NEW DELHI — The police arrested a second suspect in the rape and torture of a 5-year-old girl on Monday and announced that the number of reported rapes in New Delhi had more than doubled since December, while molesting cases had risen sixfold.... Police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar said at a news conference Monday that the increase in the number of reported sex crimes in New Delhi was a measure of how much more seriously the police took such reports since the gang rape of a medical student in December led to widespread protests and the enactment of a new rape law. In addition to the sharp rise in the number of reported rape and molesting cases, cases of sexual harassment have risen more than sevenfold, he said.
Despite the police commissioner's polishing-the-turd statement, the family of the five-year-old victim says that police didn't take their claims seriously at first and tried to bribe them into keeping their mouths shut about the gang rape.
Meanwhile, in the US:
Swarthmore and Occidental Colleges on Thursday joined the list of elite institutions accused of mistreating victims of sexual assault and harassment, and activists say they are preparing similar accusations against other well-known colleges.... Carly Mee, now a senior [at LA's Occidental College], said, “When I told an administrator that I did not feel safe, I was told that I had nothing to worry about, that she had met with my rapist, and that he didn’t seem like the type of person who would do something like that.” She said that even after the man was found responsible for assaulting her and two other women, he would be allowed back to Occidental, while she was afraid to return.
What disturbs me as much as the rolling list of rape stories that hit my news feed every day is the number of people in those news stories (or their comments sections) that dismiss the rapes, label it an unfortunate anomaly, or worse yet, an act the victims invited upon themselves.
People absolve rapists for stunningly stupid reasons—like because they have friends or come from "good" families. Some rapists attend church and get good grades and volunteer at soup kitchens. Some are handsome and charming, so why would they need to rape a woman? Surprisingly, many rapists "don't seem like the type of person who would do something like that."
But it shouldn't need to be said again and again and again but this forgiving, dismissive behavior simultaneously discredits and alienates victims of assault. That, as much as rape itself, needs to stop before women can be raised as equals in society instead of victims-in-waiting.
