Race And Victimization: A Rape Victim

Race and Victimization Name Institution Race and Victimization Cases of rape are high, even among victims who are intimate with the perpetrators. This paper focuses on a rape victim, a woman of color, who was raped by her husband. She received the necessary help from a support group and was even able to report the incidence to the police. Eventually, justice for the crime was served and the husband is serving a jail term. However, this is not always the case for some people because different people from different ethnic or racial groups have different experiences when it comes to getting justice. In addition, different racial/ ethnic factors influence the type of crime and the victim’s vulnerability to the crime. One of the factors that contribute to this kind of vulnerability to sexual assault is the low rates of sexual assault reports made by women of color. In most cases, victims of rape, especially black and latina women do not report sexual assault because the society tends to blame them and instead of viewing them as victims, they view them as instigators (Devonae, n.d.). As such, offenders know that they are unlikely to be reported by women of color, which is not the case for white women. In addition, women of color, especially black women, were historically used by men as sexual objects and their sexuality was used to control them (Devonae, n.d.). This part of history makes black women vulnerable to sexual assault and has a huge influence on victimization. Different rates of substance abuse among different ethnic or racial groups are largely attributed to the differences in rates of sexual assaults. African Americans and Hispanics have a higher rate of drug abuse than Caucasians, which contributes to the racial or ethnic differences in sexual assault cases (Thompson, McGee, & Mays, 2012). As such, they are more likely to be taken advantage of or assaulted while in this state. In other instances, women of color, especially immigrants, are exposed to sexual assault crimes because th...