Crimes against the person continue to cause special concerns on the part of law enforcement. The crime has its aftermath, which causes the trauma of victimization. Victimization is a reflection of the legality such as the predisposition of an individual to become a victim of crime, as well as the inability of the society and the state to protect their citizens. Victimization acts as an integral part of crime, which has its own specific parameters and qualitative characteristics, under which these categories are not coincident. Beyond doubt, the risk of becoming a victim among different groups of the population varies in terms of the degree of expression and level of its manifestation. The essay emphasizes the need to study gender aspects of victimization due to the expanding amount of women in the economy and the marginalization of the female labor force using the example of Kobe Bryant rape case.
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Victimization of Women after the Rape
The term “victimization” means the increased ability of a person to appear a target of crime due to a number of spiritual and physical qualities under certain objective circumstances. Victimization is most often manifested in women and adolescents (McCart, Smith & Sawyer, 2010). Moreover, with multiple victimization, the risk of becoming a victim of a crime from time to time increases steadily, and victim behavior acquires special stability.
The victimization of women is a complex issue. It has the characteristics of stable typical properties of personality and psychological features, as well as the dynamic manifestation of these properties in woman’s behavior in a certain life situation (Hanson, Sawyer, Begle & Hubel, 2010). It is quite understandable, that the group of personal features and habits cannot turn a woman into a direct cause of criminal assault (Hanson et al, 2010). However, the psychological portrait has an indirect influence on the victimization factors (McCart et al, 2010).
The women’s liberation theory is proven in the story Don’t Call Me a Survivor by Emilie Morgan, where she tells the truth about being raped for several times during three years (Morgan, 2001). The first rape of Emilie took place when she was 13, and the girl found nothing better to do than never telling about this crime to her parents or other authorities (Morgan, 2001). It is remarkable, that Emilie Morgan did so because the society made her feel guilty for being raped. In the modern world, the victim is often accused of provoking behavior (Morgan, 2001). Therefore, the girl felt guilty because she could not foresee and control the outcome of the event. As a result, Emilie Morgan suffered from rape for two more times, and only when being a sophomore, she gained some help in the group of women, who were also the victims of the rape.
Victimization differs from crime as it represents the totality of the processes of becoming a victim. In the scientific literature of recent years, there has been an increased attention to the victimization issues regarding certain social groups such as children, the elderly, women, migrants, etc. Victimization is realized in a criminal act only when interacting with a victim-crime situation that is a combination of factors and conditions of victimization. Everything that relates to the intimate sphere of a person has exceptional significance, as it is the source of the most powerful experiences, from the greatest joy to the most severe humiliation (McCart et al, 2010). Among the factors that form victimization and distinguish it from murder and harm to health, it is especially important to determine the nature of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator.
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Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America by Nathan McCall had reported about several issues of rape, and one of them deserves the most of attention. McCall told about the thirteen-year-old girl, whom he raped with his friends (McCall, 1995). He reported that he felt it was the fault of the girl (McCall, 1995). This fact is proven by the traditional theory of Lombroso and Ferrero, as the female offenders are most likely man. They involuntarily can view the incident from a male point of view, and some aspects of the situation can cause the feelings of sexual antagonism in him, which was proved by Nathan McCall in his book.
The relationship between the future criminal and the future victim can actually be very different: from good, indifferent or neutral to hostile or openly hostile. The very assumption of the possibility to become a victim of crime leads to its fear, which increases when the victim realizes its vulnerability to violent crime. The mass media has the particular role to play in the injection of fear of crime. The rape case of Kobe Bryant illustrates these issues. Indeed, in recent years, the media have covered the problems of crime and social-deviant behavior in the way that is far from being objective. In their aspirations, the stories of the journalists are often full of horror and have nothing common with reality. Taking such a background into account, it is not surprising that fear of crime is growing in society.
From the very beginning, the case of famous basketball player developed according to the classical scenario in accordance with the laws on the protection of the victim, accepted in the US. Mass media had no right to mention the name of the victim, and the lawyers of Bryant had no possibility to search the past of the victim, as her behavior was irrelevant, since rape is a crime itself (Mallicoat & Ireland, 2014). Nevertheless, one of the most successful NBA players, Kobe Bryant, denied the charge of raping a 19-year-old hotel employee in the resort town of Edwards, Colorado (Mallicoat & Ireland, 2014). This case has proven the necessity of overall investigation, despite the overall rights of the victim, as there are many cases of false rape accusations.
The protection of the basketball player had the right to submit the obtained facts about the life of the victim for consideration of judge. It was eventually revealed that the victim had had sex with other men after the alleged rape, but before her medical examination. The lawyers said that the microscopic damage, which the prosecution claimed to be the result of an attack of the accused, might have been the result of other sexual contacts (Mallicoat & Ireland, 2014). Thus, the system received the proof that not only the moment of the alleged crime, but also the rest of the time is significant in determining the justice of the prosecution. As a result, after almost a year of court proceedings, the accuser of Kobe Bryant had personally dismissed her charges, and a month later brought a public apology for giving a false testimony.
The case against Bryant was closed. Therefore, mass media got the right to publish the name of a woman who wanted to destroy the life of a famous basketball player, and her name is Katelyn Faber. However, even if the rape had not been proven, Faber also suffered from victimization (Meloy & Miller, 2011). The woman was reported to suffer from a severe case of emotional distress because of appearance of her name in the national media (Meloy & Miller, 2011). There was a widespread discussion of the case in the media, where the accuser in the case of Kobe Bryant was named mentally unstable, a searcher of gold, and so on (Meloy & Miller, 2011). This impact of the media had proven that even if it was true in this particular case, the society had an estimation that the woman accused the man in the rape which never happened, or that it was somehow her personal fault. Despite the fact that the information gathered by the Bryant’s lawyers had helped to prove the innocence of the basketball player, the case had bad impact on the rape victims (Meloy & Miller, 2011). The women decided to never report about the rape, as they saw what happened during the Kobe Bryant case.
The myths about rape have existed for a long time, and they have their special place in culture, as they reveal social functions. Such beliefs allow the society to feel safe, supporting the conviction that even if the rape takes place, it is partly due to the victim’s fault. Such myths give the opportunity to maintain the belief that the world is just, and every person has the possibility to manage the future. It is a common belief that any healthy woman, who wants to avoid rape, can do it. Therefore, if the abuser was alone and the victim had not received any injuries, the woman will face certain difficulties in proving that the outrage actually occurred against her will. These facts were proven by the Kobe Bryant rape case, where the possible victim had turned into abuser. This case has also influenced the future of many real rape cases.
The cumulative multiplicity of objective and subjective factors of women’s victimization is an overwhelming scientific problem. Depending on the features of the society, some conditions may lose their meaning, while others, on the contrary, become very significant. Thus, the problem of victimization of women deserves independent scientific research. Since the phenomenon of rape has two sides, the cases of rape accusation, such as one that occurred to Kobe Bryant, would take place constantly. Rape is a violent act of one person against another, which causes significant harm to the victim. Nevertheless, rape has also the idea, which accompanies this crime and influences social idea and reaction. The rape is a serious crime that has the significant level of secrecy, as many women prefer to keep silent after becoming a victim. Therefore, there is the need in constant work to destroy the myths about rape in order to withdraw them from the modern society.