Wear purple on Friday, May 1 and let folks know why: No one asks to be sexually assaulted.
No matter how sexy someone is dressed. Not if they’ve had a drink. Not if they’re drunk. Not if they’ve had sex before. Not if they invited someone into their house or room. Not if they accepted a ride. Not if they’re on a date. No one ever asks to be sexually assaulted.
SHOW UP
Wear purple. Let folks know that you support survivors. Take a picture. Tag DWS on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram as well as the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region, organizers of No One Asks for It.
Join the convo in the No One Asks for It Facebook event.
WE WEAR PURPLE BECAUSE
1 in 3 women, 1 in 6 men, and 1 in 2 trans folks experience sexual assault.
Indigenous women experience higher rates of sexual violence
83% of disabled women experience sexual assault
Most (83%) of survivors never tell the police about the sexual assault
Survivors shared many reasons for not reporting to the police including:
the incident was dealt with another way (61%),
it was not deemed to be important enough (50%),
it was considered to be a personal matter (50%),
they did not want the police involved (47%).
One third (33%) of victims who did not report felt that the police could not do anything about it, and approximately one fifth (18%) believed that the police would not help them. Another fifth (19%) of the victims of sexual assault did not report the incident to police because they feared revenge by the offender and 14% sought to avoid publicity regarding the incident.
Most (87%) survivors know their abuser
“Sexual assault is a highly gendered crime wherein women are most often the victims and men are most often the perpetrators. Overall, 87% of victims were female and 13% were male. Of sexual assaults with a charge laid, nearly all (99%) female victims were sexually assaulted by a male. Conversely, 7% of male victims were victimized by a female. In turn, the vast majority (93%) of sexual assaults against males were perpetrated by another male.” -
Police-reported sexual assaults in Canada, 2009 to 2014: A statistical profile, Statistics Canada
Because our culture doesn’t fully understand consent or sexual violence, 60% of of sexual assaults are ‘unacknowledged’, meaning the survivor does not label the abuse as sexual assault but ‘bad sex’ or ‘things got out of hand’.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
If you’ve been sexually assaulted or are supporting a survivor, you are not alone. DWS is here to listen, 24 hours a day - 867.993.5086.
MAY IS SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION MONTH
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