Sexual assault always has been and, unfortunately, likely always will be a problem. Recent movements have made it possible for women to feel safe and courageous enough to tell their stories and feel validated after what they have been through.
Obviously, women are not the only people in this world who are sexually assaulted. Men and people of all other gender identities have experienced assault and trauma, and the victims of these crimes are never at fault. However, there is a massive issue at hand when the concern brought to the surface is not that of how to address the widespread fear that women face in terms of getting assaulted in today's political climate and is rather one of how to address the fear men face of being accused of sexual assault and misconduct.
For those of us who have not been keeping up with everything in the current news cycle (honestly I can't blame you, it's pretty depressing), our favorite man in politics (after our orange Commander in Chief and his beer-loving Supreme Court nominee), Donald Trump Jr., has openly claimed that he is more concerned for the potential attacks against his sons (for sexual misconduct allegations) than against his daughters (for… sexual assault). He goes on to imply that Dr. Ford was lying in her testimony against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh, essentially saying that her claims were only made in response to a politically charged environment and that publicizing such claims takes attention away from real cases of sexual assault.
Let's stop for a moment and think about this: can you name 10 of the women who accused Bill Cosby of sexually harassing them? Do you want the autograph of the woman raped by Brock Turner? Can you identify 50 of the girls assaulted by Larry Nassar? Do you know how many even brought claims against him?
Keeping all of this in mind, ask yourself again: are victims of sexual abuse and assault really accusing their assailants for attention? Oddly enough, I can't seem to believe that anyone, especially a trauma victim, would subject themselves to such intense amounts of public scrutiny and disbelief considering the pitifully small fraction of rapists who are actually accused and prosecuted for the crime they have committed. Of the 39% of attacks that are actually reported to the police, there is a 50.8% chance of an arrest, which leads to an 80% chance of a prosecution, a subsequent 58% chance of a conviction, followed by a 69% chance that the convict will serve jail time. I'll save you from doing the math—out of the 39% of sexual assaults reported to the police, there is only about a 16.3% chance of the aggressor serving jail time. Accounting for all unreported attacks, only about 6% of all rapists will ever spend a day in jail.
And people still wonder why it is so difficult for victims of assault and abuse to speak out about their past trauma. Why would anyone go through the trial of testimony if they are going to be slandered and accused of falsely accusing their attacker at every step of the way?
So, Mr. Trump, let me ask you this: Do you still think that your sons should be more afraid of being accused of a crime they did not commit than all of the women in the world should be of being assaulted?
