Resources
What if I have experienced a sexual assault or a rape?
If you or someone you know has experienced an incident of sexual violence or harassment, there are several support options available to you either as students or staff.
Regardless of whether you would like to report an incident of sexual violence or harassment, we highly recommend contacting the Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (Rotunda Hospital) if the incident happened recently (within 7 days) where you can access a range of confidential supports and medical help if required including advice, sexual health screening referrals, a forensic medical examination.
The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre offers a 24 hr Helpline that offers a confidential listening and support service for anyone who has experienced a sexual assault or rape. They will also signpost you to all available supports.
Sexual Violence and Harassment: Glossary of Important Terms
Acquaintance Rape: Also known as Date Rape is rape that is perpetrated by a person who knows the victim. Examples of acquaintances include someone the victim is dating, a classmate, co-worker, teacher/lecturer, employer, family member, spouse.
Assault: An assault is the act of inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person(s).
Bullying: Repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual’s right to dignity.
Coercive Control: Coercive control is a persistent pattern of controlling, coercive and threatening behaviour including all or some forms of domestic abuse (emotional, physical, financial, sexual including threats) by a partner, spouse or ex.
Consent: An informed agreement between participants to engage in sexual activity, or activities. In TU Dublin, we use the Active*Consent model of consent, which says that consent must be Ongoing, Mutual and Freely Given.
Disclosure: When someone tells another person that they have experienced sexual violence or assault.
Domestic Violence: (sometimes referred to as domestic abuse, family violence, or intimate partner violence) involves violent, threatening, or otherwise abusive behaviour by a family member/intimate relation, including but not limited to physical and sexual assault, psychological abuse, coercive control, financial abuse, stalking or dating abuse.
Grooming: The process a perpetrator uses prior to actual abuse, most usually of a child or a minor, to select and lure them into a false sense of security and so make them less likely to reject or report abusive behaviour. Grooming can also happen when there is a power differential within a relationship, which the abuser exploits for their own gratification.
Harassment: Any form of unwanted conduct, related to any of the nine discriminatory grounds and being conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person.
IBSA: Image based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the non-consensual taking, sharing or threat to share nude or sexual images (photos or videos) of a person. This is often referred to as ‘revenge porn’ or ‘leaking nudes’.
Institutional Betrayal: This occurs when a trusted and depended-upon institution (schools, churches, universities) acts in a way that visits harm upon those dependent on them for safety and well-being.
Multiple Perpetrator Sexual Assault: Also known as ‘gang rape’ occurs when two or more perpetrators act together to sexually assault/ rape the same victim. Some common aspects of multiple-perpetrator assault include:
- Beginning as a consensual activity and introducing others to participate against the victim’s will or without consent
- Planning the assault in advance
- Targeting a victim that has an existing connection with one of the perpetrators, often sexual in nature
- Using alcohol or drugs to subdue or incapacitate the victim.
Rape Culture: A society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. A culture in which dominant ideologies, media images, social practices and institutions promote, condone, or tolerate, explicitly or implicitly, the normalisation of sexual violence and victim-blaming. Incidents can be ignored, trivialised, normalised and/or made the basis of jokes.
Sexual Assault: An act of physical, psychological, and emotional violation in the form of a sexual act, inflicted on someone without their consent.
Sexual Harassment: Any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature, which has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the person. It includes: acts, requests, spoken words, gestures or the production, display or circulation of written words, pictures or material.
Sexual Misconduct: Any unwanted behaviour of a sexual nature that is committed without consent or by force, intimidation, coercion, or manipulation. Sexual assault, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and sexual intimidation are all forms of sexual misconduct.
Sexual Violence: Any unwanted sexual activity or act including rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and female genital mutilation, carried out without consent, intimidation, coercion, or manipulation or by force.
Slut Shaming: This is a derogatory term which is generally used as a criticism of a woman for her real or presumed sexual activity, or for behaving in ways one thinks are associated with her real or presumed sexual activity.
Stalking: Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted behaviour that causes a person to feel distressed or scared. It can be perpetrated by men or women. Stalking can happen with or without a fear of violence. Stalking usually occurs as a result of fixation or obsession.
Survivor/Victim/Victim-Survivor: Someone who has experienced sexual violence or Harassment. Depending on the person, a preference may be had for one of these terms. Unless you know how someone prefers to be referred to in this context, it may be best to say victim-survivor.
Victim Blaming: Blaming the occurrence of sexual violence on the survivor instead of the person who committed the assault. Victim blaming can be implicit or explicit. For example, asking someone what they were wearing or what they had to drink before being assaulted is a form of victim blaming. A non-victim blaming response acknowledges that people make choices to violate the bodily integrity of others, and that they alone are responsible for these choices .