Missoula
Rape is a hidden epidemic that affects many lives world wide. It is a problem that is so terrifying and uncomfortable that people do not talk about it. John Krakauer, author of Missoula, focuses on this issue of rape in the college town of Missoula, Montana. His focus is specifically on the case of Allison Huguet and Beau Donaldson. As the progression of Allison 's case continues we learn of more and more rape cases that happened to women on this same campus. A majority of women do not report these cases, we later learn as Krakauer continues through Allison 's case, because reporting and pursuing the case would be giving their life away. [4] Of course Allison decides to go through the trails of Beau Donaldson, however it is obvious that it is extremely difficult to convict someone with little evidence. As hard of a read as Missoula
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No one ever knows who is telling the truth. It is difficult because of the evidence needed to convict someone along with taking long periods of time to properly, or not so much, evaluate the case. [5] Allison wanted to pursue a case, as a result of her wanting to go through with the case her lawyer told her to "prepare for the hardest, nasties fight of your life." (34) This is not a comforting thing to hear when every time Allison returns to her home town she realizes "I 'm mad at myself for not reporting the situation." (35) The question then becomes to do nothing and try to forget what happened, or to seek justice? Either battle is difficult but it turns into what that person can stand. In this case for Allison she reported it to the police station and although unsure at first she later continued to make a case out of it. She decided to fight this battle not only for herself but for justice for others as well. Her rape kit was still available, she still had proof that Beau had admitted to raping her. That was evidence but even so the case was to be
Three rapes were reported in the 1983 in the state of Massachusetts. The first rape was reported on August 17, 1983 a women by the name of Marilyn Goss. She was raped by an intruder while she spent the night at the Casa Manor Motel in Ayer, Massachusetts (Stearns, 2006). On November 16, 1983 a woman was attacked while she was walking home in the city Lowell, MA. A man she did not know approached her, tried to converse with her, and then forced her into a nearby yard, where the man sexually assaulted her (Know the Cases: Dennis Maher). On November 17, 1983, about twenty four hours after the other attack in Lowell, MA, a different woman was harshly shoved to the ground by a man who produced a knife. The woman was luckily enough to escape the man after a struggle...
Susan Brownmiller’s excerpt Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape written in 1975 explores rape. It argues that from the beginning of time men had an advantage over women because their genitalia can serve as a weapon, which, in turn, generates constant fear. “Rape provides a sufficient threat to keep all women in a constant state of intimidation, forever conscious of the knowledge that the biological tool must be held in awe for it may turn to weapon with sudden swiftness borne of harmful intent”(Brownmiller, 312). Females are subjected to the harsh reality of rape at a young age through fairytales such as Little Red Riding Hood. Stories like these emphasize how weak women are and how heroic, brave and strong men are. Susan Brownmiller believes that the way to destroy the idea that “you can’t thread a moving needle,” and “no women can be raped against her will” by spreading awareness about rape and how it is a moral wrongdoing and punishable under the
When university or police find out about the sexual assault, they immediately blame the victim or question what the victim was wearing, drinking, or doing. “Brownmiller identified four basic rape myths: (1) All women want to be raped; (2) a woman cannot be raped against her will; (3) a woman who is raped is asking for it; and (4) if a woman is going to be raped, she might as well enjoy it” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 432). In The Hunting Ground, the rape myth, which a woman who is raped is asking for it, is seen throughout the testimonies of the survivors. Clark, herself, was told by her dean that “rape is like a football game” and asked if “looking back, what would you have done differently?” (Ziering & Dick, 2015). These rape myths affect how many victims actually report and how seriously sexual assaults are taken within universities and the justice system. For example, some women, themselves, subscribe to rape myths because they see how current cases are handled. “Women who did not physically fight off the person who raped them and who subscribed to the rape myth that “it can’t be rape if a woman doesn’t fight back” were less likely to acknowledge that they had been raped” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 434). Universities need to teach first-year students about consent and how to
Susan Griffin’s Rape: The All-American Crime touches on many issues within American society. She begins by recounting how she was taught to be afraid of strange men from such a young age that she had not yet learned what it was she was so afraid of, and then goes into her experience with harassment, an experience shared by every woman at some point in her life. Griffin recounts the belief that all rapists are insane and the proof that they are just normal men and dispels the myth that rape is normal activity that is prohibited by society. However, she goes on to clarify that our culture views rape: “as an illegal, but still understandable, form of behavior” (Griffin 514). It seems that the wrongness of rape is determined by the situation in
On the night of September 7th, 2001 16-year-old Lindsay Armstrong was walking home after spending the evening with her friends in her small hometown of New Cumnock, Scotland. She rode the bus as far as it would go and then began to walk home as the clock ticked past 10 PM. As she was walking, a 14-year-old boy who Lindsay knew caught up to her, beat her, dragged her into a park, and raped her. He then threatened her life if she spoke about the incident and ran off. Filled to the brim with Scottish fight and determined to better the world, Lindsay promptly told her parents and the local authorities. Soon after Lindsay began to suffer from the common symptoms faced by rape victims and withdrew from her friends, her family, and her school due to severe depression. Through a lengthy trial, Lindsay was forced to hold up the underwear she was wearing under her clothes, verbally attacked by defense lawyers and her own accuser, and berated on the stand. Lindsay’s rapist was sentenced four years to juvenile detention and was released after two. Lindsay on the other hand killed herself a short time after the trial. Her father later commented “She said [the trial] was like being raped all over again.”(Beaven) In standing up in her own defense, reporting her trauma to the police, and facing her attacker in court, Lindsay did what 60% of rape victims refuse to do (RAINN). The judicial system of our society repaid her bravery with psychological and emotional torture. The treatment of rape victims in our society today is shrouded in blame, disbelief, and insensitivity. Furthermore, the culture surrounding the crime itself is one of downplaying, humor, acceptance, understanding, and even more insensitivity. Society’s immoral and uneducated outlo...
Unfortunately, rape is a traumatizing event to happen to an individual that can have lifelong effects on the individual physical, mental, and emotional state. Many victims elect not to report the crime to law enforcement in order to put the past behind them. Nonetheless, there are numerous explanations on why this crime is not heavily conveyed to the police. First, there is a sense of renunciation for the victim; particularly if the rape was brought on by someone they know (Burgess, Regehr, & Roberts, 2013, p. 375). In the event that this occurs, the victim could try to evade the topic of what has transpired to them to de-escalate their sense of embarrassment and shame. Second, the victim’s fear of the legal system could avert them from also reporting the crime (Burgess, Regehr, & Roberts, 2013, p.
“I felt his hands start to move down towards my shorts as if he was trying to unbutton them or pull them off. I was still crying at this point and felt so scared that I couldn’t move” (Henneberger, 2012). These are words written by a college freshman after she had been raped, but they are true for many others as well. According to the Rape Crisis Center of Medina and Summit Counties, “every two minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted” (Get the Facts). “Girls ages 16-19 are four times more likely than the than the general population to be victims of sexual assault” (Get the Facts). These women may be described as slut, cheap, or ready for action, rather than victim, sufferer, or survivor. Rape myths encourage these demeaning terms for women and conceal the reality of rape culture. I will describe the pervasiveness of sexual assault on college campuses as well as the systems and procedures in place to address it. Power plays a role in this issue, including the powerful men on campus such as athletes and fraternity members as well as the administrators in power who regulate the punishments and actions that are taken against the perpetrators. The influence of those in power often goes overlooked in our society because it has become so intertwined with our culture.
College is supposed to be a time to remember, for students to find themselves and start a new chapter in their lives. Instead, one girl will remember signing papers that said “Rape Victim”. Her perpetrator, also a college student and athlete, will be remembered as the man who raped an unconscious woman and walked away with very little punishment. Outrage and shock emerged once the public heard about Brock Turner’s sentence. In Ashley Fantz article, “Outrage over 6-month sentence for Brock Turner in Stanford rape case” from the June 7, 2016 issue of CNN, she uses pathos and logos through quotes and interviews to effectively show the faulty logic throughout the case and how the state of California did not deliver justice to the perpetrator of sexual assault.
Have you ever been encountered in a circumstance of being raped or knew an individual that was a victim of rape? Every one-hundred and seven seconds an American is sexually assaulted (RAINN). Rape has become a continuous problem causing controversy due to the way colleges cover up or simply hide incidents of rape throughout campus. More college students are also being raped by their own acquaintances rather than random strangers. Students, parents, and politicians question the way schools protect students and how their campuses can become more effective and efficient in preventing further occurrences of rape. Over the past years there has been a series of incidents where rape has been an extreme problem on college campuses in America that have been kept quiet until something traumatic happens. The prevalence of rapes on college campuses is continuing to rise due to lack of security, surveillance and awareness.
Eighteen million women and three million men. These are the numbers of women and men that have been raped at some point in their lives. (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006.) Many advocates would say this is proof that we are living in a “rape culture”. A label coined by second wave feminists in the 1970’s, in response to the on-going prevalence of rape in the United Sates. Over the years, there have been many definitions of rape culture, but for the sake of the research paper, rape culture will be defined as a society where sexual violence is normalized. If you’ve ever heard of the responses: “She asked for it.” “He didn’t mean to.” “She wanted it.” “It wasn’t really rape.” “She’s clearly lying.” This is what a rape culture conditions us as a society to think or even verbalize when a story of sexual assault or rape is presented. Conversely, other advocates and feminists recoil at the use of the label “rape culture” because of what the label institutes about our society or progressions we’ve made in trying to eradicate
It is not a topic that is brought up often, especially at schools or at gatherings, yet it is crucial that everyone be educated, or at least informed on a topic that affects women every day. “Given that sexual violence continues to occur at high rates in the United States, it is vital that we understand attitudes and cultural norms that serve to minimize or foster tolerance of sexual violence” (Aosved, 481). Growing rates of sexual violence goes to prove that it is not taken seriously by many, especially when myths excuse the actions of the perpetrator and instead guilt victims into thinking they are responsible for the horrible act. Burt (1980), in her article titled, “Cultural myths and support for rape” attempts to make sense of the importance of stereotypes and myths, defined as prejudicial, stereotypes, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists- in creating a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 217). Examples of rape myths are such sayings as “only bad girls get raped”; “women ask for it”; “women cry rape” (Burt, 217). This only goes to prove that rape myths against women always blame and make it seem like it is the women’s fault she was raped and that she deserved it for “acting” a certain way. McMahon (2007), in her article titled, “Understanding community-specific rape myths” explains how Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994) later described rape myths as “attitudes and beliefs that are generally
Rape can happen to anyone. Women from different cultures, races, ages, and economic level are all vulnerable. It does not matter who you are or where you live, although women of lowest status are most vulnerable to rape, and so are Hispanic and African American women. (An...
Bonnie, S. F., Francis, T. C., & Michael, G. T. (2000) The sexual victimization of college women. U.S. Department of Justice.
Inertwined with rape myths, are subsequent rape scripts. As Ryan (2011) and Clay-Warner and McMahon-Howard (2009) showed, depending what script is prevalent or dominant, reporting rates and overall acknowledgement can be greatly affected. Our understanding of what constitutes a rape or sexual assault needs to significantly change otherwise countless victims will remained silenced. If the understanding of these crimes was broadened, and the acquaintance scenarios taken more seriously, more victims would come forward, report, and get the help they may desperately need, in addition to aiding the legal system in punishing the offender and improve society’s population.
The society we live in is rape-conducive, rape-friendly, if you will. Despite the anger I feel joining those two words together, I know the sad paradox holds within it a great deal of truth. We are a violent society that has shrouded rape in mystery and shame. To stop this nightmare’s venomous crusades, all people must wage a private war to eradicate their own acceptance of the savage crime. While it is only a minority of men that actually commit rape, it is everyone’s silence that tells them it’s ok.