Factors complicate societal attitudes and bring unjustified blame on victims

  • Published
  • By Mary Lou Gorny
  • Hilltop Times editor
HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah --  "The unnamed conspirator" may not actually physically enter the courtroom in sexual assault cases, but it influences outcomes there and society at large, said Anne Munch, a former prosecuting attorney and a strong proponent of victims rights at a presentation at the base theater April 28.

In a presentation giving surprising details and highlights from court cases and introductions of some general experiences in her own life, Munch made a compelling case for the existence of the unnamed conspirator.

She played a rape victim's 911 call in which the victim takes a lion's share of the responsibility for the crime and gave common sense applications of just where society gives the behavior a pass or places the blame on the victim.

"I've prosecuted a lot of these cases over the years and I've never had a victim, whether she or he was three years old or 83 years old, who didn't at some level or another, blame themselves for the crime," Munch said.

"The truth is you don't have to look too far to see the influence of the unnamed conspirator," she said.

The behavior of sexual assault is not always easily identified by those involved, Munch said.

In surveys of college students in asking about behavior which fits the Universal Code of Military Justice or other legal descriptions of rape around the country it is found the behavior is not clearly recognized by either male or female college students and in most cases those who do admit to the behavior don't see themselves as rapists.

Barely 25 percent of the women who said this behavior had occurred to them -- that of having their arm twisted or being held down for sexual intercourse when they didn't want to -- recognized this as a sexual assault.

Of 8 percent of college students who said they had done or had had the intention of committing such actions, more than 88 percent of such respondents said they did not consider themselves rapists, Munch reported.

"What is the problem," she asked?

"The rapist is generally thought to be someone you don't know," Munch said as she called out to the audience for descriptions of those typically thought to fit the profile.

The problem is that 85 percent of the time the rapist doesn't fit that category of a weapon carrying unknown attacker who surprises the victim, she said.

Historically, 84 percent of the time the victim knew their attacker, Munch said.

Most of these crimes go unreported, and in the course of her 90 minute presentation Munch gave statistic after statistic backing up her approach to how the unnamed conspirator influences societal attitudes and complicates prosecutions as juries approach cases.

Munch praised Air Force leaders for attending the presentation and praised them for supporting Sexual Assault Response Coordinator Janaee Stone.

"In a very recent and very large scale survey that the Air Force just did (we find) that currently 19 percent of the women in the Air Force have been sexually assaulted during their time (in service) and 2 percent of the men," she said.

"That's a significant problem," Munch said.

In describing an incident in which her own college-aged nephew had gone out celebrating after midterms and was being escorted to a medical clinic by his friends, she praised the behavior of his friends in making sure he was OK and got home all right.

She contrasted this to a T-shirt she had seen with a saying on it in which the privilege of taking home a date in a similar condition was seen as "Priceless." Such attitudes resulting in such actions create a problem and meets her criteria as criminal behavior when it occurs.

"It deserves that kind of attention," she said.

She played a video of an actor portraying the interview recorded during one of the college surveys -- that of a young man who said he and his friends targeted young women, getting them drunk either knowingly or unknowingly so they could take advantage of the situation.

It was a clear demonstration in the video, that such results were not the responsibility of the young victims.

Yet, as she had presented earlier, they would clearly have a tendency to blame themselves.

In other instances, Munch gave clear indications of just where and how far societal attitudes go toward influencing behaviors, jury decisions and victim reporting.

Educational efforts and the ability of everyone to use the Wingman concept, as an area of potential change, was an underlying implication.

In survey results, even today's youth are being influenced to believe sex against your will is OK, after dating for a 6 month period of time.

In the serious presentation, with information presented matter of factly, it is clear there is much work to be done and the opportunity to change many misconsceptions exists even in the Air Force.

Educational information was also presented by Munch at the Sexual Assault Awareness Month luncheon that day and at a similar presentation to the Airman in an earlier session.

For more information contact the SARC office at (801) 777-1985 or (801) 777-1964.