Rekha Basu writes recently wrote an article about violence against women:
Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime of any indexed by the federal government’s crime statistics. The closer the victim-offender relationship, the less likely it is to get reported.
Because of that, according to experts, most people don’t realize how prevalent it really is.
I highly recommend reading the above article by following the link above. In it, Rekha Basu explains many of the misconceptions about sexual victimization, and also explains some of what society needs to do to stop these serious social ill.
To help increase the reporting of rape, I can think of two major suggestions. First, we need to educate potential victims about what constitutes a sexual crime, and the importance of reporting incidences of it. Second, court-enforced privacy during trials regarding sexual victimization would help, because many victims do not press charges because they do not want to deal with a trial and testifying.
What do you think?
Thursday, March 1st 2007 at 5:05 pm
While I understand the good of states rights I cannot understand why we don’t have more equal punishment of known sex offenders. I have an issue with sexual abusers of children.
I find also that people in general want to pretend that child molestation does not happen. Parents put blinders on and they don’t even believe their own children sometimes.
Also we need to look to the root of all of this. Why is it that children are afraid to speak to their own parents when they’ve been molested?
I feel that some children keep quiet as it is easier to deal with the abuse and to keep quiet then telling someone and adding more problems to the mix, such as dealing with parents who refuse to believe, etc. etc.
I could go into a rant but I’ll shut up now.