Sexual Assault Advocate Training Manual - Texas Association ...

S E X U A L A S S A U L T A D V O C A T E T R A I N I N G M A N U A L
treating you well?” . Step three is a clear threat: “ Come with me or I'll kill
you,” or “ I have a gun in my pocket, keep quiet, or I'll shoot.”
At each step, the rapist is judging whether or not the woman can be
intimidated, whether she appears weak and unsure of herself, whether or not
she will put up a fight or make a fuss. If he thinks she can be intimidated, he
proceeds with the next step.
A variation of the testing pattern is sometimes used in acquaintance rapes. In
this instance the rapist and his intended victim are engaged in casual, innocent
conversation because they know each other perhaps they work together, or go
to school together, or are neighbors. At some point, the rapist steers the
conversation into an intimate and/ or sexual area where his remarks become
inappropriate, given the nature of their relationship. Usually the intended
victim begins feeling uncomfortable, suspecting that something is wrong. The
rapist is waiting to see how she deals with that; if she pretends that nothing is
wrong, if she goes along with this turn of conversation for fear of
embarrassment or whatever, he then proceeds with a threat or with the actual
attack.
Sometimes the con game and the testing pattern are combined.
PRECAUTIONS
Given this background information on risks and rapists, it is time now to
speak of what women and men can do to avoid rape. Rape avoidance measures
can be divided into three (3) different kinds of things women and men can do:
1. Precautionary actions, such as home and car security, those
things which will make it less likely that a rapist will decide to
attack them;
2. Avoidance measures, ways that women can detect and escape
from potentially dangerous situations before the rapist has enough
control of the situation to do serious harm; and
3. Resistance measures, options for the woman who is confronted
by a man intent on raping her, and from whom there is no easy
way out immediately -- that is, the rapist has already gained some
control over the situation.
The basic principle underlying precautionary and security measures is that the
more difficult it is for a rapist to attack a woman, the less likely it is that he
will. There are no guarantees that he will not; it is simply a matter of increasing
the odds in the woman's favor.
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