Wednesday 6 January 2010

Excellent article on campus rapes


"Sad Silhouette" originally uploaded by Glendali

Link: Rape victims offer advice to today's college women [CNN]

This is a really excellent article that deserves the traffic it is getting on Twitter today. 

“One in five college women will be raped, or experience an attempted rape, before graduation. Less than 5 percent will report these crimes to officials on or off campus, and, when they do, there's a good chance the system will let them down” - CNN

Rape on campuses takes many forms from an acquaintance who puts his desire first and uses force to a group of athletes who repeatedly beat and rape a girl.  It is so easy to forget that rape is rape and no means no and I don’t believe campus rapists should be viewed any differently from those in the “real world”.  An all-star athlete who participates in a rape on campus is as much a predator and danger to society as any of the drug-crazed monsters that hit our newspapers.  A small-minded, insecure man who decides to exert what little power he has over a woman and rapes her is still going to carry that insecurity and lack of power into the workplace and beyond.

What little doubt I had that perhaps some instances are true “misunderstandings” was forever silenced when I read this:

"And if you are a friend of a person who has been assaulted, all I can say is that though it might be hard, please listen and support that person," continued the former student, who said she was "met with a response that I never expected -- laughter and disbelief. Because of that, I kept silent until my attacker assaulted a friend of mine almost a year later."- CNN

All that happens when you are silent or when you let someone get away with a crime like this is more pain, suffering and violence. 

The article examines the need for trained, dedicated personnel on campuses to deal with such assaults and provide support to victims.

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2 comments

Joanne Olivieri said...

Unfortunately you hear about rapes more and more each day on school campuses. You are correct in that their needs to be more educated professionals to tackle this tragedy before it happens. It's very disturbing and happening all over.

Mandy said...

@ Joanne: That is absolutely true. And it has been happening for years!

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