Rebecca Michaud Professor Craven Writing 106-E 12 October 2017 The Hesitation of Reporting Rape Silence is heard too often when discussing rape. Many women who are raped do not tell anyone, and even more do not tell authorities. Underreporting is a major issue, but the cause is not always the victim. Societal reactions about rape keep women from saying anything. The different reasons for not reporting rape can be divided into personal reasons and societal reactions. Personal reasons for not reporting rape may include the fear of the rapist retaliating (“The Criminal Justice System: Statistics”), the shame they feel about what happened, and the long process of pressing charges that many times last years (Renzetti). Responses from society …show more content…
One common rape myth is that no event is random (Vonderhaar & Carmody 1617). This idea creates the thought that the women who are raped were not raped for no reason, they deserved it. Women are told to dress differently and act in certain ways to try and prevent being raped (Weiss, Karen G.). This results in women believing that they were the cause of the rape, so there is no justifiable reason to go to the authorities. Rape myths cause women to be blamed for the rape and men to get away with sexually assaulting them (Vonderhaar, & Carmody 1616)(Weiss 826). Victims are also blamed through male stereotypes. Society believes that “male sexual aggression is natural” (Weiss 822). This causes rape cases to become trivial, that it was just something normal happening, contributing to the victim’s silence. This justifies the rape, and the victim sees nothing wrong with the situation because it is normal for a man to do this. Society has created these myths, scaring women before they are even raped. Without women seeing themselves as the victim, rape will never be reported and it will continue to be perceived as a normal male …show more content…
Many people see something wrong with the situation, but it is with the woman. Instead of listening, people raid the victim with irrelevant questions, ignoring that they were attacked and that the rape was against their will. They ask the victim if they had anything to drink that night, or if they had been taking drugs. The victim’s attire becomes a major concern, like she was provoking the male through her clothes (Vonderhaar & Carmody 1616). These along with many other questions make the victim feel as if it were her fault and it minimizes the severity of the situation. They often hear phrases such as “they deserved it” (Renzetti) (Weiss 812). Women know that this will be the response they get when they tell someone, so they do not talk about it instead of causing themselves more emotional suffering by telling