Study Debunks a Commonly Help Belief About Victims of Rape

A new study led by Ebani Dhawan a graduate student in bioethics and science policy at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, debunks widely held beliefs about victims of rape. If a victim freezes or does not attempt to resist during a sexual assault, perpetrators often claim there was passive acquiescence; that consent was assumed from an absence of resistance.

But this new study presents neuroscientific evidence that counters that misconception. Many survivors of sexual assault report ‘freezing’ during an assault. The researchers argue that this is an involuntary response to a threat that can prevent a victim from actively resisting, and that it occurs throughout biology.

Animal studies have demonstrated that severe, urgent threats, like assault or physical restraint, can trigger a freeze response involving fixed posture (tonic immobility) or loss of muscle tone (collapsed immobility). Self-reports of these states in humans shed light on an important insight into immobility. Namely, that we are unable to make voluntary actions during this freezing response.

The authors write that “neuroscientific evidence suggests fear and threat can block cortical neural circuits for action control, leading to involuntary immobility. Defense arguments that blame victims for freezing are thus inappropriate and unjust.”

The full study, “Neuroscience Evidence Counters a Rape Myth,” was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior. It may be accessed here.