When Angela Rose reported her abduction and sexual assault when she was 17 years old, she was asked one question: “Are you lying?”

For the past 18 years, Rose has been working to educate men and women about sexual violence to help end victim blaming. Rose spoke at Goldstein Auditorium on Tuesday night at an event sponsored by the Syracuse University Panhellenic Council.

Rose was abducted on the way to her car after work. She was sexually assaulted and left in a stairwell of a parking garage.

“I thought, ‘If I get out of this alive, I’m not letting him get away with it,’” she said.

She told police officers her story and was forced to wait hours to talk to a detective, without being allowed to see her parents. When the detective arrived, the accusations began.

“He asked me, ‘Are you lying? Are you in an abusive relationship? You know sometimes girls get themselves into situations,’” she said.

She immediately left the station. After days of calling the police and her family attorney, Rose was able to get two new detectives on the case. They sketched a picture that ran all over Chicago news and someone recognized him.

“They called me into the station to identify him. After, they calmly explained it wasn’t his first crime,” she said. “He was on parole for murder. “

Rose started Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment in college, which uses social, educational and legislative tactics to end the silence surrounding sexual violence.

“It was so great to be able to funnel my anger into activism,” she said.

 One of the biggest myths about sexual assault is that strangers commit the attack, she said. In 85 percent of sexual assaults, the attacker knows the victim.

Other myths that surround sexual violence are too widely accepted, she said.

She listed several myths surrounding rape: that women ask for it, it only happens to women, weapons are used during attacks and people often falsely report sexual attacks. Knowing these myths helps people to understand victims, prevent victim blaming and change the stigma about sexual assault, she said.

But what Rose really wanted each person in the audience to understand after leaving her talk was how to react when someone confides in them about sexual assault. She noted that each person in the audience most likely knew someone who has been sexually assaulted.

Studies show that if the first person a survivor tells reacts well, it can greatly improve the healing process. She advised the audience to believe every person, treat them with respect, let them know it isn’t their fault and offer them resources.

Rose also encouraged everyone to be an empowered bystander. She noted that people are less likely to intervene if many people witness the same thing. Everyone believes that “someone else will do it.” She asked the audience to step up and to “trust your gut.”

The Panhellenic Council decided to have Rose speak because it felt the topic is relevant and important on the SU campus. They liked that Rose was positive and educated people about how to react to similar situations, said Carolyn Fine, the membership development director of the Panhellenic Council.

Said Fine: “We wanted everyone in the audience to feel something, without feeling sad. We wanted everyone to be able to take action and feel empowered to do something as opposed to bombarding them with sad information.”

Published on March 5, 2014 at 2:09 am

Contact Jocelyn: jdelaney@syr.edu