Is Rape Serious? Imagine a young women going to a party and having a good time; yes, she may be drinking a little too much, but she’s just trying to have fun. She sees one of her classmates, a boy who’s in a couple of her classes, and he makes his way over to her. They start to dance and have fun, when all of a sudden he pulls her into one of the bathrooms in the house. She keeps telling him no, that she doesn’t want to do this, but he’s not listening. Now imagine if you were her, male or female. Would you want your case to be taken seriously?

Most rapes occur between persons who know one another. Women are most frequently raped by their husbands, ex-husbands, current or past boyfriends, relatives, and acquaintances. Stranger rapes do occur, but they only account for approximately 20 percent of all rapes. Rapists and victims tend to be of the same race and age group. Additionally, most rapists are “normal” in personality, appearance, intelligence, behavior, and sexual drive.

The impact and effects of rape that a person encounters is a lot more serious than what people would mainly think of what the victim goes through and how they cope with what has happened. The law represents that rape is having sexual relationships unwilling with a minor under the age of eighteen. Committing this crime with a child the age of eighteen or younger, is punishable with imprisonment in state prison. The amount of individuals serving time for statutory rape in jails today has truly a huge contrast between the amounts of male prisoners serving under rape assault compared to women.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest, National, Network) “One out of every six women has been victimized of sexual assault and 3% out of 33% men have been as well” (RAINN). Over 32,000 women are unwillingly impregnated annually (Chemaly). Rape isn’t “wrong place, wrong time” either; 35% of rapes happen in the victim’s own home and 75% of people are raped by someone they know (Mofley). Sexual assaults also happen WAY more often than you may think.

Why do victims lie about rape? The study of victimology seeks to mitigate the perception of victims as responsible. No one really knows why certain women make false accusations, but according to Jaurune Uwajaren article “3 reasons why assuming women are often “crying” rape prevents most survivors from getting justice” writes “Feminists are well-aware of the fact that there are many morally inept women out there who make false allegations of rape” (Uwajaren). This proves that women are making false rape accusations against men today. The number one reason why women lie about rape is because no one is going to believe that a women would lie about an awful event occurring. Uwajaren also writes “Overemphazing the fact that some women accuse men of rape hurts the credibility of the greater number of women that report rape because women tend to focus on women getting justice of rape rather than men” (Uwajaren). Unfortunately, this is true. There is a 21% to 41% chance a women is lying about rape when they first walk into a police station.

The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women. In conclusion rape is a serious issue between the lives of the victim and the rapist. We should all acknowledge the effects and factors it has on everyone’s lives including the victim and their family, the rapist and the community.