Post by northernjustice on Apr 4, 2014 20:22:48 GMT
Many rapes go completely unreported, as women are too ashamed or scared to contact law enforcement. There are also a number of victims that don't want to re-live the trauma associated with the event, so they essentially block it out of their mind and try to move forward (often with self-destructive results, i.e. substance abuse and risky behavior). Even telling police what happened may keep the wound too fresh for the victim to handle, not to mention what would happen if the case made it to court.
Keep in mind, most unreported rapes are done either by someone the woman knows and/or because of a certain setting (i.e. club, bar, party), which only contributes to them not wanting to report it. In many cases, they blame themselves for getting into those types of situations and a large part of post-rape therapy is geared toward making women feel less ashamed and self-blaming about what happened. I imagine this is less common in home invasion type rapes, though, like the EAR committed, as it is not just a sex/power dynamic, but something much more terrifying. However, you do have to figure that with the EAR having committed so many rapes, there must have been at least several that went unreported for various reasons.
I don't know if you could consider this thread a "possible victims" topic, since we have no way of knowing whether any unreported rapes were committed by the EAR (opposed to reported rapes that weren't connected to the EAR). Still, I think it's something to consider as a distinct possibility, that the EAR's rampage was somewhat broader than we even know about.
Keep in mind, most unreported rapes are done either by someone the woman knows and/or because of a certain setting (i.e. club, bar, party), which only contributes to them not wanting to report it. In many cases, they blame themselves for getting into those types of situations and a large part of post-rape therapy is geared toward making women feel less ashamed and self-blaming about what happened. I imagine this is less common in home invasion type rapes, though, like the EAR committed, as it is not just a sex/power dynamic, but something much more terrifying. However, you do have to figure that with the EAR having committed so many rapes, there must have been at least several that went unreported for various reasons.
I don't know if you could consider this thread a "possible victims" topic, since we have no way of knowing whether any unreported rapes were committed by the EAR (opposed to reported rapes that weren't connected to the EAR). Still, I think it's something to consider as a distinct possibility, that the EAR's rampage was somewhat broader than we even know about.