Module 11
How Accurate Language About Sexual Assault Supports Victims in the Criminal Justice System

Misusing the Word “Experience”

Another problem is the widely misused word “experience,” as in “women experience rape at the rate of…” A typical Department of Justice report on violence against women reads:

“81% of women who experience rape, stalking, or physical violence by an intimate partner report significant short- or long-term impacts.”1

“Experience” is a subjective term appropriate to describing the victim impact of rape, as in “victims report experiencing the rape as soul murder.” The way the word “experience” is used in the DOJ example obscures the fact that there are actors who perpetrated the violence.

Accurate phrasing is: “women are subjected to rape…” and “rape is perpetrated against women…”

Disclaimers and Footnotes

1. Department of Justice, Facts and Statistics, available at http://www.nsopw.gov/en/Education/FactsStatistics?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1.

Next
Previous

This module will be available to you as soon as you complete Module 1. To complete a module, you must read each of the lessons and complete the review quiz at the end.

It is important to finish Module 1 so that you have sufficient context for the rest of the program. After that, you'll have full access to jump between lessons however works best for you.

Tip: In the left sidebar, you'll notice a vertical bar of squares. Each square represents a lesson in that module. You can see at a glance which lessons you've done (brightly colored) and which ones you have not (gray).

Return to Module 1