Many Cases of Molestation Go Unreported in the US Because Girls See It as Normal Behavior

Many cases of molestation don’t get reported in the U.S. because girls see it as normal. According to a study carried out in the U.S. by Marquette University in conjunction with the Children’s Advocacy Center, the overwhelming majority of young women describe abuse of a sexual nature as “normal” and “just something that boys do.” Forty-four percent of the victims are under 18 years old and 60 percent of the assaults go unreported to the police. Girls are scared of facing “the slander of the slut” and of being seen as “bad girls.”

“They grab you, touch your butt and try to, like, touch you in the front and run away, but it’s okay, I mean … I never think it’s a big thing because they do it to everyone.” Patricia is 13 years old. Unwelcome touching and grabbing from boys at school, which is normally considered to be a form of sexual molestation, doesn’t shock her because it is commonplace behavior. It’s a view held by many girls of her generation, confirms a study carried out in the U.S. by Marquette University and the Children’s Advocacy Center. For young women, the researchers of the study conclude, sexual abuse is the norm. It’s validation of what women’s rights associations have been saying for years: Only a small number of cases of abuse are reported. This situation is occurring because, as the study states, girls “are socialized into a patriarchal culture that normalizes and often encourages male power and oppression” and because they are scared of “the slander of the slut.”

The research paper, entitled “Normalizing Sexual Violence – Young Women Account for Harassment and Abuse,” and led by Heather R. Hlavka from the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University, will be published in June in the academic journal Gender & Society. The research team has analyzed forensic video interviews conducted by the Children’s Advocacy Center, which is an organization that fights child abuse and neglect. One hundred young women between the ages of 13 and 17 years old were interviewed, having been identified as potential victims of sexual violence. “Objectification, sexual harassment and abuse appear to be part of the fabric of young women’s lives. They had few available safe spaces; girls were harassed and assaulted at parties, in school, on the playground, on buses and in cars,” writes Hlavka. Moreover, sexual abuse was “overwhelmingly described as ‘normal stuff’ that ‘guys do’ […] Young women’s sexual desire and consent are largely absent. Sex was understood as something done to them.”

The results of the interviews, conducted by specialists and conforming to standards set by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, are shocking. Lana is 15 years old; Mike is 18. “I was going back to the classroom,” Lana recalled, “and he pinned me against the wall and tried to, like, lift up my shirt. And, like, touched me and then […] I started to scream […] So he got away from me, I just went back into the classroom and forgot about it. I just didn’t think it was anything.” Carla, 14 years old, said “Like on the bus, […] he’ll try and sit next to me and then slide his hand under my butt and say ‘I’m going to come over to your house and rape you,’ […] I know he’s just joking but that can be a little weird to hear.” Not even forced oral sexual relations were seen as a form of rape: “He forced me,” said Terri, 11 years old, black. “He grabbed me tighter, and he said if I didn’t do it he was gonna rape me.” He was a 17 year old neighbor. For Terri, as the study states, “rape was only intercourse.”

Why are girls not reporting these cases of abuse? The study would support the theory according to which only a fraction of the violence ever gets reported. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest national network, 44 percent of victims are younger than 18 years old and 60 percent of all assaults do not get reported to the police. The researchers have identified four key reasons behind this trend. Firstly, the interviewees describe men as incapable of controlling their sexual impulses and justify the molestation as “typical male behavior” that girls must either endure or ignore. Secondly, violence that does not fall into the category of rape is not considered by the victims to be a form of sexual abuse. Thirdly, they are scared of the “slander of the slut” and of being accused of lying or exaggerating. Finally, they do not trust the authorities. According to Hlavka, young girls “are socialized into a patriarchal culture.” They are scared of being labeled as bad girls and facing attributions of blame and provocation.