Victimology[1] in Layman terms means the study of the victims of crime and the psychological effects of their experience. The victim is the most significant and grieved-over party in any criminal justice system. Victim of Crime is not specified in any legislation by the Indian Legislature or Court. There is a widespread belief in India that victims do not have enough legal safeguards and rights, and as a result, they are viewed as the underserved and neglected group throughout the criminal justice system.

The victim's decision to tell others about a criminal act can occasionally be stressful in and of itself.

To start again in life, sexual assault victims need a healthier psychological environment. Yet, India's infrastructure for victim assistance is extremely weak, and the government's abject inability to address victim rehabilitation is the most significant element contributing to the victim's suffering and misfortune[2].

The goal of this critical essay is to investigate the issues that rape victims experience, such as the denial of their right to life and personal liberty. being made to endure awkward processes and questions from those outside the court as well as from inside. Her public persona has been used for exploitation by the media and the persons involved[3]. Interference from different political parties or turning it into a political issue.

The victims are denied access to some rehabilitative and after-care services due to the legal, medical, and mental health systems' unresponsiveness to requests for help. These unfavourable situations are referred to as second rapes or secondary victimisation. The victim feels like they have been violated or raped again as a result of the psychological trauma and improper responses[4].

This essay also takes note of the pertinent judicial decrees that aim to grant victims the right to rehabilitation and makes modifications that it is thought the system needs to do in order to better serve the requirements of crime victims.

Concerns
Although the legal definition of rape is unambiguous and straightforward, the public and police frequently use a much more limited "working" definition of rape as a result of prejudice, widespread stereotypes about rape and rapists, and challenges in obtaining admissibility and convincing evidence to prove a rape case, establishing a rape case is very difficult indeed.

Only if the attacker is a dangerous stranger, the victim reports the rape as soon as it happens, and she has proof of both the attack and her active resistance is it considered a rape[5].

Both the phrase and the notion of victimisation refer to societal mechanisms[6] that leave the victim helpless and even partially culpable for the occurrence before, during, and after it occurs. Victimization includes the victim's preparation for the crime, his or her experience during the crime, as well as the treatment and reactions the victim will get in the aftermath of the crime[7].

It will also be claimed that there may be a connection—if not a strong one—between the victim's level of trauma and the possibility that the perpetrator will face legal repercussions. The likelihood that the rapist will be reported and caught decreases as the trauma increases[8].

The rape victim seeks anonymity and secrecy because she feels stigmatised, which prevents the investigator from being aware of all potential witnesses[9].

Victims are the primary subject of study in victimology, a sub- or sister-discipline of criminology.

The following subjects, among others, have grown to be of particular concern in victimology:
a better understanding of the victim-offender dynamic; a look at the victim's share of the blame for the crime; the use of victimisation studies to gauge the total quantity of crime committed; and a look at the options for compensating violent crime victims[10].

The disadvantages of focusing on the offender or victim as an individual unit of study in order to comprehend the phenomena of crime are shared by both criminology and victimology.

Victimology does not exhibit this favourable attitude towards its subjects. Instead, it is focused on determining how much blame should be placed on the victim and tends to overstate that culpability. The study of rape is a particularly good illustration of how victimology may turn into the practise of assigning blame, adding insult to injury.

Socializing Victims:

Victims the socialisation procedures for men and women both work to shape women into victims and give the means for legitimising their position in a social framework that is marked by male dominination[11]. The female is taught to think of herself as more or less permanently docile, weak, infantile, thoughtless, and in need of emotional and financial dependency on males through the process of sex-role learning[12].

If she is married, she has indeed given up her ability to negotiate sexually in order to become her husband's property and allow him to have sex with her against her choice[13].

Hence, it is OK for a husband to rape his wife.

(However there are countries like China, Bangladesh, Laos, Haiti, Burma, Mali, Senegal, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Yemen, Singapore, Libya, Oman, and other nations have made marital rape a crime. Bhutan, among India's neighbours, has laws that make marital rape a crime)

We may anticipate that there will be an inverse link between a woman's number of sexual partners on the one hand and her social and self-esteem on the other in a male-dominated culture where women are considered as the property of males. This serves as the foundation for the overall evaluation of her moral and social value, which is often determined by the number of sexual partners she has had. The number of experiences she has had with the same person has a considerably less impact on this evaluation[14].

Rape victims and women with prior sexual experience are frequently viewed as "damaged goods" and less attractive. For fear of spreading societal shame and self-esteem loss brought on by choosing a "inferior" lady, males are frequently hesitant to acquire or provide protection to such women. The "fallen" lady therefore becomes an easy target for further exploitation in both her own eyes as well as that of others[15].

Application

India's Victim Rights: Stage-wise Analysis

In a country where a gang-raped woman was imprisoned for lying in court, justice for sexual assault survivors is still far off. All legal remedies have vague terminology that merely compensates trauma sufferers, making the existing legal system ineffective.

• Reporting and investigation: Access to Justice
  The 1983 Criminal Code Amendment was passed in response to the Mathura Rape Case[16].

The criminal law amendment of 1983's salient characteristics are:

1. Custodial rape has been recognised for the first time.
2. The rape trials' closed proceedings.
3. Publication of victims' names is likewise prohibited.

After that in December 2012 Delhi gang rape case prompted calls for stronger criminal measures to in still terror. Judge JS Verma chaired the Central Government's special committee.

Facing reality India's police behave mechanically, without empathy, and with little concern in victims' contracts with the court system. The victim—who should obtain justice—is quickly dismissed as lying. Medical evaluations are rare. It shows indifference to the crime. Especially in sexual offences, the victim must provide irrefutable proof soon. The victims find it dismal to pursue the matter when the investigative authorities reject their timely reports.

Sexual assault victim examination

Sexual assault victims experience physical and mental suffering. Rape victims' medical exams fall under 2005 Amendment Act Section 164-A.

Supreme Court orders advisory actions. Sakshi vs. India. [17]The rape victim's medical evaluation was vital for proof and urgent medical needs. The hospitals had skilled medical staff, but they couldn't help victims unless they were taught to treat various victimisation and their particular demands. The practitioner must prioritise the survivor's desire for healing over proof. The victim needs mental and physical therapy. Medical institutions may help survivors overcome psychological trauma through counselling.

Yet, survivors are often treated like objects without sympathy. Rape survivors receive the outdated "two-finger test."

Rape Victims' Trial Rights

Just trials weigh the accused, victim, and society.

"A comprehensive judicial assessment of opposing interests, of the Accused, the public, and to a great extent the victim, is essential[18]".

The state and crime victims, who are frequently not prosecuted, must not suffer due to increased public and societal attention[19].

Judges should rule the courtroom. Indecent questions are illegal. Live courts are eerie. Survivors' pain is ridiculed. This typically breaches victim privacy and dignity. Inconsistent prosecutors make matters worse. They act indifferently. Notwithstanding the victim's situation, they sue. Victims seldom know they can hire a lawyer[20].

Dignity, comfort, confidentiality, and victim protection
Just trials weigh the accused, victim, and society.

• A comprehensive judicial assessment of opposing interests, of the Accused, the public, and to a great extent the victim, is essential
• The state and crime victims, who are frequently not prosecuted, must not suffer due to increased public and societal attention.
• Judges should rule the courtroom. Indecent questions are illegal. Live courts are eerie. Survivors' pain is ridiculed. This typically breaches victim privacy and dignity. Inconsistent prosecutors make matters worse. They act indifferently. Notwithstanding the victim's situation, they sue. Victims seldom know they can hire a lawyer

Issues Faced by Rape Victims

The challenges affecting rape victims are numerous:

1. A violation of a person's right to life and freedom
2. Compelled to submit to inconvenient processes and investigations from both within and outside the court.
3. Discriminated against by society and occasionally denied the right to an education.
4. Her status as a public figure was used by the media and the persons in question.
5. The subject being politicised or being interfered with by different political parties
6. Denying the victim access to certain rehabilitation and follow-up treatments.
7. The delivery of justice is delayed as a result of the trial's processes.
8. The investigative agency took too long to identify the true offenders.

Protection of Victims of Crime Act of 2004

This act restores victims' dignity in treatment by meeting their particular needs based on the sort of damage they endured, its origin, and their individual circumstances. The victim needs help till life returns to normal.[21]

Conclusion
Rape thus targets the victim's physicality, sense of safety, trauma, and embodied experience in addition to her sexuality. Everything of this is done, plus more. At the most basic level, it undermines the victim's identity as a person and her social interaction.

Demanding that the victim return to who she was before the attack—that she merely overcome the ordeal-implicitly ignores the profound impact of such an assault. This is not to imply that it is not possible to heal from a rape trauma or that such an encounter completely shapes one's rebuilt self.

The rapists' effect is extensive but not limitless. Nonetheless, it is true to state that this event will leave an irrevocable impression on the reconstructed self. The victim's relation with her loved ones may become strained, completely eroded, or end up being reinforced; the paranoia, sadness, and physiological wounds of the assault may vanish, or they may endure.

But, the self that arises from the healing process will never be quantitatively and significantly alike to the person that existed before the assault. Knowing that one is not only rapable but also that one has been raped means changing who one is.

End-Notes:

1. Introduction to Victimology https://uk.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upmassets/83271_book_item_83271.pdf
2. Blaming the victim of Acquaintance Rape: Individual, Situational & Sociocultural factors by Clarie R Graveilin, Vol. 9 – 2018, pp- 36
3. Weis, Kurt, and Sandra S. Borges. "Victimology and Rape: The Case of the Legitimate Victim." Issues in Criminology, vol. 8, no. 2, 1973, pp. 71–115.
4. Weis, Kurt, and Sandra S. Borges. "Victimology and Rape: The Case of the Legitimate Victim." Issues in Criminology, vol. 8, no. 2, 1973, pp. 71–115.
5. Walklate, Sandra. "Researching Victims of Crime: Critical Victimology." Social Justice, vol. 17, no. 3 (41), 1990, pp. 25–42.
6. Resick, Patricia A. "The Trauma Of Rape And The Criminal Justice System." The Justice System Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 1984, pp. 52–61
7. Berger, Ronald J., and Patricia Searles. "Victim-Offender Interaction in Rape: Victimological, Situational, and Feminist Perspectives." Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 3/4, 1985, pp. 9–15.
8. Reiss, Albert J. "Foreword: Towards a Revitalization of Theory and Research on Victimization by Crime." The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), vol. 72, no. 2, 1981, pp. 704–13
9. Weis, Kurt, and Sandra S. Borges. "Victimology and Rape: The Case of the Legitimate Victim." Issues in Criminology, vol. 8, no. 2, 1973, pp. 71–115
10. Vibhute, K. I. "Victims Of Rape And Their Right To Live With Human Dignity And To Be Compensated: Legislative And Judicial Responses In India." Journal of the Indian Law Institute, vol. 41, no. 2, 1999, pp. 222–36.
11. Holmstrom, Lynda Lytle, and Ann Wolbert Burgess. "Rape: The Husband's and Boyfriend's Initial Reactions." The Family Coordinator, vol. 28, no. 3, 1979, pp. 321–30
12. Resick, Patricia A. "The Trauma Of Rape And The Criminal Justice System." The Justice System Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 1984, pp. 52–61
13. Berger, Ronald J., and Patricia Searles. "Victim-Offender Interaction in Rape: Victimological, Situational, and Feminist Perspectives." Women's Studies Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 3/4, 1985, pp. 9–15.
14. Albin, Rochelle Semmel. "Psychological Studies of Rape." Signs, vol. 3, no. 2, 1977, pp. 423–35.
15. Steketee, Gail, and Anne H. Austin. "Rape Victims and the Justice System: Utilization and Impact." Social Service Review, vol. 63, no. 2, 1989, pp. 285–303.
16. 1979 SCC (Cri) 381
17. AIR 2004 SC 3566
18. (2006) 3 SCC 374
19. (1995)1SCC 14
20. (1996) 2 SCC 384
21. Protection of Victims of Crimes Act 2004 Article 3 para 2