Defining and Perceiving Sexual Assault: The Role of Social and Cultural Factors

Running Head: Introduction To Criminology And Criminal Justice
INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL
JUSTICE

2
Introduction To Criminology And Criminal Justice
“Societies define and perceive crime based on social and cultural factors”
Society defines criminal activities based on various cultural and social program. In most of
the criminal cases, society focus on stereotypes before looking into criminal activity. At
present, most of the victims do not complain about the crime in fear of being judged. This is
the main reason for the increasing number of crimes all over the world. This essay is
discussing all aspects related to sexual assault for evaluating above mentioned statement.
Aim of this essay is to analyze contributing factors to sexual assault and mentality of society
towards this kind of incidents. This study is discussing social point of view towards cases of
sexual assault based on cultural and social factors.
Different peoples in society tend to see sexual assault in different ways and depend on
various factors. Several factors like sex, age and culture are considered during defining an
incident of sexual assault. Moreover, geographic locations and socioeconomic status play an
essential role (Powell, 2015). It can be seen that if rape or any other sexual assaults happen,
people tend to see those factors and match victims and culprit with those stereotypes that are
set by media. For example, in some cases like Eurydice Dixon rape and murder case, 2018,
Jill Meagher rape and murder care in 2012, it was seen that victims represent from same age
group. Moreover, they were attacked while walking home alone. This represents classic
stereotypes that were set by different media houses. Geographic location and age of victim
are given priority by society rather than the crime committed. Moreover, in many countries
rape is not considered as a crime rather it is included as a part of marriage. Different countries
like India, Sri Lanka and Jordan rape are included as a marriage right (Shugerman, 2019). In
Australia 16 years is considered as an age of consent legally throughout different regions. In
India, law is there regarding the lowest age of marriage. However, in many rape cases, it can
be seen that the victim is child.

3
Introduction To Criminology And Criminal Justice
Most of the people of society review age and sex of victim and criminal when a case of
sexual assault takes place. Different contributing factors have been identified that influence
society to judge incidents of sexual assault. According to Coetzee, Gray & Jewkes (2017),
number of rape cases of girl child is increasing day by day. America is experiencing 1 in 6
rape cases of females and 1 in 10 rape cases of males. Rate of sexual harassment of females is
higher as majority of people within society believe in male dominance. Females are
considered as weaker target and people with criminal commence sexual harassment. Many
cases have been found in different countries that indicated that young girls and children are
easy targets of rapists. In Australia, murder after rape cases are taking place and society is
defining these cases from the perspectives of cultural and social factors. For example, Jill
Meagher has been raped and murdered in 2012 and Aiia Maasarwe has died due to the same
reason in 2019.
Australian government has taken initiative to control criminal activities such as sexual
assault. The Crimes Act 1914 has defined the child sex offense clearly and this act can be
considered while proceeding against the perpetrator in Australia. In most of the cases,
criminal cases are defined based on cultural background of offenders. In short, it can be
stated that certain stereotypes are considered while judging both victim and offenders. As
mentioned by Millett (2016), people to society investigate to understand cultural background
of the offender to understand their psychology behind the crime. However, it is important as
well to treat both males and females equally. Sexual assault cannot be supported in any case
and society must change its way of defining crimes. Government of both developed and
developing countries must spread awareness to change the attitude of society towards crime.
Due to cultural beliefs, it was seen that women struggle to speak out regarding their sexual
assaults. Fear has been seen in them as they can be blamed for their own assaults. This
incident can also impact on the career and life. As opined by Tanaka et al. (2017), women