Fact: Any sexual violence can have a devastating effect on a person’s life. Rape is harmful whether the person is attacked by a total stranger or suffers an abuse of trust by someone she already knows. It can be hard to trust anyone after being raped by someone who you thought was a friend.

Fact: Some attackers badly beat and severely injure their victim, but most do not. Any form of sexual contact without consent is a violent act in itself and is legally a crime. For many rapists, the threat of further violence, implicit or explicit, is enough to terrify their victim.

Fact: Compliance does not mean consent. People do what is necessary to survive, and sometimes this means doing what the rapist asks, out of fear, not consent.

Fact: The majority of rapes are committed inside a building, and for many of these, in the women’s own home.

Fact: It is handy to be able to blame the victim in this way – it lets the perpetrators off the hook and it helps other people to develop a false sense of safety. Rape is a violation, and the victim is often afraid that their attacker will inflict harm on them.

Fact: Sexual assault or rape is no sex. It involves taking control of a victim’s body against their will. In many studies, rapists have admitted that rape is more about power and violence than about sex.

Fact: Women are not the only victims of sexual violence. Men, women, and children of all ages, persons living with disability, religious and non-religious persons are all vulnerable to  sexual violence regardless of how they dress, where they live, or how they act. Yes, even you and me.

Fact: Violators can control, their sexual urges – including men who are often depicted as lacking any sense of control. Rape is a crime of violence, control, degradation and intimidation – it is about power, not desire.

Fact: This is part of the idea that all victims want, need or enjoy being taken by force and that they only said “no” to take away the need to feel guilty. people do not want, need or enjoy being threatened, humiliated, degraded, violated, beaten or being afraid for their lives.

Fact: Violators are often stronger than their victims and they use this physical advantage to prevent them from resisting successfully. During a sexual assault a victim could become paralysed by fear. Sometimes victims may be demobilized by a drug or threatened with weapons, fists, or with harm to their children and loved ones. Exploitation of power imbalances between the abuser and the victim – especially when they know each other – can also be used to manipulate the victim. Regardless of how much physical force the rapist used or did not use, they are the guilty party, not their victim.

Fact: Freezing during a sexual assault is a very common reaction due to the shock of the negative event, and never indicates consent. It is a completely natural, instinctive response – it is the same as when a fox is trapped in headlights. This is our body’s way of protecting ourselves from the trauma of an assault. It is easy in retrospect o say that I should have put up fight or screamed and shouted, but the reality at the time is quite different.

Fact: Many studies have shown that the level of false reporting of sexual assault is about the same as that for any other crime: only about 2%.

Fact: Many rapists appear perfectly normal. They often have steady jobs and consensual relationships with husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. There are very few convicted rapists who are diagnosed as having psychiatric problems. Studies have shown that around 6% of men will confess to rape if you describe it without using the word “rape”.