Awareness around rape in the US and across the world has become a hot topic in the news recently. The #MeToo movement has encouraged survivors, both men and women to come forward share their story and prove to others that they are not alone. Why is it only now that these victims are coming forward and why so few? Although it might seem like a lot in the news, On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States that means every 98 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. This number seems much higher than the amount of people coming out now, this is because of something called victim blaming.

Victim blaming is when the victim of a crime is blamed for some of what happened to them. This may seem wrong but we do it everyday, if someone gets mugged you might think, why were they walking there? When a woman gets raped you might think, what was she drinking?  Recently a newspaper in Singapore had to apologize for an article in an advice column after a girl wrote in saying that she woke up in a man’s bed after drinking a lot the night before and doesn’t remember consenting to having sex. The columnist then responded saying, “You can’t blame him for thinking a sexual connection was all right with you,” and that she should be “grateful that he wore a condom.”

This response to a teenage girl is an example of why the victims of sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment etc. don’t come forward with their stories. There might be some science behind why humans are so quick to blame the victim. Sherry Hamby, a professor of psychology at Sewanee University says,  “There’s just this really powerful urge for people to want to think good things happen to good people and where the misperception comes in is that there’s this implied opposite: if something bad has happened to you, you must have done something bad to deserve that bad thing.” She says this is because the human brain craves predictability.This means when someone comes forward as a victim of sexual assault / rape we think because a bad thing happened to them they must be a bad person.

Another problem is when  people come forward as assault survivors there is a common suspicion is that they are lying.  In a recent case about Memphis police department keeping cases about sexual assault quiet  retired police lieutenant in Memphis, Tenn., Cody Wilkerson, said, “The first thing we need to do is start locking up more victims for false reporting.”. This is a big fear of women when they want to come forward with their stories. They will be told they are lying from the moment they tell their story. This accusation of lying is made by law enforcement, friends, family, even strangers through social media.  If these women are lying for attention or money then why out of the 60 people who have accused Bill Cosby of assault / rape can most people not name at least 5 of these women?

It is undeniable that it is hard not to blame the victim, during this #MeToo movement many women and men have come forward accusing our favorite entertainers of sexual assault. It is a hard concept to grasp that people we have looked up to can do heinous things such as sexual assault and rape.  We often place the blame on women and men for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or letting this happen to them. However sexual assault is not the fault of the victim, no one asks to be sexually assaulted or raped no matter the circumstances. We should start looking at the people who come forward as survivors and not going straight to questioning their story.

How come we treat rape different then cases of murder or arson which have no statute of limitations because they are considered horrendous crimes by society. Is rape not considered a horrendous crime by society and do the victims who are scared for the rest of their lives don’t deserve justice when their perpetrator has been caught long after the crime has been committed. We need to look at rapists as criminals who have committed a major crime not petty theft.