她沒有反抗：5個(gè)質(zhì)疑性騷擾受害者的錯(cuò)誤理由
她花了幾十年才站出來。她無法準(zhǔn)確記起發(fā)生了什么事。她向她聲稱性侵了她的男人發(fā)送過友好的短信。她沒有反抗。
There are all sorts of reasons women who report sexual misconduct, from unwanted advances by their bosses to groping or forced sex acts, are not believed, and with a steady drumbeat of news reports making headlines, the country is hearing a lot of them.
出于種種原因，許多女人的性騷擾舉報(bào)都遭到懷疑，其中有老板不顧個(gè)人意愿的追求，也有猥褻或強(qiáng)迫性行為。隨著一系列相關(guān)報(bào)道不斷出現(xiàn)，成為重要新聞，整個(gè)國(guó)家又聽到了很多懷疑的聲音。
But some of the most commonly raised causes for doubt, like a long delay in reporting or a foggy recall of events, are the very hallmarks experts say they would expect to see after a sexual assault.
但是，專家們說，一些最常引起懷疑的原因是遭受性侵后很可能出現(xiàn)的典型標(biāo)志，比如事隔許久后才舉報(bào)，或是對(duì)事件的回憶非常模糊。
“There’s something really unique about sexual assault in the way we think about it, which is pretty upside down from the way it actually operates,” said Kimberly A. Lonsway, a psychologist who conducts law enforcement training on sexual assault as the research director of End Violence Against Women International. “In so many instances when there’s something that is characteristic of assault, it causes us to doubt it.”
“我們對(duì)性侵犯的思考方式中有非常獨(dú)特的東西，它與性侵犯的實(shí)際行為方式是完全顛倒的，”在國(guó)際制止對(duì)女性暴力行為(End Violence Against Women International)項(xiàng)目進(jìn)行性侵犯執(zhí)法培訓(xùn)的心理學(xué)家金伯莉·A·朗斯威(Kimberly A. Lonsway)說：“在很多情況下，如果有什么性侵犯的特點(diǎn)出現(xiàn)，反而會(huì)令我們產(chǎn)生懷疑。”
Partly this is because of widespread misconceptions. The public and the police vastly overestimate the incidence of false reports, while the most solid, case-by-case examinations say that only 5 to 7 percent of sexual assault reports are false.
部分原因是對(duì)性侵犯的廣泛誤解。公眾和警方大大高估了虛假舉報(bào)的發(fā)生率，然而最可靠的逐案檢查表明，只有5%到7%的性侵犯舉報(bào)是假的。
Responses to trauma that are often viewed as evidence of unreliability, such as paralysis or an inability to recall timelines, have been shown by neurobiological research to be not only legitimate, but common. And when it comes to the most serious assaults, like rape, people imagine that they are committed by strangers who attack in a dark alley, and base their view of how victims should react on that idea — even though the vast majority of assaults occur between people who know one another.
人們對(duì)創(chuàng)傷的反應(yīng)往往會(huì)被視為證據(jù)不可靠的表現(xiàn)，比如癱瘓，或是無法回憶具體時(shí)間，這些反應(yīng)已被神經(jīng)生物學(xué)研究證明為不僅合理，而且很常見。人們總會(huì)想象涉及強(qiáng)奸等最嚴(yán)重的性侵犯行為發(fā)生在黑暗的小巷里，是陌生人在攻擊受害者，他們心目中受害者的反應(yīng)都是建立在這種想法上的——盡管事實(shí)上絕大多數(shù)性侵犯發(fā)生在彼此認(rèn)識(shí)的人之間。
Here is a look at some of the misconceptions that come up again and again when assessing whether a victim’s account is true:
以下是評(píng)估受害者的描述是否可信時(shí)經(jīng)常出現(xiàn)的誤解：
The victim doesn’t act like one.
受害者的表現(xiàn)不像受害者。
A young woman said she was raped in a police van by two New York City officers, Eddie Martins and Richard Hall, in September. Their lawyers have accused the woman, who is 18, of posting “provocative” selfies and bragging about news media attention and the millions of dollars she stands to win in a civil case.
一個(gè)年輕女人說，紐約市警員埃迪·馬丁斯(Eddie Martins)和理查德·霍爾(Richard Hall)今年9月在一輛警車上強(qiáng)奸了她。他們的律師指責(zé)這位18歲的女子發(fā)布了“挑逗的”自拍，炫耀新聞媒體對(duì)她的關(guān)注，以及她在民事案件中贏得的數(shù)百萬美元。
“This behavior is unprecedented for a depressed victim of a vicious rape,” the lawyers wrote, according to The New York Post.
據(jù)《紐約郵報(bào)》報(bào)道，律師們寫道：“對(duì)于一名情緒消沉的惡性強(qiáng)奸受害者來說，這樣的行為是聞所未聞的。”
But victims behave in a wide variety of ways.
但受害者的行為方式有很多種。
There is no one response to sexual assault. A trauma victim can as easily appear calm or flat as distraught or overtly angry.
對(duì)性侵犯的回應(yīng)不止一種。留下創(chuàng)傷的受害者很可能表現(xiàn)得平靜冷漠，抑或心煩意亂，或者公開表示憤怒。
Later, they may react by self-medicating, engaging in high-risk sexual behavior, withdrawing from those around them or attempting to regain control. Some child victims initiate sexual abuse, experts say, just so they can predict when it is coming.
之后，他們可能會(huì)試圖自行用藥，從事高風(fēng)險(xiǎn)性行為，遠(yuǎn)離周圍的人，或嘗試重新獲得控制權(quán)。一些兒童受害者后來會(huì)參與性虐待行為，專家說，只有這樣他們才能預(yù)料到何時(shí)可以掌控局面。
It is no surprise that a teenager conditioned to use “likes” as a measure of self-esteem would turn to social media to deal with post-traumatic stress, said Veronique Valliere, a psychologist who counsels sexual assault perpetrators and victims and consults with the military and law enforcement.
一個(gè)十幾歲的年輕人把“點(diǎn)贊”數(shù)量當(dāng)做衡量自尊的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，訴諸社交媒體應(yīng)對(duì)創(chuàng)傷后的壓力，這沒什么可奇怪的，心理學(xué)家維羅妮卡·瓦里耶(Veronique Valliere)說，她為性侵犯的施害者和受害者提供咨詢，并且是軍方與執(zhí)法部門顧問。
“That’s a pretty normal reaction to helplessness and terror,” she added. “It doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have PTSD, it means she thinks this is the way she’s going to be protected. This is the way she’s going to regain control.”
“在感到無助和恐懼的時(shí)候，這是一種非常正常的反應(yīng)，”她補(bǔ)充說。“這并不意味著她沒有創(chuàng)傷后應(yīng)激障礙(PTSD)，這只意味著，她認(rèn)為這樣做可以讓自己受到保護(hù)。這是她重新獲得控制權(quán)的方式。”
She stayed friendly with her abuser.
她與施害者保持友好關(guān)系。
Some of the women who say Harvey Weinstein groped or assaulted them kept in contact with him afterward, saying that good relations with such a powerful player in the entertainment industry were a must for their careers. After the allegations against Weinstein were published in The New York Times, one of his advisers at the time, Lisa Bloom, sent an email to the directors of the Weinstein Co., outlining a plan that included the release of “photos of several of the accusers in very friendly poses with Harvey after his alleged misconduct.”
一些說哈維·韋恩斯坦(Harvey Weinstein)撫摸或侵犯自己的女人后來仍與他保持聯(lián)系，還說同這樣一個(gè)有權(quán)有勢(shì)的娛樂界要人保持良好關(guān)系，對(duì)于她們的職業(yè)生涯來說是必不可少的。在《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》發(fā)表針對(duì)韋恩斯坦的指控后，他當(dāng)時(shí)的顧問麗莎·布魯姆(Lisa Bloom)給韋恩斯坦公司的董事們發(fā)送電子郵件描述了一個(gè)回應(yīng)方案，其中包括發(fā)布“在哈維進(jìn)行被指的那些不當(dāng)行為后，一些指控者還擺出友好的姿態(tài)同他拍下的照片。”
Offenders work assiduously to gain trust and appear benevolent, and that relationship does not disappear overnight, even after an abusive episode. Women in particular, experts point out, are conditioned to smooth things over.
性侵者勤奮工作、贏得信任，表現(xiàn)出善意，這種關(guān)系即使在進(jìn)行過性侵犯行為后也不會(huì)在一夜間消失。專家指出，女性特別習(xí)慣于平息事態(tài)。
“Victims think that it was their fault, so in many cases they want continued contact,” said Roderick MacLeish, a Boston lawyer who has represented hundreds of victims of abuse by Catholic priests and schoolteachers. “And then later they realize that it was for the perpetrator’s sexual gratification, and that’s devastating.”
“受害者認(rèn)為一切都是自己的的錯(cuò)，所以在很多情況下，她們希望繼續(xù)保持接觸，”波士頓律師羅德里克·麥克利什(Roderick MacLeish)說，他曾為數(shù)百名遭受天主教神父與教師性侵犯的受害者擔(dān)任律師。“后來她們意識(shí)到，這種事是為了侵害者的性滿足，這對(duì)她們來說是毀滅性的。”
The victim may have little choice but to stay in contact if the offender is a boss, teacher, coach or relative.
如果性侵者是老板、老師、教練或親戚，受害者可能別無選擇，只能同他們保持聯(lián)系。
Victims also distinguish between what is safe — taking a photo with Weinstein in public at an awards ceremony, for example — and what they must avoid, such as going to his hotel room alone.
受害者還可以區(qū)分什么是安全的(比如在頒獎(jiǎng)儀式上與韋恩斯坦公開合影)，什么是必須避免的(比如和韋恩斯坦在酒店房間里單獨(dú)相處。)
She did not come forward right away.
她沒有立刻站出來。
Leigh Corfman recently said that the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, Roy S. Moore, sexually assaulted her when she was 14, nearly four decades ago. She said she long worried that going public would affect her children, and that her history of divorce and financial mistakes would undermine her account. After being approached by a Washington Post reporter, she agreed to tell her story, later saying, “If anything, this has cost me.”
麗·栝夫曼(Leigh Corfman)近期說共和黨亞拉巴馬州的參議員候選人羅伊·S·摩爾(Roy S. Moore)在她14歲時(shí)性侵過她，那是近40年前的事情。她說多年來一直擔(dān)心，將這件事公之于眾會(huì)影響到她的孩子，而且還擔(dān)心她離過婚、在理財(cái)方面的失誤會(huì)有損于自己說法的可信度。在一名《華盛頓郵報(bào)》(Washington Post)的記者聯(lián)系她后，她同意講出自己的故事，后來她說，“要說有什么的話，這么做讓我付出了代價(jià)。”
But negative consequences are not the only thing to keep victims from coming forward. Experts point to a more fundamental issue: When the perpetrator is someone they trusted, it can take years for victims to even identify what happened to them as a violation.
但負(fù)面后果并不是唯一一個(gè)阻止受害者站出來的因素。專家指出了一個(gè)更為根本的問題：當(dāng)騷擾者是她們所信任的人，就連將她們身上發(fā)生的事情認(rèn)定為侵犯這一點(diǎn)，受害者也需要數(shù)年才能做到。
Reah Bravo, one of several women who say that the broadcast journalist Charlie Rose made unwanted sexual advances while they were working for him, told The Washington Post, “It has taken 10 years and a fierce moment of cultural reckoning for me to understand these moments for what they were.”
有幾名女性說她們?yōu)殡娨曈浾卟槔?middot;羅斯(Charlie Rose)工作時(shí)，羅斯對(duì)她們做出了性冒犯的舉動(dòng)。瑞亞·布拉沃(Reah Bravo)就是這些女性中的一員，她告訴《華盛頓郵報(bào)》說，“過了10年和經(jīng)過猛烈的文化清算運(yùn)動(dòng)，我才能理解那些時(shí)刻的本質(zhì)。”
Her story does not add up.
她的說法前后不一。
Andrea Constand, whose complaint that Bill Cosby drugged and raped her resulted in a criminal trial over a decade later, was questioned on many fronts. One was discrepancies in her statements about when the assaults occurred. Cosby said the sex was consensual, and the trial ended in a hung jury.
安德烈婭·康斯坦德(Andrea Constand)對(duì)比爾·考斯比(Bill Cosby)下藥并強(qiáng)奸她的指控，最終在十多年后導(dǎo)致了一起刑事審判。她在多個(gè)方面都受到過質(zhì)疑。其中一個(gè)，就是她的聲明中在性侵發(fā)生時(shí)間方面的出入。考斯比說兩人發(fā)生性關(guān)系是經(jīng)過雙方同意的，最后那場(chǎng)審判以陪審團(tuán)僵持不決而告終。
Similarly, Moore’s Senate campaign has questioned details in the story of Beverly Nelson, who said Moore forcibly groped her in a car in the late 1970s. They said she was wrong about details like what time the restaurant where they met closed and whether the Dumpsters were behind the restaurant or on the side.
與之類似，摩爾的參議院競(jìng)選團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)對(duì)貝弗利·納爾遜(Beverly Nelson)故事中的細(xì)節(jié)提出了質(zhì)疑，納爾遜說摩爾在70年代末曾在車?yán)飶?qiáng)行摸了她。他們說她在一些細(xì)節(jié)方面的說法不對(duì)，比如兩人碰面的餐館打烊的時(shí)間，還有大垃圾箱是在餐館后面還是旁邊。
Not only does memory fade with time, but when the brain’s fear circuitry is activated, the prefrontal cortex where details like sequence and locations are recorded recedes, and the part of the brain that records sensory memories kicks in. Victims may vividly remember a wallpaper pattern or a scent, but not the order of events.
不僅記憶會(huì)隨著時(shí)間的流逝減退，而且當(dāng)大腦的恐懼神經(jīng)回路被激活，記錄事件發(fā)生順序及地點(diǎn)此類細(xì)節(jié)的前額葉皮質(zhì)也會(huì)衰退，然后記錄感官記憶的大腦部分就會(huì)開始發(fā)揮作用。受害者可能會(huì)清楚地記得壁紙的花紋或是某種氣味，但卻記不清事件發(fā)生的次序。
Rebecca Campbell, a psychologist at Michigan State University who has studied the institutional response to sexual assault victims, compares the memory of a survivor to hundreds of tiny notes that are scattered across a desk. The bits of information are accurate, but disordered and incomplete. Yet the first questions asked of victims are often who, what, when and where.
密歇根州立大學(xué)心理學(xué)家麗貝卡·坎貝爾(Rebecca Campbell)曾從事過性侵受害者制度性回應(yīng)的研究，她將一名遭受過性侵者的記憶比作散亂在桌上的數(shù)百?gòu)埿〖垪l。那些零零碎碎的信息是正確無誤的，但卻被打亂了次序，而且也是不完整的。但受害者們通常一開始被問到的問題就是誰、發(fā)生了什么、何時(shí)發(fā)生的還有在哪里發(fā)生的。
She didn’t fight back.
她沒有反抗。
When someone is mugged or robbed, they are not asked why they did not resist.
當(dāng)一個(gè)人遭到打劫或搶劫時(shí)，他們不會(huì)被問為什么不反抗。
But in sexual assault cases, failure to resist can be one of the biggest sticking points for jurors. Often both sides acknowledge that a sex act occurred, but the question is whether it was consensual. Fighting back is viewed as an easy litmus test. But women are conditioned not to use violence.
但在性侵案件中，沒有反抗可能會(huì)成為陪審員遇到的最大難點(diǎn)。通常雙方都會(huì)認(rèn)可確實(shí)發(fā)生了性行為，但問題在于它是否是經(jīng)過雙方同意的。反抗被視為立見分曉的檢驗(yàn)辦法。但女性習(xí)慣于不使用暴力。
Even so, the victim faces scrutiny of her failure to resist, and of every decision she made before, during and after the ordeal. To contrast sexual assault with other types of crime, Valliere said, she often shows a photograph of the Boston Marathon bombing. “We never said to the victims, ‘Why were you in that marathon, why did you put yourself in that position, why didn’t you run faster, why didn’t you run slower?’
盡管如此，受害者仍面臨著沒有反抗而帶來的審視，以及對(duì)她無論是在這場(chǎng)痛苦折磨之前、之中還是之后，所做過的每個(gè)決定的嚴(yán)加檢查。瓦利耶說，為讓性侵與其他種類的犯罪形成對(duì)比，她常常會(huì)展示出一張波士頓馬拉松爆炸案的照片。“我們從不會(huì)對(duì)那些受害者說，‘為什么你在那場(chǎng)馬拉松里，為什么要把自己置于那種境地，為什么你不跑得快一點(diǎn)，為什么你不跑得慢一點(diǎn)?’”
“But when it comes to a victim of interpersonal violence,” she added, “we think there’s a way they should act.”
“但當(dāng)一談到人際間暴力的受害者時(shí)，”她補(bǔ)充道，“我們就會(huì)覺得有一個(gè)方式是她們應(yīng)該照著做的。”
