The AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct published in September 2015 highlighted a harrowing truth. Sexual assault is grossly underreported and a large part of that is due to the fear of not being taken seriously.
According to the AAU survey, only 67 percent of female undergraduate students believe a report of sexual assault will be taken seriously by campus officials.
People often wonder why sexual assault is so taboo and why many victims are unwilling to bring it to officials. There are a myriad of reasons for this, and yet there continues to be victim blaming or belittling of an individual for not being willing to bring a report of sexual assault to officials.
So, are you still wondering why sexual assault is underreported? Take a look at Kesha.
Kesha Sebert, the singer-songwriter who rocked the pop world in 2009, has faded to the background for the past few years.
Kesha, in an act of extreme bravery and self-respect, made the decision to pause her career and issue a public statement alleging her producer, Dr. Luke, had abused her sexually, verbally and emotionally over the past decade.
Kesha says Dr. Luke was the cause of a damaging abuse and forced her to take drugs and raped her shortly after she turned 18.
Sadly, the battle Kesha has been fighting came to a conclusion last week when the New York state Supreme Court decided not to release Kesha from her six-album contract with Dr. Luke. The justice, Shirley Kornreich, decided to do what she thought was the “commercially reasonable thing” and deny Kesha’s request.
This news is absolutely sickening. To deny a woman release from a contract with the man she says abused her for a decade is not only wrong, it’s inhumane. Essentially, the New York state Supreme Court decided money was more valuable than a human’s physical and mental safety.
Not only is the court ruling devastating for Kesha, it is is an example of something that unfortunately happens much too often in today’s culture: victim blaming.
Regardless of whether or not you’re a fan of Kesha’s music, this is something you should care about. The justice system decided to prioritize money over a person, and a music industry giant decided to make a game of the whole ordeal by creating a poll on whether or not Kesha was to be believed.
This ordeal with Kesha exemplifies why only 67 percent of female undergraduates believe a sexual assault will be taken seriously. Other empirical data supports these feelings.
According to the logic of the U.S. justice system, rapists don’t deserve to be punished. According to an analysis performed by the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, only one out of four rapes leads to an arrest, and from this, only one in four arrests leads to a felony conviction. In other words, 97 of 100 rapists walk free.
The rate of false reporting of rapes lies somewhere between 2 to 10 percent, and yet victims are often accused of lying. This leads to an underreporting of sexual assault, as most of them end up with the rapist walking free and the victim being blamed for the crime.
Kesha has been an icon of courage during this trail, and the steps she took to preserve her well-being have also made strides toward ending the injustice so many women face. But she was met with resistance by the justice system, and was blamed for the decade of abuse she endured.
Unfortunately, Kesha’s case is only one example of the mishandling of sexual assault cases. It happens on our campus, in our community and among our peers. The justice system is absolutely dysfunctional when it comes to sexual assault cases, and something desperately needs to be changed.
Hannah Fricke (hfricke
