"Keeping sexual abuse a secret won't make it stop. Sweeping it under the rug won't keep us safe. We have to talk about it..."
If you have been reading up on the news lately, you may have heard about the Stanford swimmer case. It has been on TV, and is currently broadcasted on all social media platforms. You may have also seen the verdict on the case, and read the victims letter in response to that verdict.
If you have kept up with this case, there is a high chance you are completely outraged like me.
These cases keep happening, and we continue to accept the injustice.
The cases that make it to the news are just a drop, compared to how many sexual assaults occur daily. According to The Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), there is an average of 293,066 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.
Think about that for a moment. 293,066 victims, and that is just in the United States. These people are our friends, our loved ones. These statistics imply that every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted, and every eight minutes the victim, is a child.
Those are not even the most unsettling statistics. According to Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), only six out of 1,000 perpetrators will end up in prison.
I am not naive. I know we cannot just end rape, point blank. I am fully aware that it will always be a problem. However, I am hopeful that we can decrease it by spreading awareness.
Before I went to college, I always heard stories of sexual assault. The stories would be something my mother saw on Dateline NBC, or something like the Stanford case that was posted all over my social media. Hearing about these stories can be upsetting to anyone, but it is something hard to wrap your head around. They are almost like folklore, or scary stories. I thought to myself, yeah, OK but that won't happen to someone I know. I kept this mindset for awhile too.
Until I went to college.
It really does happen to people all over. People I know, individuals my friends know, cases from a town nearby. It is way too common in the college world.
I am not saying that before I had never taken it seriously, because I had. From the time I was a little girl until my senior year of high school, I had always avoided being alone after dark or talking to strange men. I had pepper spray. Heck, in school we even learned some self defense.
However, it is a whole other kind of caution you take once the realization sets in that it really could happen to you.
There is little we can do to completely stop these cases from happening. However, by bringing attention and supporting current victims, I am hoping that the yearly statistic will go down as the years progress.
The first step to making progress, is to stop blaming rape victims. We also need to stop blaming men, because believe it or not, they can be victims too. We need to learn where to put the blame: on the rapists.
"Rape is not caused by tight clothing, flirting, or alcohol. Rape is caused by rapists."
The next step is to encourage these victims to come forward. Most sexual assault victims do not report the crime. Not reporting can cause further damage to the victim, meanwhile allowing another perpetrator to hurt others as well as get away with their crime. In order to get them to report their cases, we need to be taking them seriously. It takes a ton of courage to tell someone you are a victim, and the worst thing you can do is blow them off.
Finally, we need to be educating children about consent in an age appropriate manner. We need to change our mentality from reactive to proactive. Instead of soley focusing on ways to prevent it from happening, we should be reinforcing what consent really is. These children are going to be our future, we need to have adults who understand how to respect one
The media is blowing up over this Stanford case, and nothing will be done unless we all share our voices and break the silence.
I do not want to have to worry about my friends, family, or future children becoming victims
I do not want to carry around a rape whistle, or take many other precautions to prevent this crime from happening to me.
I want change.
