Re-Writing Rape (III) Who Is The Rapist?

The problem with rape and one of the main differences between it and other crimes, is the anonymity awarded to accused rapists. Often when we hear or read about rape cases, more particularly where the accused rapist is a high profile person, it is the identity of the survivor that is thrust into the public space for dissection, scrutiny and public shame.

One would almost even think that women are behind the crime of rape, with all the victim blaming perpetuated by rape culture under the guise that women should somehow be empowered to avoid rape. But that is a topic for the next column, on why we have found ourselves where we are with the problem of rape, so that we can then adequately discuss how to move forward.

The question here, is who is a rapist? The reason it is important for this question to be addressed, is that often when a rape survivor comes forward, despite the weight of the trauma, and pain they would have gone through, and the amount of resilience and strength it must take to actually speak out to even get to a point where they can express the violence they faced, society’s response is hardly ever remorse, or sympathy. We are quick to lay blame on the victim, and guilt them, because, well, “he doesn’t look like a rapist.” One would think rapists walk around with signage on their chest, with the inscription, “Stay Away Unless You Want Rape!” This is despite the number of rape instances we have heard reports of. So perhaps we need to know who the rapists are.  The most recently published statistics on this are from 2015. We will all remember that in a report on rape and other sexual offences cases filed with police in 2018, for the year 2017, 2016 and 2015, it was said that in that year (2015), there were a total of 2,163 reported cases of such nature. In a Crime Statistics Report by Statistics Botswana for the year 2015, it was revealed that of the 587 sexual assault cases before Magistrate’s Courts in Botswana, 98% of the accused persons were men. So it is undoubtable that men are rapists. I will not be arguing about this here. The number of women and other persons who have committed sexual assault crimes is extremely negligible it cannot be argued “women are also rapists”.

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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