WUNRN
ISRAEL - STUDY: RAPE MORE TRAUMATIC
THAN WAR - BLAME ISSUE
October 29, 2009
The
Media Line Staff
Victims of rape suffer from higher levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than victims of war or terror, a new study reveals.
The research could bring about new approaches to the way rape victims in Israel are treated.
The study was carried out by Dr. Avigal Mor and Dr. Moshe Farchi from the Social Work Department at the Tel Hai Academic College in northern Israel.
PTSD levels in different types of trauma victims were compared, including victims of rape, victims of war and terror, people hurt in traffic accidents, people diagnosed with severe diseases and people who lost someone dear to them.
The study found that victims of rape and sexual assault developed much higher levels of PTSD than other types of trauma.
Mor said she found the social environment in Israel, and the attitudes of glorifying terror victims on the one hand while silencing rape victims on the other, were key contributors to the higher levels of PTSD among rape victims.
"Rape victims are the only trauma victims who are blamed for what happened," Mor told The Media Line. "People say 'she brought it on herself' or 'she was asking for it.' Victims of other traumas - no one doubts their victimhood and no one questions their need for support. Rape victims have a very specific self blame which reflects the society's accusations."
The study included 341 people aged 18 and upwards and found that 25.6% of rape victims suffered high levels of PTSD, compared with 11.4% among other trauma victims.
It revealed a direct correlation among rape victims between self blame and an exacerbation of PTSD levels, as they tend to blame themselves more than other trauma victims and suffer more emotional complications and higher stress levels after they are raped.
Mor argued that Israeli victims of terrorism and war receive more empathy and greater media exposure than victims of rape because their situation can be showcased by the state to prove a political point and score cachet in international public opinion. "All the other types of trauma entitle the victims to much more support, whether it's financial or emotional," she said. "But the organizations that support rape victims hardly get any public funding. It's almost all from donations that have to be raised every year. There's no public preparedness to fund them, but it turns out that these victims suffer the worst emotional reaction."
Another hindrance to getting adequate treatment is the silence that often characterizes the society's attitude towards rape, which tends to further exacerbate self blame.
"Unlike most traumas, in which the victims are not afraid to expose themselves and ask for help, when it comes to sexual violence there's a public silencing of the victims," Mor said. "This is a result of what the society reflects, and because of it, they have to keep it a secret and it prevents them from getting care, which makes the PTSD worse."
Mor's study argues that survivors of rape need different treatment than those who survive other forms of trauma so as to address specific emotional difficulties, in particular self blame.
"It's unthinkable that there should be a situation in which a social environment brings about collective guilt, which causes self blame and leads to higher PTSD levels," she said. "There's a systematic disregard of the problem. Maybe it's because women are hardly represented in key positions and those who do reach those positions may not dare bring it up so not to be accused of gender bias or a lack of objectivity."
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