Myth: Rape results from uncontrollable sexual urges. Men rape impulsively and out of biological need.
Fact: Rape is a criminal act of violence, using sex as a weapon. Men rape to express hostility and to dominate. Men rape because it allows them to express anger and to feel powerful by controlling another person. Studies show that 50% of rapes are planned, not impulsive. This supports the view that rape is learned behavior and does not arise from biological need.
Myth: Rapes are usually reported.
Fact: Rape is probably one of the most underreported crimes; researchers estimate that between 50% to 90% of rape cases go unreported.
Myth: Men cannot be raped.
Fact: Men, both heterosexual and homosexual, can be and are raped – usually by other men. About 3% of American men — or 1 in 33 — have experienced an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime.
Myth: When a woman says no, she really mean yes.
Fact: No means NO! Without active consent, it is sexual assault. A lack of a “no” is not a “YES.” Everyone has the right to control what happens to one’s body.
Myth: Sexual assault happens to careless people who are “asking for it” by the way they dress or where they are.
Fact: No one asks to be assaulted. All kinds of people, young and old, are sexually assaulted in all kinds of places and at all times. The idea that victims provoke assault by “being in the wrong place at the wrong time” assumes that they have no right to be as free as everyone else. This myth shifts the blame from the perpetrator to the victim of this crime. No one “deserves” to be sexually assaulted.
Myth: Women often lie about being raped.
Fact: Police statistics show that the number of falsely reported rapes is about 2% — no greater than that of other crimes.
Myth: Rapists are usually strangers
Fact: By some estimates, over 80% of rape survivors know their attackers.
Myth: If a woman agrees to certain acts of sexual intimacy, she wants to have sexual intercourse.
Fact: Any person has the right to any degree of sexual intimacy they feel comfortable with at the moment, and to not go any further if they do not wish to.
Myth: If the assailant, survivor, or both are under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol, it’s not technically rape.
Fact: Forcing sex on someone who is unable to give consent is rape. Rape is a crime. People who commit crimes while under the influence of alcohol or drugs are not considered free from guilt.
