Minimizing the Risk and Impact of Sexual Assault

Running head: MINIMIZING THE RISK AND IMPACT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
Minimizing the Risk and Impact of Sexual Assault

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MINIMIZING THE RISK AND IMPACT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
Abstract
This paper argues that intervention programs for both the victims or survivors of sexual offence
and the sexual offenders are needed to minimize the risk and impact of sexual violence. Various
literary sources have been used in this study in order to explore the areas of interventions mainly
regarding psychological therapies. Finally, the study recommends that social, mental, monetary,
legal support and psychological treatment are needed to treat the victims. The study also
illuminates the fact that a strong legal system along with the identification of the behavioural
patterns of the sexual offenders can be helpful in minimizing the risk of sexual assaults.

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MINIMIZING THE RISK AND IMPACT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
Minimizing the Risk and Impact of Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is one of the most terrifying social evils that can be recognized as a global
issue affecting a huge amount of people across the world every day. The implication of the term
‘sexual assault’ can be so varied that it is difficult to define this with limited words. In simple
words, any kind of forceful sexual or physical contact or any sort of sexual act without the
consent of the persons involved can be termed as sexual assault. However, the degree of being
sexually assaulted can be varied but the effect of even an unwanted physical closeness can haunt
the victim for a long time or forever. So, irrespective of if its rape or physical abuse or unwanted
fondling, what matters is how the incident affects the victims. Apart from the physical impact of
any kind of sexual assault, mental impact can be haunting and dangerous that can be a lifelong
burden fir the sexual assault victims. So, the main focus of this study is to explore the possible
processes of intervention, including medical, psychological and social interventions that may be
helpful for the victims of sexual assault to live a normal and happy life without stress and
lingering trauma. The study also focuses on how psychological and legal intervention programs
for sexual offenders that can be useful for reducing the risk of sexual assaults in the coming days.
As mentioned above, the impact of sexual assault can be of varied degrees and that has
nothing to do with how slightly or severely the victim has faced assault. Severe sexual assault
such as rape, sexual abuse of children and sexual violence from partners, need to be treated
mostly through medical interventions that include both physical and mental treatment. However,
there are certain kinds of sexual assaults that cannot be cured through treatment of the body. It
has been noticed that, people become victims of stalking, sexual manipulation, incest and so on
that are other forms of sexual violence or assault. In this regard, this can be mentioned that

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MINIMIZING THE RISK AND IMPACT OF SEXUAL ASSAULT
women happen to be more sexually violated than men and this trend has been continuing through
ages. According to a report by department of justice, 25% women face sexual assault in their
lifetimes while 6% men become victims of sexual assault (Habigzang et al. 2009). On the other
hand, one woman among five face various forms of sexual assault in their lifetimes (Amenu &
Hiko, 2014). Another report shows that 40% women have been raped before they cross their
teenage years (Breiding, et al. 2014). However, high amount of older women, men, boys,
transgender people, homosexual people and even children experience terrible sexual assaults and
many of the victims face sexual assault multiple times in their lifetimes.
As a result, it can be assumed that women face impacts of being sexual assault more than
what men do. For that reason, a majority of women fall prey to Post traumatic stress disorder,
depression, suicide tendencies, fear of building stable relationships, physical and mental
disorders, sexually transmitted infections and so on. So, it is important to identify the victims of
sexual assaults so that they can be helped with advance psychological therapies and other kinds
of intervention plans. However, curing the victims is not the only solution of reducing the impact
of sexual assault. This is so because until and unless the behaviours of the sexual offenders
cannot be controlled, people can be still under the risk of getting sexually assaulted. One sexual
offender can be expected to harm multiple people in their lifetime and thus it is important to
intervene to modify their behaviour patterns in order to prevent this social evil as much as
possible.
Cognitive behavioural therapies help in bringing specific behavioural changes in the
patients who mainly suffer from mental diseases like depression, PTSD, eating or sleeping
disorders, drug addiction and so on. There are various kinds of CBT treatments although the