“It’s not all men.”
The statement is true, yet almost every woman has a story; in America, 81% of women have reported some type of sexual harrasment, assault or rape.
Although April — sexual assault awareness month — is over, it is still important to look closely at these statistics and make a change in the way society respond to rape cases.
In the justice system, detectives, police officers and lawyers have been known to question the rationality of the victim. These questions remain a reason why rape victims rarely come to the police to report a crime, as “not believing the police would do anything to help” is the third leading cause of victims choosing not to report the crime. Of every 1,000 rapes, 975 rapists will walk free. Of that 1,000, only 310 cases will actually be reported. Of those reported cases, 50 will lead to an arrest, while only half of those will lead to prison incarceration.
In the book “Missoula” by Jon Krakauer, he discusses several rape cases on The University of Montana’s campus — also known as “America’s rape capital.” Some of these cases include those of Allison Huguet, Kelsey Belnap, Cecilia Walshburn, Kerry Barret and Kaitlyn Kelly.
This isn’t unique to the University of Montanta; this is the reality of other college students, as 13% of students experience sexual assault during their college years, and college women are three times more likely to be raped than all women. The shocking reality is that The University of Montana statistics are not far off from most colleges. In 2022, the school reached 21 reported rapes on campus within that year. In 2021, 11,580 sexual crimes were reported among all college campuses combined.
While it is unfortunately impossible to end rape cases completely, we can change the way society responds to them. Rape is the most under-reported crime, with 63% of cases going unreported. It is important that victims are encouraged to come forward with a strong support system of friends and family backing them up. Otherwise, the pattern may continue. Believing rape victims and seeing more perpetrators convicted can help slow the trend of victims being silenced.
Victims of abuse should be treated with love, kindness and support; they should not be shunned, judged or pushed into the shadows. Rape statistics are shocking and vile, and we should not allow them to continue to increase. As April nears its end, we must continue to raise awareness and treat victims with respect every month of the year. This pattern has to stop.
