Feminist responses

Out of every 100 sexual violence acts only 32 are reported, 7-8 or charged, and only 2 are convicted. This is an extremely sad reality and it's gradually become this way because of the way it's handled. In class today we came up with multiple reasons why only 32% of rapes are reported:
- the victim is blamed more often than not.
- heightens embarrassment and vulnerability.
- the stats are known, so people think "why bother?"
- fear of retribution and backlash.
There are so many things going against reporting a rape, that most of the time people just try to deal with it on their own. In my personal opinion all of these things stems from the constant  victim shaming that occurs in situations like these. If instead of blaming people when rapes are reported, maybe if people focused on rehabilitating not only the victim, but the person who committed the crime, things would be different.

Blaming girls for their appearance starts at a young age. In schools, specifically high schools, girls are constantly getting into trouble for the things they choose to wear because apparently they are inviting boys and men to lust after them. It shouldn't be okay to teach vulnerable teenage girls they should dress a certain way in order to not get negative attention from guys. Why aren't schools teaching these boys to respect girls regardless of what they are wearing rather than teaching girls that they're in charge of whether they get attacked or not. Now, obviously dress codes serve other purposes such as teaching students to look more professional for future studies and jobs, but looking too unprofessional or unclassy is never the reason someone gets in trouble for breaking dress code in high school; it's always that they are dressed inappropriately and men are going to get bad ideas from the girls outfit. Starting to teach boys in high school and junior high to respect women regardless of what she is wearing may cut down on college campus rapes, because it is an unavoidable fact that college girls are going to wear skimpy clothes on Greek row. Although girls should dress more appropriately, this shouldn't be the leading verdict in rape cases.

If we started teaching everyone to respect everyone at a young age regardless of outfit, gender, race, class, etc. and focused on rehabilitation rather than blame, the number of rapes may decrease, and the number of rapes being reported would increase.