MICR- Michigan Incident Crime Reporting for Criminal Sexual Conduct, 2007 (Genesee County)

MICR– Michigan Incident Crime Reporting 2007 (Genesee County)

First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct involves penetration. According to Michigan law, penetration includes vaginal, anal, or oral intercourse or putting a finger or other object into another person’s anal or genital opening. Emission of semen is not required.

First Degree Sexual Criminal Conduct includes penetration and any one of the following circumstances:
1. Victim is under 13 years of age.
2. Victim is 13, 14, or 15 and assailant is any of the following:

a. Member of the household.
b. Related by blood or affinity.
c. In a position of authority over the victim.
d. A teacher, substitute teacher or an administrator of a school at which the victim is enrolled.

3. Another felony is committed during the assault.
4. Multiple assailants and either of the following:

a. Victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.
b. Force or coercion is used. Force of coercion includes violence, coercing victim to submit by threatening retaliation, overcoming victim through concealment or surprise, or assailant engages in medical treatment or examination of the victim.

5. Assailant is armed with a weapon or any object believed to be a weapon.
6. Assailant causes personal injury and force or coercion is used.

7. Assailant causes personal injury and victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.

8. Victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless and the assailant is any of the following:

a. Related by blood or affinity.
b. In a position of authority over the victim.

CSC 1st is a felony punishable by up to life in prison and additional penalties and monitoring.

Sexual Penetration Penis/Vagina CSC 1st 117 reported
Sexual Penetration Oral/Anal CSC 1st- 62 reported
Sexual Penetration Object CSC 1st 29 reported

Second Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct involves contact. According to Michigan Law, sexual contact is defined as the intentional touching of the victim’s or actor’s intimate parts or the clothing covering those intimate parts for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, done for sexual purpose or in a sexual manner.

Second Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct includes sexual conduct and any one of the following circumstances:
1. Victim is under 13 years of age.
2. Victim is 13, 14, 15 and assailant is any of the following:

a. Member of the household.
b. Related by blood or affinity.
c. In a position of authority over the victim.
d. A teacher, substitute teacher or an administrator of a school at which the victim is enrolled.

3. Another felony is committed during the assault.
4. Multiple assailants and either of the following:

a. Victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.
b. Force or coercion is used. Force of coercion includes violence, coercing victim to submit by threatening retaliation, overcoming victim through concealment or surprise, or assailant engages in medical treatment or examination of the victim.

5. Assailant is armed with a weapon or any object believed to be a weapon.

6. Assailant causes personal injury and force or coercion is used.

7. Assailant causes personal injury and victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.

8. Victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless and the assailant is any of the following:

a. Related by blood or affinity.
b. In a position of authority over the victim.

CSC 2nd is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Sexual Contact Forcible CSC 2- 118 reported

Third Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct includes penetration and any of the one following circumstances:

1. Victim is 13, 14, 15.

2. Force or Coercion is used.

3. Victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.

4. Assailant is related by blood or affinity.

5. The victim is at least 16 years of age, unmarried and not emancipated, and a student at a public or nonpublic school, and the assailant is a teacher, substitute teacher, or administrator of that school.

CSC 3 is a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Sexual penetration penis/vagina CSC 3rd- 46 reported
Sexual Penetration oralianal CSC 3rd – 19 reported
Sexual Penetration Object CSC 3rd 4 reported

Forth Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct includes sexual contact and any one of the following circumstances:

1. Victim is 13, 14, or 15 and assailant is 5 or more years older than victim.

2. Force or coercion is used to accomplish the contact.

3. Assailant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless.

4. Assailant is related by blood or affinity.

5. Assailant is a mental health professional and sexual contact occurs during or within 2 years after the period in which the victim was a client or patient.

6. Victim is a least 16 or 17 years of age and a student at a public or nonpublic school, and the assailant is a teacher, substitute teacher, or administrator of that school.

Criminal Sexual Conduct in the fourth degree is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 2 years in prison or a fine of up to $500 or both.

Sexual Contact Forcible CSC 4- 117 reported

Other Sexual Offenses- 111 reported

The Facts about Sexual Violence

The Facts

Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

Several myths exist about sexual assault. These myths often shift responsibility and blame from the assailant to the victim. Understanding the myths surrounding sexual assault may help you in your recovery. What happened to you was a crime. You are not to blame for the assailant’s behavior.

Myth: Rape is caused by the perpetrator’s uncontrollable sexual urge.
Fact: Rape is an act of power and control, not sex.

Myth: Individuals who commit rape are mentally ill or psychotic and cannot help themselves.
Fact: Very few perpetrators are mentally incompetent and/or out of touch with reality. Rapes may be planned or carried out by acquaintances, intimate partners, family members or strangers.

Myth: The victim must have “asked for it” by being seductive, careless, drunk, high, etc…
Fact: No one asks to be abused, injured, or humiliated. This line of thought blames the victim for what happened instead of the perpetrator who chose to commit the crime. Individuals of all ages, from all walks of life, have been the targets of sexual assault. Not one of them “caused” their assailant to commit a crime against them.

Myth: If women would just stop drinking so much, they wouldn’t be sexually assaulted.
Fact: Alcohol is a weapon that some perpetrators use to control their victim and render them helpless. As part of their plan, an assailant may encourage the victim to use alcohol, or identify an individual who is already drunk. Alcohol is not a cause of rape; it is only one of many tools that perpetrators use.

Myth: If the victim did not physically struggle with or fight the assailant, it wasn’t really rape.
Fact: Assailants are not looking for a fight and they use many forms of coercion, threats and manipulation to rape. Alcohol and other drugs such as rophypnol (roofies) are often used to incapacitate victims. Michigan law defines sexual assault by the action of the perpetrator, not the victim. In fact, there is a specific law that says that the victim need not have resisted the perpetrator in order for it to be considered rape.

Myth: Most perpetrators are strangers to their victims.
Fact: Most rapes are committed by someone that the victim knows: a neighbor, friend, acquaintance, co-worker, classmate, spouse, partner, or ex-partner.

Myth: Serial Rapists are uncommon.
Fact: Most every perpetrator is a serial rapist, meaning that they choose to use coercion, violence, threats or force, etc., to assault women on a repeated basis.

Introduction to Domestic Violence (PowerPoint Notes)

• Introduction to Domestic Violence
• Domestic Violence: Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling behaviors carried out by one person in an intimate relationship to maintain power and control over their partner.

  Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay or lesbian; living together, separated or dating.  Violence takes many forms and can happen all the time or once in a while.  Abuse is not an accident.  It does not happen because someone was stressed out, drinking, or using drugs.  Abusers have learned to abuse, using their power to get what they want.  The abuse may be physical, sexual, emotional, economic and psychological.

• “Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling behaviors, some of which are criminal, that includes but is not limited to physical assaults, sexual assaults, emotional abuse, isolation, economic coercion, threats, stalking and intimidation.  These behaviors are used by the batterer in an effort to control the intimate partner.  The behavior may be directed at others with the effect of controlling the intimate partner.”  Batterer Intervention Standards for the State of Michigan, 4.1 (January 20, 1999).*

  Battering is a choice, it is used by one person in an intimate partner relationship to maintain power and control over their partner.

• Domestic violence crosses all ethnic, racial, age, national origin, sexual orientation, religious, and socioeconomic lines. Domestic violence can happen to anybody.  In fact, studies suggest that one-fifth to one-third of all women will be physically assaulted by a partner or ex-partner during their lifetime.  In heterosexual relationships, 95 percent of all victims are female; and 95 percent of all perpetrators are male.  In same-sex relationships, domestic violence happens with the same statistical frequency as in heterosexual relationships.

  Women living in poverty experience violence by their partners at higher rates partially because they have fewer options.  (Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence).
• Domestic Violence Victims (Survivors)

  Anyone can be a victim!  Victims can be any age, sex, race, culture, religion, education, employment or marital status.  Although both men and women can be abused, most victims are women.  Children in homes where there is domestic violence are more likely to be abused and/or neglected.  Most children in these homes know about violence.  Even if a child is not physically harmed, they may have emotional and behavioral problems.  NO ONE DESERVES TO BE ABUSED.  THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR ABUSE IS THE ABUSER.
• Domestic Abusers

  There is no “typical” abuser.  In public, they may appear friendly and loving to their partner and family.  They often only abuse behind closed doors.  They also try to hide the abuse by causing injuries that can be hidden and do not need medical attention.  Abusers often have low self-esteem.  They do not take responsibility for their actions.  They often blame the victim for causing the violence.  In most cases, men abuse female victims.
• Survivor vs. Victim

  We use the term “survivor” due to our emphasis on empowerment advocacy.  This happens when the advocate offers support, resources, advocacy, information and education.

  This is a way of recognizing strength, courage and survival strategies of domestic violence and sexual assault survivors.

  Not all women who have experienced domestic or sexual violence see themselves as “survivors.”  Remember: Domestic violence and sexual assault is something that happens to individuals, it does not define who they are.

  MCADSV New Service Provider Training Manual and Resource Guide (May 2006).
• We are a ‘movement’ and our work is different than that of traditional social services in that

  we:

  –Focus on survivors’ strengths

  –Do not believe we are the “experts”

  –Are survivor-driven not service-driven

  –Understand that violence could happen to any of us

  –Are non-directive in our approach to working with survivors

  Instead of viewing victims/survivors as “sick” or pathological, we believe that survivors are simply reacting in adaptive ways to oppressive societal conditions, restrictive sex roles, and the abusive

  intimate partners in their lives.
• Power and Control Violence can be both Physical & Sexual

  •Intimidation

  •Emotional abuse

  •Isolation

  •Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming

  •Using Children

  •Economic Abuse

  •Male Privilege

  •Coercion & Threats
• Using intimidation: making her afraid by using looks, actions, gestures, smashing things, destroying her property, abusing pets, displaying weapons.Using emotional abuse: putting her down, making her feel bad about herself, calling her names, making her think she’s crazy, playing mind games, humiliating her, making her feel guilty.Using isolation: controlling what she does, who she sees and talks to, what she reads, where she goes, limiting her outside involvement, using jealousy to justify actions.

  Minimizing, denying, and blaming: making light of the abuse and not taking her concerns about it seriously, saying the abuse didn’t happen, shifting responsibility for abusive behavior, saying she caused it.

  Using children: making her feel guilty about the children, using the children to relay messages, using visitation to harass her, threatening to take children away.

  Using male privilege: treating her like a servant, making all the big decisions, acting like the “master of the castle”, being the one to define men’s and women’s roles.

  Using economic abuse: preventing her from getting or keeping a job, making her ask for money, giving her an allowance, taking her money, not letting her know about or have access to family income.

  Using coercion and threats: making and/or carrying out threats to hurt her, threatening to leave her, to commit suicide, to report her to welfare, making her drop charges, making her do illegal things.

• Why Women Stay

  The Barriers to Leaving

  One of the most frustrating things for people outside a battering relationship is trying to understand why a woman doesn’t just leave.  The most important thing to keep in mind is that extreme emotional abuse is always present in domestic violence situations.  On average, an abused woman will leave her partner 6-8 times.  The reasons they return or stay in the relationship vary from case to case.  Some of these include:
• Situational Factors

  •Economic dependence.  How can she support herself and the children?

  •Fear of greater physical danger to herself and her children if they try to leave.

  •Fear of being hunted down and suffering a worse beating than before.

  •Survival.  Fear that her partner will follow her and kill her if she leaves, often based on real threats by her partner.

  •Fear of emotional damage to the children.

  •Fear of losing custody of the children, often based on her partner’s remarks.

  •Lack of alternative housing; she has nowhere else to go.

  •Lack of job skills; she might not be able to get a job.

  •Social Isolation resulting in lack of support from family and friends.

  •Social Isolation resulting in lack of information about her alternatives.

  •Lack of Understanding from family, friends, police, ministers, etc.

  •Negative Responses from community, police, courts, social workers, etc.

  •Fear of involvement in the court process; she may have had bad experiences before

  •Fear of the unknown.  “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

  •Fear of ambivalence over making formidable life changes.

  •“Acceptable Violence.”  The violence escalates slowly over time.  Living with constant abuse numbs the victim so that she is unable to recognize that she is involved in a set pattern of abuse.

  •Ties to the Community.  The children would have to leave their school; she would have to leave all her friends and neighbors behind, etc.  For some women it would be like being in the Witness Protection program-she could never have any contact with her old life.

  •Ties to her home and belongings.

  •Family Pressure; because Mom always said, “I told you it wouldn’t work out” or “You made your bed, now sleep in it.”

  •Fear of her abuser doing something to get her (report her to welfare, call her workplace, etc.).

  •Time needed to plan and prepare to leave.
• Emotional Factors

  •Insecurity about being alone, on her own; she’s afraid she can’t cope with home and children by herself.

  •Loyalty. “He’s sick; if he had a broken leg or cancer-I would stay.  This is no different.”

  •Pity. He’s worse off than she is; she feels sorry for him.

  •Wanting to help. “If I stay I can help him get better.”

  •Fear that he will commit suicide if she leaves (often he’s told her this).

  •Denial.  “It’s really not that bad.  Other people have it worse.”

  •Love. Often, the abuser is quite loving and lovable when he is not being abusive.

  •Love, especially during the “honeymoon” stage; she remembers what he used to be like.

  •Guilt. She believes-and her partner and the other significant others are quick to agree-that their problems are her fault.

  •Shame and Humiliation in front of the community.  “I don’t want anyone else to know.”

  •Unfounded Optimism that things will get better, despite all evidence to the contrary

  •Learned Helplessness. Trying every possible method to change something in our environment, but with no success, so that we eventually expect to fail. Feeling helpless is a war, people taken hostage, people living in poverty who cannot get work, etc.
  •False Hope. “He’s starting to do things I’ve been asking for.” (counseling, anger management, things she sees as a chance of improvement).
  •Guilt. She believes that the violence is caused through some inadequacy of her own (she is often told this); feels as though she deserves it for failing.
  •Responsibility. She feels as though she only needs to meet some set of vague expectations in order to earn the abuser’s approval.
  •Insecurity over her potential independence and lack of emotional support.
  •Guilt about the failure of the marriage/relationship.
  •Demolished Self-Esteem. “I thought I was too (fat, stupid, ugly, whatever he’s been calling her) to leave.
  •Lack of emotional support-she feels like she’s doing this on her own and it’s just too much.
  •Simple Exhaustion. She’s just too tired and worn out from the abuse to leave.
• Personal Beliefs

  •Parenting, needing a partner for the kids.  “A crazy father is better than none at all.”

  •Religious and Extended Family Pressure to keep the family together no matter what.

  •Duty. “I swore to stay married till death do us part.”

  •Responsibility. It is up to her to work things out and save the relationship.

  •Belief in the American dream of growing up and living happily ever after.

  •Identity. Women are raised to feel they need a partner-even an abusive one-in order to be complete or accepted by society.

  •Belief that marriage if forever.

  •Belief that violence is the way all partners relate (often this woman has come from a violent childhood).

  •Religious and Cultural Beliefs.
• Myths and Facts

  Why do domestic violence perpetrators do what they do?

  Commonly held misconceptions about why batterers batter

  –Alcohol and/or drugs cause the violence

  –Stress causes the violence

  –Uncontrollable anger

  –The batterer witnessed his father abusing his mother
• Factors that increase the likelihood of male violence against women

  •Ideology of familial patriarchy

  •Male peer support

  •Alcohol consumption/use

  •Exposure to pornographic media

  •Hold rigid sex role stereotypes
• •Why do batterers batter?

  –Because they can

  –Because it gets them what they want (power & control)

  –Opportunity and self-interest
• •We live in a society where:

  –Around the world, at least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. (Population Reports, Series L, No. 11, December 1999).

  –Seventy-eight percent of stalking victims are women.  Women are significantly more likely than men (60% and 30%, respectively) to be stalked by intimate partners.  (Center for Policy Research, Stalking in America, July 1997).

  –Intimate partner violence is primarily a crime against women.  In 1999, women accounted for 85 percent of the victims. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-99, October 2001).

  –On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.  In 1999, 1,642 murders were attributed to intimates; 74 percent of the murder victims were women. (Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-99, October 2001).
• Common characteristics of batterers:

  •Exhibits discrepancy between public and private behavior

  •Uses puzzlement to minimize or confuse survivor about behavior

  •Externalizes by blaming others and using external factors to justify behavior

  •Uses controlling behaviors to get survivor to do, or stop doing, something

  •Feels a strong sense of ownership over the survivor

  •May use controlled substances

  •Is resistant to change
• Warning Signs

  •History of Violence

  •Substance abuse

  •Breaks or strikes things in anger

  •Jealousy

  •Controlling Behavior

  •Quick Involvement

  •Unrealistic Expectations

  •Isolation

  •Use of Privilege

  •Cruelty to Animals or Children

  •Rape or use of force in sex

  •Blames others for Problems

  •Blames others for Feelings
• If you have any questions, please contact
  • YWCA of Greater Flint
    310 E. Third St. Flint, Mi 48502
    Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services
  • 810-238-7621