Philadelphia Sexual Assault Lawyer

What is Considered Sexual Assault?

Any non-consensual sexual acts may qualify as a type of assault, including the following:

• Sexual harassment
• Rape (including statutory rape)
• Electronic recording and dissemination of sexually explicit material of minors or adults (such as the creation of deepfake videos or revenge porn)
• Sexual battery
• Child sexual abuse

Also, the following Title IX violations, go against federal anti-discrimination laws and occur in a government-funded educational setting, may qualify as this, including:

• Sexual assaults occurring on campus
• Sex-based discriminatory treatment
• Sexual harassment in an academic environment
• Retaliation against those who make complaints about abuse

The list above isn’t exhaustive. So, definitely don’t feel you can only reach out to us if you’ve suffered sexually oriented mistreatment, including the Title IX violations above.

Why Does Unwanted Sexual Activity Occur?

Perpetrators see a window of opportunity to take advantage of others:

• This may happen because they’re left to care for a child alone, they notice someone following a certain pattern when exiting an office building at night, or because a person is deaf or immobile, making it challenging for them to get attention or fight off the advances.
• The targeted victims are in a position of vulnerability. This is often why this sexual abuse targets minors, those with mental or physical impairments, the incarcerated, the elderly, and employees, as they all may have certain limitations or be in a subservient role.
• The perpetrator takes advantage of the trust of the person they are targeting. An estimated 80% of accounts of sexual violence are committed by someone the victims know, including by partners and family members, per RAINN.

There is no justification for sexual assault, and it is never the fault of the person taken advantage of. The reason behind each case can vary wildly, but the simple fact that someone was hurt remains the same.

Steps To Take After a Sexual Assault

Traumatic situations like these often make it challenging to think clearly and know what steps you should take immediately afterward. The most important thing is to ensure your safety, but if possible, some good tips to keep in mind include:

• Get to safety: Get as far away from your perpetrator as possible so that you’re not vulnerable to re-abuse.
• Report what happened: Call the police to make a report of what you endured. This will allow them to launch an investigation and potentially hold the suspected abuser criminally liable for their actions.
• Seek immediate medical care: You need to not only receive treatment for any physical injuries you suffered, but this also ensures you receive a rape kit (if appropriate), which can help confirm the identity of a suspect, and that you receive testing and medication for sexually transmitted diseases (if necessary). Healthcare professionals at the hospital can also ensure law enforcement knows about what happened and refer you for mental health counseling.
• Contact a Philadelphia sexual assault lawyer: This isn’t essential but is highly recommended. While law enforcement and prosecutors will take care of criminal proceedings, you may meet the requirements to file a civil lawsuit to recover monetary compensation for your losses. An attorney can help you do this.

Why Victims Often Delay Reporting the Assault and Abuse

Often, the abuse that victims have endured has long been left to fester. It’s not uncommon for those who were assaulted as children not to address that mistreatment until they’re adults. It may be some time after an adult is sexually abused before they come forward and say anything, or it becomes apparent to others. Why is this?

Depending on the ages of kids, they may not understand between right and wrong to know what happened shouldn’t have. By the time they understand that as teens or adults, this may be when they finally come forward and say something.

Some victims may have been told by perpetrators not to say anything. They may only gain the courage to do so through the encouragement of a mental health counselor or other trusted confidant. In other cases, it may take others stepping forward and making similar allegations against the person who hurt them or because their abuser is no longer able to directly interact with them through incarceration, death, or some other reason.

While the thought of coming forward may seem like an impossibility at the moment, it’s the first step in the right direction to taking back your life and living it on your own terms. Reporting what happened is necessary so you can get the treatment you need to feel better, and so the person who harmed you can be brought to justice.

Treatment Options Those Who Have Been Sexually Assaulted

If you’ve suffered abuse, the most common approach used to deal with that treatment is mental health counseling. There are varying approaches used to treat depression, anxiety, guilt, shame, eating disorders, addiction, and other conditions that you’re struggling with.

Since many individuals who were assaulted were caught off guard by what happened and were expected to return to life as normal as if nothing bad ever happened, mental health therapists often find that the issue that’s most pressing for them is that they never finished processing the traumatic experience, which is necessary for it not to linger on as a nagging concern in their minds and lives.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been praised as helping those who’ve been sexually assaulted finish processing what they’ve been through, which can have tremendous positive implications for their overall mental health.

There are, of course, other treatment options that may be appropriate depending on what you have endured and your symptomatology, so it’s certainly important for you to discuss those options with an addiction specialist, a mental health counselor, or a psychiatrist.