Loss of Faith

272,350.

This is the number of reported rape victims in 2006. Can you imagine how many went unreported and unsolved? Law officials, government representatives and statistics recorders claim to have a handle on the crime and seek congratulations for a work well done in dropping the victim statistics. In reality they do not deserve the good eye of favor that they crave, they are merely responsible for women’s increase of fear. Women most often are so afraid to seek help because of the treatment, or lack of treatment that they receive when they come forward to get help for the abuse they have endured.

Late August, 2006 a girl aged 19, who shall remain nameless, was abused, raped vaginally and sodomized. Not necessarily an original story since it frequents about every two Iminutes in America, but truth nonetheless. In her quest for help, a police officer blamed her for not knowing a name, and went so far in false allegations toward her cowering, fearful body, to tell her that she wanted it, had asked for it. This girl so utterly confused and afraid left the hospital without treatment because they had lost her trust by following codes in calling the authorities when she had begged them not to. The officer had worsened the situation and has lost the trust of many people who look up to them for help.

From this rape, the girl was impregnated and had a child that a lovely family wanted and cherished. A good thing came out of this terrible situation, but the situation itself was never resolved and the blame was placed on a victims head instead of the victimizer. While under a cloud of war, the spotlight often falls in the wrong place when it comes to crime. Most people are so focused on war devastated crime rates with their poverty and rape statistics, rather than their own crime infested country. It seems there are no longer punishments or interest of pursuit for those committing the crimes.

I remember sitting in a stuffy room in the middle of a sunny day, the first after months of rain, learning about a country with the best legal system in the world. High school instructors teaching focus incapable pupils of a country happy to punish those who deserve it in order to protect the ones who needed it. I remember hearing about a country, the USA in fact, that dealt with sexual assault cases with more care and priority than any other crime due to the myriad of consequences it produced.

How many more young women, middle aged women, and even elderly women must absorb sexual abuse before the laws protect them like they once did?