A post about rape culture
(link from p_sunshine)
jimhines has a post up about Rape and the Police, discussing a recent article detailing the decline in the number of rape cases reported in Baltimore, which is not actually a good thing, as it goes hand in hand with an increase in the number of rapes reported being dismissed as 'unfounded'.
The rate of 'unfounded' cases for Baltimore is five times the national average.
In other words, fewer women* are reporting rapes because they are being told that what happened to them wasn't rape, they are making things up, or there's no reason for the police to bother with the investigation. They are being told this by the detectives who are supposed to be investigating the cases, supposed to be their advocates and protectors.
Twenty percent of the dismissals are from one detective alone. This includes incidents where a woman was tied to her bed by a man who broke into her house, where a woman was forced into a car by a man at gunpoint, and an incident with a teenage girl where the detective threatened to find video of her assault and make her watch it.
In a recent discussion of rape culture in a friend's journal, a male commenter remarked that he wished false claims of rape were treated more harshly.
I responded with a comment I'd read elsewhere- women do lie about rape all the time. They say it didn't happen when it did. They say they're fine when they're not. They say they deserved it when they didn't. They say it was something else, because they live in a culture that devalues their experiences, their word, their sovereignty over their own body, and their right to live without fear or shame.
There's so much else I want to say here, to express my anger and sorrow and disgust over this story, from a hundred episodes in my life and the lives of people I love that just makes this burn like another heap of coals in a common hell. I am sometimes eloquent, or at least verbose, in my anger- this is not one of those times. I am dispirited, disheartened, and disgusted. I very often do not understand people and I do not like them very much. None of my words feel adequate.
Turning off comments, because I think I've run out of deal with this already, but I wanted to spread the word and help make people aware.
This is what rape culture looks like. This is part of the problem.
donate: local or RAINN (national)
*men are raped too, and I am quite sure these police detectives are not going to be any more supportive or sensitive towards male victims, but the majority of the cases are women, and the people reporting the problem in this article are women.
jimhines has a post up about Rape and the Police, discussing a recent article detailing the decline in the number of rape cases reported in Baltimore, which is not actually a good thing, as it goes hand in hand with an increase in the number of rapes reported being dismissed as 'unfounded'.
The rate of 'unfounded' cases for Baltimore is five times the national average.
In other words, fewer women* are reporting rapes because they are being told that what happened to them wasn't rape, they are making things up, or there's no reason for the police to bother with the investigation. They are being told this by the detectives who are supposed to be investigating the cases, supposed to be their advocates and protectors.
Twenty percent of the dismissals are from one detective alone. This includes incidents where a woman was tied to her bed by a man who broke into her house, where a woman was forced into a car by a man at gunpoint, and an incident with a teenage girl where the detective threatened to find video of her assault and make her watch it.
In a recent discussion of rape culture in a friend's journal, a male commenter remarked that he wished false claims of rape were treated more harshly.
I responded with a comment I'd read elsewhere- women do lie about rape all the time. They say it didn't happen when it did. They say they're fine when they're not. They say they deserved it when they didn't. They say it was something else, because they live in a culture that devalues their experiences, their word, their sovereignty over their own body, and their right to live without fear or shame.
There's so much else I want to say here, to express my anger and sorrow and disgust over this story, from a hundred episodes in my life and the lives of people I love that just makes this burn like another heap of coals in a common hell. I am sometimes eloquent, or at least verbose, in my anger- this is not one of those times. I am dispirited, disheartened, and disgusted. I very often do not understand people and I do not like them very much. None of my words feel adequate.
Turning off comments, because I think I've run out of deal with this already, but I wanted to spread the word and help make people aware.
This is what rape culture looks like. This is part of the problem.
donate: local or RAINN (national)
*men are raped too, and I am quite sure these police detectives are not going to be any more supportive or sensitive towards male victims, but the majority of the cases are women, and the people reporting the problem in this article are women.