Wellington Rape Crisis is a support centre for survivors of

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

and sexual abuse, their families and friends. It was founded in 1977 as part of a wave of foundations across New Zealand in the early to mid 1970s. Their work includes advocacy, education for public and counselling for survivors. In 2008 Wellington Rape Crisis received charitable status from the Charities Commission.

Advocacy

Wellington Rape Crisis advocates against sexual violence and

rape culture Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-s ...

. In 2012, pizza company

Hell Pizza Hell Pizza is a New Zealand-based pizza chain. It was established in Wellington (Kelburn) in 1996 and has since expanded around New Zealand. Franchises have also operated at various times in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Ind ...

faced controversy when they ran a "Confessional" competition on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. The winner described an incident of sexual assault where he put his penis inside the mouth of a drunk person who was passed out. This was met with a huge number of complaints and criticisms across Facebook and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Hell Pizza blamed a social media manager and removed the post. However they subsequently donated $10,000 to Wellington Rape Crisis and matched donations made to the agency that month dollar for dollar. At the time Wellington Rape Crisis were being forced to cut services, closing their doors on Fridays due to a $55,000.00 funding shortfall. Wellington Rape Crisis experienced an increase in client numbers and were faced with a difficult funding environment. The funding was accepted by the agency on the condition that Hell Pizza's executives, staff and managers do sexual violence awareness and bystander intervention training provided by the Sexual Abuse Prevention Network. News of the Roast Busters scandal first broke in November 2013. A group of young men based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

allegedly intoxicated underage girls to

gang rape Gang rape, also called serial gang rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape in scholarly literature,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator Rape: A Multidisciplinary Re ...

them. The lack of

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

response to the issue and the line of questioning they took when interviewing the complainants sparked a large public outcry. Wellington Rape Crisis condemned the behavior of the young boys as abhorrent and denounced the

in New Zealand. Agency Manager Natalie Gousmett said:

This whole situation is horrific. First we have the abhorrent behavior of the members of the rape group, causing serious harm to the victims they have targeted. Then we have appalling coverage by media, including extreme
victim-blaming Victim blaming occurs when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially at fault for the harm that befell them. There is historical and current prejudice against the victims of domestic violence and sex crimes, such as t ...
and today we have heard the Police have indeed had complaints yet have only just started taking action now.

In November 2015 New Zealand Prime Minister

John Key Sir John Phillip Key (born 9 August 1961) is a New Zealand retired politician who served as the 38th prime minister of New Zealand, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 2008 to 2016 and as Leader of the New Zealand National Party from 2006 to ...

accused the opposition party of “Backing rapists.” In response to these claims several female MPs stood up and shared their own experiences of sexual violence and voiced their offence to the Prime Minister's comments. They were subsequently thrown out of Parliament by the Speaker of the House. Spokesperson for Wellington Rape Crisis Eleanor Butterworth said the Prime Minister's comments were not helpful. She said “It was not only harmful for survivors to have rape used as a political football, but also for the families of people who have been sexually abused.

Awards

*2013 Wellington Rape Crisis received '' The Dominion Post'' Choice Charities Award. The winners were chosen by the public. The award included a $10,000 prize comprising $5000 cash and $5000 worth of advertising.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Wellington Rape CrisisTe Rito Wellington Family Violence NetworkFilm for change Aotearoa
Violence against women in New Zealand Charities based in New Zealand

Advocacy

Awards

See also

References

External links