Sexual Assault Quotes

• In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.

  Judith Lewis Herman

  Escaping, Order, Silence

  Judith Lewis Herman (1997). “Trauma and Recovery”, p.8, Basic Books

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• Sexual assault and domestic violence are difficult things to talk about. Talk about them anyway.

  Mariska Hargitay

  Domestic Violence, Assault, Difficult

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• Sexual assault is neither a ‘light’ nor ‘fluffy’ matter, and we cannot treat it as if it were.

  Emma Sulkowicz

  Light, Matter, Fluffy

  "Students Bring Out Mattresses In Huge ‘Carry That Weight’ Protest Against Sexual Assault" by Alexandra Svokos, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 29, 2014.

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• Young men need to show women the respect they deserve and recognize sexual assault and to do their part to stop it.

  Barack Obama

  Men, Domestic Violence, Needs

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• People talk about sexual assault like it's a bad habit that men have.

  Jon Stewart

  Men, People, Habit

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• There's a misconception about girls accusing people of sexual assault. There's this sense of, Well, she might be lying, she might be telling the truth, it's really a he-said, she-said. But it turns out if you study the cases, something like 97 percent of the cases are actually true. And you think about it common sense - wise: Why would a young girl or a woman bring this attention upon herself? It's nonsensical. It sets up a binary equation where, in fact, if a girl makes that accusation, she's usually not lying about it.

  Jon Shenk

  Girl, Wise, Lying

  Source: www.mtv.com

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• Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the US military stands for.

  Leon Panetta

  Military, Assault, Violation

  "'Invisible War' Shines Light on Rape in the Military". abcnews.go.com.

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• Even though we know sexual assault is still dramatically underreported, I think women are much more empowered today than they used to be.

  Claire McCaskill

  Thinking, Today, Used

  Source: www.elle.com

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• Our profession is built on the bedrock of trust - the trust that must inherently exist among Soldiers, and between Soldiers and their leaders to accomplish their mission in the chaos of war. Recent incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment demonstrate that we have violated that trust.

  Raymond T. Odierno

  Military, War, Leader

  "The Time Is Now for Military Justice for Assault Victims" by Terry O’Neill, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 17, 2014.

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• In a society in which equality is a fact, not merely a word, words of racial or sexual assault and humiliation will be nonsense syllables.

  Catharine MacKinnon

  Equality, Facts, Nonsense

  Catharine A. MacKinnon (1996). “Only Words”, p.109, Harvard University Press

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• Just as it's painful to hear any woman talk about sexual assault, whether true or not, it's just as painful to watch my friend and mentor go through this.

  Malcolm-Jamal Warner

  Mentor, Watches, Painful

  "Malcolm-Jamal Warner on Bill Cosby: 'It's Painful to Watch My Mentor Go Through This'". Interview with Joe Lynch, www.billboard.com. January 21, 2015.

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• My niece was a sexual-assault victim. My sister is a survivor of domestic violence. We have more shelters for animals than for battered women. That's not the message we should be sending.

  Hilda Solis

  Niece, Animal, Domestic Violence

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• Well, we've got a major effort under way to try to educate everybody, to let them know we have a zero tolerance policy where sexual assault is involved.

  Dick Cheney

  Zero, Military, Effort

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• I have since talked to some of my girlfriends sexual assault and found out that they had their own experiences that they never shared at the time. It was never talked about it. And I think it's because of that normal response - you feel badly, you feel responsible, you feel guilty, you feel like you did something wrong, you feel ashamed.

  Kirsten Gillibrand

  Girlfriend, Thinking, Normal

  Source: www.elle.com

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• At Ohio State University, to avoid being guilty of 'sexual assault' or 'sexual violence,' you and your partner now apparently have to agree on the reason WHY you are making out or having sex. It's not enough to agree to DO it, you have to agree on WHY: there has to be agreement 'regarding the who, what, where, when, why, and how this sexual activity will take place.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Sex, Ohio State University, Agreement

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• I don't know how I can feel safe with Donald Trump, who bragged about sexual assault having the most power of anyone in America, maybe the world. What does that say to every child, to every person who has been sexually assaulted, to every person in a domestic-violence situation, to anybody who has to report that kind of crime?

  Jennifer Pozner

  Children, America, Domestic Violence

  Source: www.mtv.com

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• Domestic violence and sexual assault go hand in hand.

  Georgia Taylor

  Hands, Domestic Violence, Assault

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• I suppose I'll be remembered as dull. Timid. No one ever knew me. People came. They went. I was kind, I think. Not sympathetic, but considerate of others. I always gave up my place in line. I loaned out pencils and paper, or let people take them from me. I never reported a sexual assault.

  Julie Anne Peters

  Thinking, People, Paper

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• Typically, [a victim of sexual assault] go home, take a shower, call their best friend, and evidence is lost. They say, "I can handle it." And they let time pass. And then, either the guy starts harassing them again or they see him do it to somebody else. Having that power on the first day is so important.

  Kirsten Gillibrand

  Home, Guy, Important

  Source: www.elle.com

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• I believe that sexual assault - if this is possible - was even more underreported when I was in school.

  Claire McCaskill

  Believe, School, Assault

  Source: www.elle.com

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• Given the realities of the U.S. criminal justice system, the prosecution may be unable to salvage this case. But just because that system fails victims on the regular doesn't mean we have to, too. French commentators are already calling for DSK to jump back into the country's presidential race and ride a wave of sympathy into office. Really, the stakes are greater than even that political prize. If we accept the narrative that only perfect women are raped, we risk sacrificing justice not only for this woman, but for victims of sexual assault everywhere. After all, nobody's perfect.

  Jaclyn Friedman

  Country, Mean, Sacrifice

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• There's something almost impossible about the criminal justice system when it comes to sexual assault cases. It immediately sets up a trial, where witnesses may have been drunk or maybe there were no witnesses and maybe there's no evidence.

  Jon Shenk

  Justice, Drunk, Trials

  Source: www.mtv.com

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• I will take on the epidemics of gun violence and campus sexual assault, so that everyone in America is safe and respected, no matter who they are, where they live, or who they love.

  Hillary Clinton

  Gun, America, Epidemics

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

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• I fully support your efforts to stamp out sexual assault in the United States military and believer that there is nothing in (Military Justice Improvement Act) that is inconsistent with the responsibility or authority of command. Your efforts in this regard have much broader implications that will actually strengthen the 'good order and discipline' of our military, which I believe accounts for much of the resistance that S967 is receiving...Protecting the victims of these abuses and restoring American values to our military culture is long overdue.

  Dave McGinnis

  Military, Believe, Responsibility

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• Violence against women is not random or anonymous. In West Virginia, 88 percent of sexual-assault victims already know their attacker. In my hometown, Alicia McCormick, an advocate for our domestic-violence shelter at the YWCA, was killed in her home by a man doing handiwork in her apartment complex. That one of my greatest advocates could fall victim to something she fought against her whole life was a tragedy that moved me to action.

  Shelley Moore Capito

  Fall, Home, Men

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