves and it helps and it means a lot to have somebody there explaining to them. What is going to happen next. What is it actor going to do? What are all the tests for? What is going to happen during a police interview? If they choose to report it to the place what kinds of questions are they going to ask and then with the county attorney of the County Attorney is able to prosecute the case and if the victim is able to testify in the prosecution of the case explaining to the victim what the county attorney will be doing a lot of the sexual assault Services across the state of Minnesota are centered in the county attorney's office. It really does vary from region to region. (00:05:02) Well, we may be able to explore a little bit further what some of the things are that happened in the prosecution of these cases as they are continuous, but High time that we invite those of you with questions to call in the Minneapolis st. Paul area. The number is two two seven six thousand 227 if you have a question for Becky Montgomery about sexual In the Twin Cities area in other parts of Minnesota. The number is 1-800-695-1418 hundred six hundred 529700. And of course if you listening in one of the surrounding states or in Ontario, you can call us directly in the Twin Cities at area code 612 2276 thousand. How many people do you see every year in the crisis center you have in (00:05:48) Fargo last year. We saw 223 victims of sexual assault and that was both North Dakota and Minnesota this year in 1983 in the first six months. We saw 115 victims of sexual assault which is quite an increase to statistically in the first six months. Usually the way the center in Fargo Moorhead runs is that we receive about 40% of the whole Year's victims in the first six months, and we've already seen received and seen over half. Man of victims that we saw last year so that if that's indicative of what's happening this year. We're going to see another increase. (00:06:29) All right, we have a listener on the line with a question for you and we'll take that call her right away and also remind people that we do have some more open lines at 2276 thousand. Okay, you're on the air. Good morning. Thank you very much. I'm interested in knowing after hearing what kinds of details are involved in sexual assault what the speaker thinks the future of sexual assault might be say 100 years ago. I suspect very strongly that we didn't have these senses sensibilities about all the various ways to be sexually assaulted and I just wonder if she could project ahead a few decades and and sort of expound on what might be sexual assault. Then (00:07:09) sexual assault will pretty much remain the same I think in the future next few decades. It'll will still have the problem of rape will still have the problem of of attempted rape. I think that will probably still have the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace as well as obscene phone calls things like that that are that assault a woman sexuality or assault a person's sexuality and is something that is unasked-for in is against their will (00:07:41) if it strikes me that among the misperceptions that there may be about this topic is probably one of my own which is it this sort of thing will be far more common in the big cities and particularly as you go to the big cities on the east coast and the West Coast more common than it would be in the Twin Cities and definitely more common in the Twin Cities that it would be in Fargo-Moorhead or in some of the smaller rural areas of Minnesota and The Dakotas in our area now is that is that a correct assumption on my part or (00:08:11) not? The numbers are larger and Mentor we re simply because there are more people in the Metro areas. But in terms of percentages, they're pretty much the same. I think that you would have probably a higher number of sexual assaults depending upon the minority population in a community because it does occur more often to minority women. Hmm. (00:08:32) How is it handled in the rural areas (00:08:35) a lot depends whether or not there is a support system available in a lot of rural areas and Find this more in North Dakota's and in Minnesota in a lot of rural communities, there is not access to sexual assault Services people are not trained as well as you'll find them in the Metro areas law enforcement medical personnel county attorney's really are unsure at times how to handle the problem in a lot of communities. The law enforcement officers have been trained in the area of sexual assault in investigating rape cases, and they are real sensitive. We're very fortunate in the rural areas around Cass and Clay counties that the law enforcement officers are very sensitive and they are willing to go for treating and they are willing to talk about the victims reactions. They want to understand what is happening to the victim and they want to be sure not to do anything that will make it harder on her to report because it is hard initially. We work with most sexual assault Centers do Outreach to hospitals and training them and how to work with sexual assault victims training them helping them in the training of doing medical exams or AP exams so really depends on whether or not a sexual assault program exists in the area how much Outreach that they're capable of doing because a lot of them are volunteer organizations and time is aerobic factors to how much Outreach the really capable of doing. (00:10:08) We've heard it reported over the past several years that the incidence of reported rape is up. Is that because more people are coming forward or because the incidence of the abuse is getting (00:10:20) larger. I think it's a real combination. I think that the incidence is becoming more becoming larger and I also think that there's more awareness about services available in the support systems available to victims so that they are more likely to report if they know that they're going to get support if they know they're not going to be blamed for it. They're more likely to report. (00:10:44) More listeners on the line with questions for Becky Montgomery and we'll take our next caller. Hi, you're on the air. I was wondering about something that I guess it isn't really in your primary area of activity, but I thought you might have an opinion about it. And that is things like last two years ago when there was a Take Back the Night March in Minneapolis. There were people standing on Hennepin Avenue harassing the women that were in the March and making sexual remarks about them and talking about well, I won't I won't go into the details of it. But to thank you. I think that this this shows that there is an attitude among some men and I think it may be a fairly large percentage of the male population about women and I wondered if if you felt that there is any possibility that education Basic education about attitudes could have any change as far as the future of sexual assault (00:11:51) hopefully education about attitudes will do something to decrease the incidence. One of the things that a lot of sexual assault centers are doing is educational programs and elementary schools and secondary schools and colleges working on attitudes as well as is just some prevention techniques to teach students. One of the things that we find With Attitudes is attitudes does do play a part in the whole reason why rape exists in our culture equality is a real big issue and equality is something that is difficult for a lot of people and I think primarily men to understand and to accept the man that were at the Take Back the Night March and harassing the women and making all sorts of sexual innuendoes are men that are very much. By women and threatened that women are going to take away the power in positions in the jobs that they now hold and it's real scary for them until attitudes like that or addressed in educated and people are treated truly as equals rape will continue to exist. (00:12:59) Another listener is on the line with the question. Go ahead, please. Yes. I'd like to know what kind of information you can give a victim if their face For perhaps taking the morning-after pill after an assault. (00:13:11) Usually that's prescribed by a doctor what that does is if a woman is not on any type of birth control pills or does not have an IUD. There is a chance that you may become pregnant as a result of the rape, especially if you do a calculation occurs, and so what some doctors do do is prescribe DS which will cause the woman to get a period there are some side effects to that and it really is important that the doctor explained that to the women one of the side effects is that If you're pregnant, or if pregnancy does occur as a result of the rape, and you've taken daes, there is a chance that if the pregnancy goes full term, and a female child is born. There is a chance that she may in her lifetime contract cervical cancer, but that's a risk that you really need to think out with your doctor, and and to explain the big decision is do take the chance of becoming pregnant if you're not on birth control, do you do that, or do you take the medication and take that risk (00:14:24) 20 minutes past 12:00 noon Becky Montgomery is with us. She's sexual assault Program Coordinator at the rape and abuse Crisis Center in Fargo, which serves the North Dakota area in parts of Western Minnesota. We have telephone lines opened if you have questions to to 76 thousand in Minneapolis st. Paul 1-800-695-1418 And if you're living in one of the surrounding states call us directly in the Twin Cities area 612 2276 thousand do most rapes and other types of sexual assault Kerr on busy streets or uncrowded streets late at night in parking lots among people who have never before seen each other. (00:15:11) No actually over 50% of all rapes and actually it's called us closer to 60% The victim knows the assailant. It's somebody that they've seen before is 70 that they may have considered a friend or it's somebody that's a friend of a friend of theirs. So it is an acquaintance that they do know which intensifies the guilt and that the victim feels and also makes it harder for her to report because she feels that she will be blamed victims in general feel that they'll be blamed for these the sexual assault for the rape and a lot of that has to do with a lot of the prevalent myths about rape and our society today. (00:15:48) How successful is prosecution of (00:15:50) rape it really varies is to the amount of evidence. The law enforcement officers are able to gather in our area. We've been very successful in Prosecuting rape. Swear. We've got the assailant identified where there's good medical evidence where there's physical evidence and where the victim is really capable of testifying. It's very traumatic for somebody to sit in a courtroom in front of a jury with an in front of the Salient in the assailants (00:16:22) attorney particularly, if you know the (00:16:24) assailant, oh, yes. Yes and to to testify about something that happened to you that is really horrifying. I think that the population in general does not comprehend the violence in the trauma that occurs with rape that it is something that not only is physically damaging but really emotionally damaging and it takes time. To heal and it takes a lot to (00:16:50) heal. How long would you say? Well, this (00:16:52) year's most Rape Crisis centers offer crisis counseling support counseling and usually it's about three months of intensive counseling the side effects though, the long-term effects carry much longer and usually a lifetime. It's something they never really forget happen to you. It's something that at times you may have anxiety attacks about you may have a hard time just adjusting back to your old lifestyle and some women are never able to adjust back to their old lifestyle and have to call your new lifestyle. (00:17:29) We have many listeners on the line with questions now for Becky Montgomery High your next we had please okay. The main question that I have about rape is If they can be answered, why does it happen? Is it because men feel threatened somehow by the women is why they take their frustrations out on them or (00:17:47) what? I think one of the myths that needs to be dressed with that is that most people think that rape occurs because there's this man who gets rolled horny who cannot control his sexual urges and overpowers a woman who may be supposedly giving signs that she would be somewhat submissive and that's really a myth which means it's not true rape occurs because somebody the rapist has a need to over power to become more powerful and has a need to be violent with an individual women are chosen his victims because women just physically are smaller and more vulnerable than men as a general rule. There are men that are raped also and their rate for the same reasons. The rapists are heterosexual and most cases where male rape happens as As with female rape the rapist is heterosexual. It's a real issue of power. The rapist uses the rape as a means to become more powerful to to dominate another person and to also degrade and humiliate and that's exactly how the rape victim feels degraded humiliated totally embarrassed and and just so full of Shame about the whole (00:19:05) incident at the beginning of the broadcast. You mentioned that one woman in for experiences an assault at some point your lifetime. Does that mean that one out of every four men is a rapist (00:19:19) No, usually we don't have real good figures. Unfortunately on the amount or the incidence of the rapist Tendencies among the male population. We do know that most rapists rate more than once and they've raped many women before they're ever (00:19:35) caught more listeners with questions and we'll take our next caller. Hi, you're on the air. Hi. I've been listening with a lot of interest in just wanted to maybe aspect you for a comment on this. I know one thing that really bothers me and a lot of my friends is people's attitude in general about sexual assault as far as having the feeling that somehow the victim has invited it and especially it seems like in smaller towns rather than you know larger communities where there seems to be a more educated attitude about it. I myself live in a small community and there was you know An Occurrence recently where someone was out, you know, Walking and victim was assaulted and they said well, the first question was what was she doing out there? What business does she have out there at a certain time of night, you know, and that didn't really have anything to do with it. I'm wondering if you know Becky sees that the add it to people's attitudes are starting to change or you know, what is a good way of kind of overcoming this this attitude that people have that it's the victims (00:20:42) fault. I think the main way of overcoming those attitudes is a lot of Community Education talking to church groups talking to community Civic groups educating them about sexual assault and confronting the mess. What I find is that the reason that Miss and especially the attitude of what was she doing there? Why was she at walking didn't she know better that? She shouldn't have been out. And small communities especially rape is Rule frightening because when a woman is raped when an individual is raped the whole Community feels vulnerable and if they can blame the victim and somehow reassure themselves that they're different from the victim that they would never go out walking they would never wear those kinds of outfits. They would never dress that way walk that way carry themselves that way then that what they're doing is reassuring themselves that they're they are immune from write the rate. They will not be raped themselves and a lot of myths really stem from that of fear that they themselves are vulnerable and they somehow have to make themselves different from that victim and making themselves different from the victim. They turn around and blame the victim blame her for being in the wrong place at the wrong time (00:21:57) 28 minutes past the hour Becky Montgomery's with us sexual assault is the topic and we have more listeners with questions. Hi, you're next. Hi, I guess I was More or less Amazed by a statistic given given early in the program. And that was that the minority women 50% of them are assault victims sexual assault (00:22:20) victims. That's right 50% It's much higher double in minority. (00:22:25) I'm curious as to is are these like reported cases or you know, I just I work in a Downtown Minneapolis area and I see a lot of minority women during the course of the day for me to try to comprehend that 50% of the women that I see a have been raped (00:22:44) well have been raped her will be raped in their (00:22:47) life never will be in their entire lifetime or I see what you're saying. Okay, so their chances are 1 out of 10 karat. Where are those statistics drawn from (00:22:55) a lot of the statistics come from the FBI and studies that have been done (00:22:59) on sexual particular ones that you quoted are from the FBI (00:23:03) FBI and other studies that have been done. (00:23:06) Okay. Another thing that I am curious about his earlier, you mentioned the when the rape victim at after the person's been assaulted if that person were to become pregnant and choose to go full term. I realized that that's a personal choice, but it seems to me just as a general statement that that would be a good argument. Especially if the assailant is the criminal in the in the instance was unknown to the victim that be a good argument for legal abortions. I would think (00:23:45) I think that it's a real tough decision for anybody to make and that it is a real personal choice. And I think it's important that it be a personal choice only a person knows whether or not they could carry a fetus full term and especially one of the Things is that when pregnancy does occur from a rape is not only do you have the rape the violence to contend with but you also have a pregnancy that occurs as a result of a violent episode and psychologically emotionally as well as physically depending upon the age of the victim. It can be real hard and it's something that continues to haunt you for a long period of time (00:24:30) move on to another listener now with a question. Go ahead. Please let us consider the preventive aspects of read for example, the decorum of the woman the way she walks Etc the overdress and exposure of the woman and the consideration of the time and place of were a woman can be in danger for example night time and the place and also why this terrible terrible feeling against legal prostitution Well, there's several issues. (00:25:07) I think that what happens a lot is that again women are blamed when they're raped simply as a way of society separating themselves in general because when rape does happen society and especially women feel real vulnerable. It does not make any difference what the woman is wearing what she was doing. Nobody has a right to rape her and I think that's the real issue. Nobody has the right to be violent. If she was mugged we wouldn't care what she was wearing what she was doing at at night. We don't ask man who are Mont what you know, you're out there walking in the mall tonight. Didn't you know better we say you were mugged you've been hurt. Let's catch the mugger if we can the same with rape but rape has different aspects to it rape involves sex sexual activity and it's the sex act that's used as means of violence against the woman, but what we do when rape occurs is we get involved with all the sexual Issues and say she was asking for it. She really wanted it. She shouldn't have been there. It was the way she was walking. We blame the victim simply because I think Society knows how vulnerable we are to rape and it's a way of separating (00:26:21) ourselves. Doesn't that argument break down a little bit to in the under the fact that in many cases the assailants and the victims know each other (00:26:29) they know each other a lot of sexual assaults occur within the victims own home. And again, it's because she knows somebody she lets him into her house. A lot of women that I've worked with that have been raped on a date situation talk about being out with somebody and is somebody that they know they've known them before it's not blind dates that necessarily the victim was raped on but it's a date situation. It may be a first aid. It may be a third date. It may be the tenth date and they'll talk about being in the car being at their home. They may be making out they may not be having any kind of sex. Contact and they described the man as all of a sudden changing and becoming very violent and very forceful. And that's the way most rapes occur where it's nothing that the victim is doing. She's not leading him on (00:27:18) / 2 of our listeners question implied that legalized prostitution might be a possible solution for the rape (00:27:26) incidents legalized prostitution wouldn't do a thing because again, we're dealing that with sex and that with the lack of willing women, but we're dealing with an issue of power and the issue of violence against women which sexual assault is. It's a very violent act against (00:27:44) women 26 minutes before one o'clock Becky Montgomery is with us to to 76 thousand is the telephone number. If you have a question, there are a couple of that lines open at the moment in other parts of Minnesota one 865 to 9700. And another caller is waiting. Go ahead please you are. Okay. I'd like to know whether your organization helps with the incest and what requires these people have. (00:28:12) Most sexual assault Centers do deal with incest also and what we do is primarily work with the victim. There are social service agencies that tend to work more with the family and help refer the family get the families involved in treatment. It varies a lot from Community to community in County to County as to what happens with families that are in Social has a lot of agencies really try to get the family involved in treatment and counseling because we know that that will have the long-term effects of taking care of the problem of stopping the problem getting the family help. We do do a lot of work with with incest victims. We do a lot of work with women who are adults who were incest victims as kids. I think one of the things to remember with women who are now adults and we're incest victims when they were children and we tend to call the women incest survivors. Or past victims of incest is that when they were children 10 15 20 years ago. There were not the sexual assault centers. There was not the knowledge about incest that there is today and there was no support for them. So they've carried around the shame the guilt all the bad feelings for a long time and they've just the feelings have just intensified in built-in caused all sorts of other problems in their lives, since they were kids we do work with with incest we try to do education to children. We do a lot of work with children who were molested and as well as adults who were victims when they were children. (00:29:54) Another listener is on the line with the question. Go ahead, please I'm very interested in that things. You said about attitude and that a woman being in the wrong place at the wrong time still is not to blame. However, there are the practical considerations and I'm very concerned about my safety and I want to Careful, and I'm also furious at the idea that I have to somehow control my behavior because some creep might be out there. Where do you where do you balance? Where do you draw the line between simply watching out for yourself and not being controlled by the possibility of rape? (00:30:29) I think one of the most important things to acquire and for all women to acquire is self-confidence. It's real important that we become very self confidence and we have a high sense of self-esteem simply because what studies have done in terms of preventive measures against rape is that women who are very assertive and very self-confidence are less likely to be raped than women who are passive and tend to be real scared. I think having a sense of control over your lives being very assertive and self-confident is real important in terms of prevention it also I think is up to women to make some personal decisions about how they Choir that self-confidence that self-assurance and they may want to take some some self-defense classes some surgeons classes things like that. I think one really important prevention technique for all women to use is to mentally prepare themselves for the possibility of being raped and to run through different scenarios in their minds and mentally prepare themselves for How Will I react if this happens and go through it step by step, which is a very scary because it's confronting an issue confronting something that may happen to you. But it's also preparing yourself for (00:31:52) it. What sorts of response do you recommend to people who are put into that situation (00:31:58) it really varies upon the situation and what you're able to do some women are not able to do anything but they're not responsible for the rape and I think that's something that's very important. If you can fight back if you feel that it's safe. Fight back that it's a chance that you take and you're able to do that. Then it's important that you do that. If you can't fight back if you freeze if you get so scared that you become immobilized then the best thing to do is do what you have to do to get it over with to get out of the situation. And you won't be blamed no matter what you (00:32:34) do. More listeners are waiting with questions and you're next. Hello. Yes. She address part of the question. I had there was a case recently where a University of Minnesota co-ed did fight back. She stabbed the person who was assaulting her. She received quite a bit of notoriety and attention and praise for her courage and it's wondered what that what your feelings were about women doing that what the risks are and also how that attention that you've received maybe was received by women who didn't fight back in a similar situation. (00:33:14) I think it's real important that we take cases on an individual basis and that we take into account a woman's individuality and her personality. There are some women who are capable of fighting back and who have prepared themselves to fight back studies recent studies that the National Coalition of sexual assault have done showed that women who fight back are less likely to have the rape completed. There is a real fear before that. If you fought back that it would just escalate the violence that the rapist would become more violent and your chances of being killed from a rape would be higher. One of the things that does happen with rape is that the victim does feel the violence and the vast majority of victims really believe that they're going to be killed as a result of the violence. Not only are they going to be raped but they're also going to be killed and a lot of them are threatened by the rapist a lot of rapists have weapons knives or guns and they use Weapon against the victim the woman who is able to fight back I think is probably very proud of herself and rightly deserves that pride and the kind of of notoriety that she is receiving because it does give a message that if you can do it it can work for women who are not able to fight back they and here that they may blame themselves and that's where it's important for the rest of society to see two women in general. It's if you freeze, that's okay. You're not to blame and to continually put the blame on the rapist word does belong (00:34:56) do you have any sense for the number of murders that accompany (00:35:00) rape? I don't have a real clear sense. I think it's it's something like 10% but I'm not sure. (00:35:07) Okay. We're listeners with questions for Becky Montgomery High. You're next. Hi. I have a question for well more or less a statement. I know this girl that was raped and I don't know it seems to me that, you know getting back to the point where if they ask for it or not. I mean, it seemed to me that you know, she was more or less going out of her way, you know to attract Man, by the way, she dressed, you know, she was very provocative clothing, you know, emphasizing certain parts of her sexual body, and I don't know it just seemed to me and when it finally happened I'm more or less, you know, where to I said, you know, I told you so, you know, I warned her many times about you know, that could happen. He knows you knows. It's attractive you know, Menon. You know and you know, I'm not saying that's wrong. It's just that the fact that uh, you know, what can happen happened to her and let's see if Becky has any further response on this General (00:36:04) subject. I think again it comes back to to blaming the woman. We don't blame men for wearing tight clothes showing off certain parts of their Anatomy, but we sure do women and when you look in terms of society and in general and advertising, that's the kind of behavior that's reinforced through advertising a lot of women in most women get direction is how to dress and how to act through advertising and their sexuality is continually reinforced to dress sexually to accept really that's all you see in advertising and that's how a lot of women are learning to act again is if it's not their wish to have sexual intercourse, then their rate it's against their wish nobody. The right to be sexual with them if they don't want it, I think again attitudes like she's asking for it. Look at the way. She's dressed take away from the issue of what rape is and rape is a violent act that uses sex as a means of (00:37:08) violence. Let's move onto a another listener with a question. Go ahead please you're on the air. Yes. I've always been puzzled by one thing and that is the fact that certainly rape is a very violent act and it seems to me that one of the problems that arises is the whole issue of sexuality. So why aren't more cases prosecuted say on assault and battery charges which would seem to me would be a lot easier to prove and certainly would take away the whole element of (00:37:36) sexuality a lot of times the assault and battery charges are not as great the consequences aren't as much as the gross sexual imposition the rape cases. There are cases where County attorneys will plea bargain and they may offer an assault and battery and you don't read about those in the paper. A lot of cases are handled under plea bargaining. (00:38:02) That's pretty common in all things. Is it quite common in cases of rape or art. There are a number of them that actually are All the way through is (00:38:11) rape. There are a number that are prosecuted all the way through as rape a lot depends on the assailant in his attorney what they choose to do also the County Attorney depending upon if he makes an offer what kind of offer it is and also the past record if any of this the assailant (00:38:29) probably depends too on the type of evidence in the witness and all that. All right, 15 minutes before one Becky Montgomery's with us. We're talking about sexual assault. We have more listeners and I see another line or two is opened up in the Minneapolis st. Paul area 2276 thousand in other parts of Minnesota one 865 to 9700. Hi, you're on the air. The reaction of spouses and significant meals and their relationship to the victims of salt and I like her to comment a little bit about that (00:39:05) when somebody is sexually assaulted they're not only hurt physically as well as emotionally but their families their significant others their spouses and even their parents are also hurt emotionally by The Assault foremost spouses significant others family members, they feel a sense of guilt to that. They somehow should have been able to protect the victim should have been able to prevent the rate from happening to the victim. They also feel real angry about it and really ensure how to provide the support and they have a lot of questions as to to what rape sexual assault actually is one of the things that the centers in Minnesota and pretty much Across the Nation do do is Provide support counseling also to family members and Others and Friends of sexual assault victims because we realize that sexual assault not only impacts the victim but also the victims own personal support system, which is their spouse their significant other their family members as well as their friends. (00:40:12) Another listener has a question for Becky. Go ahead please you're on the air. Hi. Yes. I too had a question about the thing you gave about 25 percent of all women being sexually assaulted all the things. I have read recently on childhood sexual assault and incest indicate that at least 25% is a bottom line of all girl children are assaulted before they reach the age of 18. Does this mean that that figure is not even included in the figures are (00:40:34) giving that's correct. (00:40:37) If you include the figures of grilled children assaulted before they're 18 with the ones assaulted after 18, do we actually reach a 50 percent figure and the bottom line (00:40:45) not totally because what we find that there are child molestation victims who are also who also as adults become rape victims and so that (00:40:55) Don't you include the figures (00:40:57) simply because they're not real true figures. We like I think it's important to separate them because we're dealing with child sexual assault as a different issue than adult sexual assault. They're all sexual assault. But the Dynamics are somewhat different with children. (00:41:12) It's really important to give him out. (00:41:14) I think that the whole issue of child sexual assault is something that we haven't really touched on yet in this program. It is real prevalent. It's one out of four female children and between one out of six to one out of eight male children. There's a larger percentage of male sexual assault and in childhood than there is in adulthood for sexual assault also child sexual assault. Also David Finkel whore did a study that showed that ninety six percent of the time the perpetrator was a meal and an 85 percent of all cases of child sexual assault. The perpetrator was known to the Filed Which is higher than it is for adult sexual assault (00:42:00) 12 minutes before one more listeners with questions. Hi, you're on the air. Thank you to enter that. It's fascinating program. But I get the feeling that an awful lot of people have the impression that somehow victims of rape are all will up to us. We built on are all summer between I don't know eight. Let's say a teenager and 35 or 40 and I would guess that there probably are a great many. 65 70 year old women who are raped by 25 year old men. and I think I'd be interested in hearing whether or not there really aren't any statistic to support one. (00:42:43) I don't have any statistics in front of me to support that but I do know because we have worked with women that are older than the 25 year old age group. We've worked with women in their 80s that have been sexually assaulted the most common age group when we're talking about adult sexual assault is the 18 to 25, but it occurs in large numbers in all the other age groups. Also, there are I think that elderly women are probably more vulnerable to sexual assault because of their their age their physical abilities van younger women are there very much more vulnerable. (00:43:23) Ten minutes before one we have another listener of the question. Go ahead, please maybe this question was already answered but I wondered what the knowledge was on number of the number of people who've disarmed rapist by treating them in a friendly and sort of accepting way or even pretending to invite it and overthrowing their sense of dominating the victim. (00:43:44) We don't really have statistics on that. That's a real rare occurrence rather than a common occurrence because again, it's real important to remember that the rapist is not raping because of sex he's raping to become more powerful to dominate because he's angry and he takes it out on women because women again are more vulnerable in a lot of that has to do with physical a lot again. It's real important to remember that it's the violence and it's really hard to defuse Violence by friendly talk or inviting seeming to consent to the ACT. (00:44:24) Let's move on to another listener with a question for Becky Montgomery. Hi, you're on the air. Hi. I wanted to know if it's a pretty common thing for rape victims to feel suicidal. And if that's so if you have any idea what percentage of the victims have actually committed suicide, (00:44:42) I don't have a percentage. I do know though that a lot of victims do feel very suicidal simply because they feel so shameful. And that's one of the the feelings that rape victims go to is is roll intense feeling of shame shame that they've been degraded that they've been humiliated feeling responsible for what's happened to them feeling guilty. They go through whole range of feelings and depression can result because of those feelings and they and they can become suicidal we have had to hospitalized at times rape victims simply because Become so depressed or they become they become so self-destructive that we have been real concerned for their well-being their safety and have gotten them hospitalized because of that. (00:45:37) Thank you for calling. We'll take our next lesson. You know. Hi, you're on the air. It strikes me that. (00:46:25) I'm not true the statistics in which weapon is used. In penetration it about 10% of all rapes are committed by rapist who were very sadistic and who are very mentally ill and they're the ones that tend to use the weapons the tend to mutilate the women's bodies and tend to kill them and that's about 10% There is a real problem in rural communities with understanding sexual assault and I think it's real important that Outreach be done to rural communities to educate people on the issue of sexual assault so that they understand that what we're talking about is violence and not sex at times I think because sexual assault is labeled sexual assault that people get to get really caught up with the sexual that it's a sexual act. And again, it's important to remember that the sexual act is the means of violence. It's not the cause it's not the reason but it's the means Wants is the reason behind those the assault. (00:47:33) We've talked a great deal during the hour, of course about the victims of sexual assault and a little bit about the prosecution of the assailants you have any sense for how successful treatment of assailants is once they are identified (00:47:48) most treatment occurs in within the prison system and not all prison systems have programs for a sexual offenders sex offenders. So it really varies from state to state from prison to prison as to the type of program that they have and whether or not one is available. (00:48:06) How do we do in Minnesota? (00:48:08) Minnesota has programs available and it's prison systems. One of the things that is usually a criteria for most of the program's is that the offender Volunteer that they're not forced into it, but it is available and if they choose to participate then it's there for them, but they also can choose not to participate. There are some real issues with mandatory participation and I don't think that people are really willing to say you have to I think that is really personally I think it's really okay to say that you have to and this is what you have to do and also that if you do not work you was mandating people into treatment. It's important that you see not only are you mandated and have to attend but you have to participate and you have to look at yourself and look at your beliefs and attitudes look at the cons of that violence within yourself and do something about it. And that way if somebody comes to a program becomes involved in the program, they can't just sit in that do anything that they have to do something or else of the there are consequences for not (00:49:22) working. Well, we have about five minutes left. Let's see if we can take care of the rest of the people who are calling in right now. Go ahead please you're next. Hello? Yes. Yes, I would like to speak to the myth about the woman must deserve it. We had an 80 year old lady who lived across the street from us where the man took the screen off her bedroom window and she certainly was not provocative but the poor dear moved because she couldn't face her friends and neighbors thinking that that's what they must think of her and then to the other lady who called in I think every once in a while you read where a girl is raped coming home from choir practice just as much as those who are raped leaving a bar and then there are the nurses who work on Late Night Duty where they have to patrol the parking lots because they can't leave without protection and these people certainly aren't asking for it. (00:50:14) There are also clergy women involved in religion such as as nuns that have been raped (00:50:20) also. Another listener is waiting with the question. Go ahead please do you have a profile of the rapist? Does he come from a violent background or what are the profile (00:50:31) statistics? Basically, most of the studies about rapist have been done by a gentleman by the name of Nicholas growth who runs a sex offenders program in Connecticut, and he's written a book called men who rape which I think is very excellent and has been in the Twin Cities area during training workshops on sexual assault both with adults and with with Children what he's found in his sex offenders group is in its in a prison that 80% of the sex offenders themselves were sexually assaulted when they were kids. So it's one of the things that we are learning is that a lot of rapists a lot of child molesters were sexually assaulted themselves when they were children. We know that a lot of The Men Who rape have a lot of violence within them a lot of anger. I need to dominate and also a very low sense of Steam a sense of self that they don't like themselves. They're very insecure. They generally are not able to cope with Society. They don't know how to handle a lot of their feelings. And so what they do is they become very angry. They feel the need to become more powerful to dominate somebody and they achieve that through rape (00:51:55) is The Twig is bent so grows the tree another listener is waiting. I think we have time for your question. Go ahead. Please wondering if speaker offers any kind of advice or counseling for young boys between the ages of 12 and say 15 who are just coming to terms with their realizing that their homosexual so they feel that their only alternative is to allow themselves to be sexually exploited or even sexually abused by much older males and they repeatedly do this (00:52:30) we don't provide at the center in The Moorhead we don't provide any other services except to victims of sexual assault and a lot of your centers. I think that's primarily what they do. I think that you are addressing a need that there is that we do need to provide counseling services to people not just male voice but also female adolescents that who are coping with their own sexual identity that there is a need for that. I think that when they are exploited they do become sexual assault victims, and then the center's can become involved in as part of the counseling to that that victimization they can deal with the sexual identity issues. (00:53:15) Well, Becky Montgomery we run out of time, but I want to thank you very much for coming and visiting with us today. Becky Montgomery is the sexual assault Program Coordinator at the rape and abuse Crisis Center in Fargo, Moorhead.