Sexual Assault: Never The Victim’s Fault

It has been said that a society is ultimately judged by its crimes, and perhaps rape is the crime by which our society will be evaluated. The definition of sexual assault as provided by Brown University is as follows: “Sexual assault is the legal term for rape, and it also encompasses other behaviours beyond forced sexual intercourse. Sexual assault can be any unwanted sexual contact, such as unwanted touching, fondling, or groping of sexual body parts. It can be committed by the use of threats or force or when someone takes advantage of circumstances that render a person incapable of giving consent, such as intoxication.” The statistics regarding sexual assault in the United States are astounding. According to RAINN (the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network – www.rainn.org), a woman is sexually assaulted every two and a half minutes. Further, they claim that one in every six American women is a victim of sexual assault. Finally, they state that 44% of sexual assault victims are under the age of 18. This is clearly an unacceptable state of affairs.

But these numbers are not the ones I want to discuss in this article. Sexual assault is a peculiar crime in that it is a crime which victims are hesitant to prosecute. RAINN suggests that half the sexual assaults committed are never reported to police. This severely restricts the means that our justice system can take action against the perpetrator. One never hears about a convenience store clerk who decides not to prosecute a robber or a victim of a carjacking declining to press charges, but somehow sexual assault seems to be a special crime.

The question on the tips of your tongues, no doubt, is: “Why is sexual assault so underreported?” One of the primary reasons sexual assault is underreported is that victims are afraid they will not be believed. One common response to sexual assault charges is to doubt or blame the victim. Our society has a pervasive belief that women frequently lie about sexual assault. This is a myth. According to the F.B.I., only 5.5% of reported sexual assaults are determined to be unfounded (which includes cases in which the judge found that there was insufficient evidence to convict). Other reasons women give for not reporting sexual assaults include fear of reprisals, desire to avoid an intrusive and uncomfortable rape examination, and the belief that sexual activity is a personal matter.

These reasons reveal a deeper problem – mistrust and mistreatment of women in our society. It is considered valid to argue that if a woman wears a short skirt, she is inviting rape. This is a fallacy however. Do we tell jewellers that they were inviting robbery by displaying their jewels in their store windows? Do we tell victims of car-jacking that they invited a car-jacking by having nice cars? No we do not. All I am asking you is to extend to victims of sexual assault the same courtesy we extend to victims of other crimes.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (henceforth, SAAM). During SAAM I ask that you take a few moments out of your day to consider the plight of women who have been sexually assaulted. If you would like to learn more about sexual assault or are interested in living a violence-free lifestyle, I cordially invite you to join me and the rest of the Safe Space staff at our Take Back The Night Rally on May 4 at 6:00 PM on the courthouse steps. There we can let our voices be heard that violence in all forms is unacceptable and that to better our lives, we should be more peaceful.