New
Zealand's government has ordered an investigation into the police
handling of an investigation of a group of teenagers who called themselves
the Roast Busters. According to the article, these teens got under
aged girls drunk, raped them and then posted their cruel deeds online. The
police could not prosecute the group because they had never gotten a
formal complaint. However, it was discovered that a girl had made a formal
complaint in 2011. The girl who had made the complaint had been told that she
did not have enough evidence because of what she was wearing despite the evidence she gave through a video interview. The people of New
Zealand, especially the parents, are extremely concerned that if this is how
the police handle these situations, then that would mean that if their child
were to walk in they would not be taken seriously. Due to the new investigation, the police were able to interview two
members of the Roast Busters and have compiled evidence that can aid the
investigation.
This
article reminds me of the article about the rape case in India in September
because both deal with not only socialization but also rape culture. Once again
rape culture can be seen as the reason the police did not take the girl's
complaint seriously in 2011. It is because rape culture tells people that
"girls ask for it". Rape culture's main focus is that societies have
a hidden rape culture that encourages men to sexually assault women and those
who are immature, irresponsible and lacking in social conscience are more
influenced by rape culture. It can be seen from this article that this is true
since it was teens who created this so called "club". Everything from
treating women like property to using women as prizes in masculinity contests
as well as the way society socializes men to participate and embrace rape
culture while socializing girls to be victims, are all reasons why
cases like this continue to happen all around the world. Also the myth of
victim precipitation is most likely the main reason why the girl's
formal complaint was not taken seriously and was brushed aside despite her
video evidence. Everything from what the girl was wearing, in the police
officer's eyes, was asking for it and also possible victim contribution,
that the victim kissed the offender or was engaged in some other form of
intimacy before the attack whether it was true or just something that was
assumed, all played a part. This reflects the biased,
male-centered view of rape instead of the accurate description of the crime
itself. However, in a world where the majority are men and the minority are
women, men control what happens and men make the decisions. It is this thought
that just because a woman goes out wearing a short dress and is therefore
asking to be raped is absurd. No one asks to be raped. Yet rape cases continue
to surface and there is always a group of people who blame the victim because
of what she was wearing or what she was doing. It is reasons like this that
rape is so under reported and the reason why rape victims are so afraid to
report the horrible crime that had been done to them.
Society
must change. There must be a change that rejects rape culture and ideas of
victim precipitation must stop or else rapes will continue to be under reported
and rapists will continue to go on committing these crimes and think that just
because a girl is dressed a certain way or because she looked interested, that
it is okay to rape her. No means no and rape is not the victim's fault and the
world, as a whole, must come to this understanding or else these terrible cases
will continue to happen.
Catherine Choi
11/7/13
10:13pm
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