The Red and Black

You claim your heart goes out to the victims yet your comments show you have neither empathy nor sympathy for them. You're appalled that two of them didn't report the crime yet it is exactly your blame-the-victim attitude that prevent people from reporting sexual crimes in the first place.

If it doesn't matter whether it is rape or theft then why aren't the two treated the same way?

A victim of theft is never accused of "wanting it". A victim of theft isn't accused of leading the thief on. A victim of theft doesn't have their romantic/sexual history laid out in court as evidence. A victim of theft isn't held up as an object of ridicule. Male victims of theft aren't required to call the crime committed against them something else because the law doesn't recognize that theft can happen to men.

But all of the above IS true for victims of rape. The attitude that the rape victim is responsible for the actions of the rapist is part of the reason why so many people stay silent.

Originally posted by

Karen H

My heart goes out to the three women who were abducted for what they went through, and yet it is unconscionable that two of the three did not initially report this crime. The two people who did not report it enabled future crimes with their silence. It doesn't matter whether the crime is rape or a stolen bicycle -- crime victims have a MORAL obligation to report what has happened to protect other people in the community. The only way a community can protect itself against crime is to consider ourselves to be looking out for each other at all times. That means reporting actual crimes and attempted crimes. What if this crime was still unreported and this rapist had killed his next victim?

Originally posted by

Karen H

My heart goes out to the three women who were abducted for what they went through, and yet it is unconscionable that two of the three did not initially report this crime. The two people who did not report it enabled future crimes with their silence. It doesn't matter whether the crime is rape or a stolen bicycle -- crime victims have a MORAL obligation to report what has happened to protect other people in the community. The only way a community can protect itself against crime is to consider ourselves to be looking out for each other at all times. That means reporting actual crimes and attempted crimes. What if this crime was still unreported and this rapist had killed his next victim?

Just so you know, I have been trained to work with sexual assault survivors, and one thing that we learn in training is NOT to pressure the survivor to make a report or press charges. They have just gone through a situation where all control was taken from them. One of the few things you can do to help the survivor have a sense of control again is to let her (or him) make the decisions about how to proceed.

As the above poster mentioned, deciding to go forward with a rape case is NOT like deciding to report a stolen bicycle. I don't need to repeat what the above poster said, but I agree.