What is acquaintance rape? Well the name speaks for itself. Acquaintance rape is a form of sexual assault involving coercive sexual activities perpetrated by an acquaintance of the rape survivor. The perpetrator is almost always a man, and though both men and women can be raped, women are most often the targets of this violence. The acquaintance can be a friend, relative, teacher, priest, classmate, co-worker; the list goes on. This form of rape can be considered the least reported type of rape and the most underreported crime against a person, resulting in which many say, as the most prevalent rape crime today. Most women don't even realize that they have been raped until they have firm grasp of what acquaintance rape really is. The myth about acquaintance rape is really a sum of the many little myths that are out there. The myths about acquaintance rape seem to prevail into existence, which in turn, blinds society into thinking that this form of rape is okay. In reality, this is not the case. We must let our society know what the myths are so we can filter out the nave-ness of the world and hopefully lessen the possibilities of this type of rape. Why is acquaintance rape largely ignored? Well, because society is so gullible about absorbing the myths from birth to adulthood. "On college campuses, when a woman is raped in a dormitory or fraternity house by another student, university officials announce new plans for better lighting in the parking lots and expanded hours for escort services--positive safety precautions that have nothing to do with stopping acquaintance rape- (Warshaw, 20). .
What are some of the other myths about acquaintance rape? One myth would be, "rape is committed by crazed strangers- (Warshaw, 20). It is true, this can happen, but in reality "most women are raped by "normal- acquaintances- (Warshaw, 20). Here is another one; "a woman who gets raped deserves it, especially if she agreed to go to the man's house or ride in his car- (Warshaw, 19).
