HJAR Sep/Oct 2024

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  SEP / OCT 2024 15 sister was, and they would pick her up from school one day. He said the sister would go with him because she knew him, wouldn't think anything of it, and he'd have his way with her. That is implied threat. It doesn't always have to involve a weapon. There can be other ways of forcible compulsion. "You want this promotion, you're going to have sex with me," those kinds of things. Editor I was trying to get rape stats from the Arkansas Department of Health, and they sent me numbers from the state police who haven't answered me yet, but those numbers are so low. Wyandt-Hiebert Well, the stats that are recorded through health departments, even rape crisis centers, are still not going to be representative of the epidemic that's going on. If you really want a handle of what's going on, you can't go by reported offenses; you have to go by anonymous surveys that are done on a grand scale to get an idea of the scope of the problem within a community, whether it be within a state, a college campus, a city, or the nation. Awide- scale anonymous survey that would ask questions like, "Have you ever experienced this … that … whatever?" Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime. I'm an expert in college sexual assault, and on college campuses, we know that fewer than 5% of rapes are reported to an official. So, there's a huge number of silent victims out there, and we often call this a silent epidemic. There are people who don't talk about it. Why don't they talk about it? Why don't they go forward to report? Because, quite honestly, sexual violence is the only crime I can think of in which the victim is regarded as possibly not telling the truth until proven otherwise. There's so much victim blaming in our society, and part of a rape culture is widespread victim blaming. When an individual does report a sexual assault, they have to go under a lot of scru- tiny from the general public — the court of public opinion. "Well, why was she there? What was she wearing? Have they ever had sex before? How drunk was she?What fault was it of hers that she asked for this in some way?" And we often think of it even as “he said, she said.”Men come forward even less because they feel even less supported. Peo- ple have many different reasons as to why they don't come forward. Again, this hap- pens so often among acquaintances, and we already have a society that's quick to point the finger. Because of that, some vic- tims may think, "Well, how could this person do this?What did I do that brought this on; because I don't understand why this person could have done this to me. They've always been so nice." Sometimes there's that little bit of initial self-blame because this just doesn't make sense in their world. It's easy for individuals living in a society that's so quick to point the finger at the victim to sometimes question themselves. That's why it’s so important that we have these conversations and talk about the only fault in a sexual assault being the offender. I can't say how many individuals who I worked with over the years who felt this way. I lost count long ago, not that I was trying to keep count. There is also the situation, particularly on college campuses, where somebody was rendered helpless and incapable of con- sent, whether because of their own inges- tion of alcohol and/or another substance or because of somebody forcing alcohol in them, and they didn't realize howmuch they were drinking or that something was slipped in their drink — whatever the case may be. They're not 100% certain what happened because those substances involved made it a little cloudy for them in that very acute stage. It's very difficult for people to come for- ward because they already know society's going to point the finger at them. Many peo- ple are embarrassed because, let's face it, we're not very good at talking about sexual- ity and sexual health in general in our soci- ety. If we can't talk in healthy ways in our society about healthy sex and sexuality, how could we possibly begin to talk about sexual violence? You take a subcategory, an off- shoot all in itself, sexual violence … it's even harder to come forward on that. There are a lot of reasons why individuals don't come forward and why the statistics, the numbers, are only capturing a couple of drops in the bigger bucket of the problem. Editor I understand that some people freeze up when this is happening to them and they're not actively fighting off their attacker; and in that freeze, maybe consent isn't given, but it isn't denied. Talk to me about where that falls on the line of rape. Wyandt-Hiebert First and foremost, lack of consent does not mean one has consent; just because they don't give consent doesn't mean you have consent. So, lack of consent, whether it be verbal or nonverbal, doesn't mean one has consent. Just as a very rudimentary explanation of the neurobiology of trauma, when we are faced with trauma, we are not consciously thinking in the frontal lobe “…[T]here’s a huge number of silent victims out there, andweoftencallthisasilentepidemic.Therearepeople who don't talk about it. Why don't they talk about it? Why don't they go forward to report? Because, quite honestly, sexual violence is the only crime I can think of in which the victim is regarded as possibly not telling the truth until proven otherwise. There’s so much victim blaming in our society, and part of a rape culture is widespread victim blaming.”