ZONDI AJ she may have a reasonable explanation for the delay. Once a 20-year prescription period has expired that is the end of the matter for the complainant. [55] The evidence before us reveals what countless women and children face. It illuminates the systemic failures that enable violence and exploitation of them to occur. Ms Dey, on behalf of the WLC explained that to think of sexual violence as merely unwanted sexual conduct is to miss the point. Rather, it is ―by its very nature . . . intentionally designed to produce psychological trauma‖. [56] Of pivotal importance to the case before us is this: that the systemic sexual exploitation of woman and children depends on secrecy, fear and shame. 41 Too often, survivors are stifled by fear of their abusers and the possible responses from their communities if they disclose that they had been sexually assaulted. This is exacerbated by the fact that the sexual perpetrator, as the applicants allege Mr Frankel to have been, is in a position of authority and power over them. They are threatened and shamed into silence. These characteristics of sexual violence often make it feel and seem impossible for victims to report what happened to friends and loved ones – let alone state officials. Combined with this is the frequent impact of deeply-located self-blame, which, as the Supreme Court of Appeal recognised in Van Zijl, disables the victim from appreciating that a crime has been committed against her for which the perpetrator, and not she, is responsible.42 [57] All these features of survival of sexual trauma make it rational to be reluctant to report and to avoid reporting. And this is before even considering the effect of rape trauma syndrome, the now recognised patterns of emotional, physical, cognitive and behavioural disturbances that approximately one in three survivors of sexual assault develop.43 Even if a survivor is fully aware that she was abused, she naturally weighs See generally, an expert report by Muller and Hollely titled ―The Disclosure Process in Cases of Child Sexual Abuse‖ dated 2004. 41 42 Van Zijl above n 35 at paras 12 and 13. 43 Ullman et al (2007) above n 13 at 821. 24