Sexual violence can affect many people in a victim/survivor’s life: parents, friends, partners, children, spouses, classmates and/or co-workers. In comparison to low sex guilt women, high sex guilt women were significantly lower on sexual arousal across scenarios, and they found the erotic fantasy of "rape" less pleasurable, enjoyable, and interesting. When someone is a victim of sexual violence, it affects not only the survivor, but also all of the people around them. Discussion focuses on the willing victim myth and ethical issues related to research on emotional reactions to rape. Women imagining realistic rape reported significantly more affective disgust, fear, anger, pain, shame, and depression. In comparison to women in the realistic rape conditions, women who imagined an erotic fantasy of "rape" were significantly more sexually aroused and experienced more interest, enjoyment, and pleasure. The affective and subjective sexual responses of 104 undergraduate women were assessed as a function of sex guilt and random assignment to conditions: (a) erotic fantasy of "rape," (b) realistic rape with ambiguous responsibility, and (c) realistic rape with unambiguous responsibility. Victims fear being assaulted again by the system, they fear being accused of lying, they fear they are not believed and mostly, they fear the stigma, 'rape victim.' Donna Ferres now functions as a Volunteer Victim Advocate who works to raise the level of awareness through helping rape victims through the Judicial Process.
Two hypotheses were tested which demonstrated that, although women may be sexually aroused and experience positive affects during the guided imagining of an erotic "rape" fantasy, women respond to guided imagery of a realistic rape with negative affects and no sexual arousal.