Final answer:
The statement about most sexual assault victims being over the age of 21 is false; many assaults occur during college years, indicating victims are often younger. IPV affects more women than men, and underreporting is a major challenge in addressing this issue. Recovered memories of childhood abuse reveal the deep psychological impacts and the difficulty in recognizing this abuse.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that most sexual assault victims are over the age of 21 is false. Statistics show that approximately one-third of all women have experienced domestic violence, and a worrying figure of one in five women is assaulted during her college years. This suggests a significant number of sexual assault victims are likely under the age of 21. Another concerning aspect of intimate partner violence (IPV) is the difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics, as over half of nonfatal IPV goes unreported, often continuing for an extended period before being reported. This underreporting is due to various reasons, including denial of abuse, shame, fear of not being believed, or fear of retaliation.
Intimate partner violence disproportionately affects women, with research frequently showing that women are more likely to be victims than men. Even when abuse reports come to police attention, confirmation by victims is not guaranteed. Studies such as those by Felson, Ackerman, and Gallagher (2005) found that even when confronted about abuse, a significant portion of victims denied its occurrence.
The complexities surrounding the reporting and acknowledgment of abuse also extend to memories of childhood sexual abuse. Ross Cheit's Recovered Memory Project highlights that many adults may initially have no memory of abuse suffered in childhood. This finding is supported by research that a large number of adults receiving treatment for childhood sexual abuse had repressed or forgotten these experiences.