First off, here are the annotations for the sources that I mentioned in class today:
Lisak, David. “The Neurobiology of Trauma (And Healing).” Boise State. 24 September, 2015.
This powerpoint presentation handout is what David Lisak gave at Boise State when he presented this lecture. The most valuable part that relates to Krakauer’s book is the graph on page 5 that shows the relationship between fear and the proximity to the threat. This explains the “freeze” response (tonic immobility) that targets often exhibit when being attacked; in the book the detectives often discredit what the target has made explicitly clear about consent because of this tonic immobility (TI) during the attack. Lisak works to say that this judgement is not a fair one to make because evolutionarily this response has served us well and it is only natural when the threat is inside of your body, that you become paralyzed with fear.
Rizvi, Shireen L., Kaysen, Debra, Gutner, Cassidy A., Griffin, Michael G., and Resick, Patricia
A. "Beyond Fear: The Role of Peritraumatic Responses in Posttraumatic Stress and
Depressive Symptoms among Female Crime Victims." Journal of Interpersonal
Violence 23.6 (2008): 853-68. Print.
This article describes a case study that worked to identify the correlation between TI during an attack and the likelihood of depressive symptoms after the attack. This is one of two case studies that I found on this topic and I think that both are very important for understanding the ways in which targets of sexual assault can be helped in order to avoid these feelings. The natural fear response of our body is to freeze when near a threat and if society can portray this response as valid and trustworthy than I believe that rapes would become more likely to be reported and convictions would be higher.
TeBockhorst, Sunda Friedman, Mary Sean O’Halloran, Blair N. Nyline, and Kendall-Tackett,
Kathleen. "Tonic Immobility Among Survivors of Sexual Assault."Psychological
Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy 7.2 (2015): 171-78. Print.
This case study was started in order to show how tonic immobility (TI) during the attack affected the degree of symptoms of PTSD in survivors of sexual assault--both rape and child sexual abuse. What this study concluded was that trauma survivors that experienced TI are more prone to depression, self-blame, anxiety, PTSD, and other manifestations of guilt than survivors that did not experience TI. This has serious implications for the assessment of rape targets upon reporting the rape and having their statement taken by the police. I believe that this study is important to understanding how to teach police officers to avoid victim-blaming or insinuating questions during the initial interview.
Next, I want to mention some further things that I looked into regarding victim-blaming and tonic immobility.
Lisak, David. “Neurobiology of Trauma.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0mVt2Z7nc
This video discusses exactly what the title suggests, and while it offers little to the explanation of tonic immobility as the powerpoint presentation does, it is important to understand that our body’s response to fear is completely natural. This response and reaction loop is determined by chemicals, there is often little room for logical thought processes when a threat is upon us.
Marx, Brian P., John P. Forsyth, Gordon G. Gallup, Tiffany Fusé, and Jennifer M. Lexington.
"Tonic Immobility as an Evolved Predator Defense: Implications for Sexual Assault
Survivors." Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice 15.1 (2008): 74-90. Print.
This article presents the same graph that Lisak uses in his presentation to show the relationship between fear and proximity to the threat. I find it interesting that this article, while focusing on the same ideas as the others regarding TI, focuses on the element of “perceived physical restraint” in regards to why TI is experienced during a rape. It is also important to note that this topic, TI in humans, is still in development and all of its causes and manifestations are still being explored. This, I believe, is why at Lateah asked there are no court cases that use this in support of the target.
McCaul, Kevin D., Veltum, Lois G., Boyechko, Vivian, and Crawford, Jacqueline J.
"Understanding Attributions of Victim Blame for Rape: Sex, Violence, and
Foreseeability." Journal of Applied Social Psychology 20.1 (1990): 1. Print.
This study was conducted with the intention of discerning what variables change perceptions regarding blame being placed on the target instead of the assailant. The variables manipulated are pleasure derived from the experience and foreseeability of the event occurring. They found that people often blame the victim to some extent, definitely lower than the extent to which the assailant is blamed, but there is still blame present. Another finding was that victim-blaming was a higher tendency if they perceived the victim to have derived sexual pleasure from the rape. Similarly, if it was judged that the victim could have foreseen the rape happening there was more blame placed on them for being raped. These findings were not surprising because these are the kinds of responses to rape that are often seen by the police force, but I am astounded that they are responses we allow in society to be normal.
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