April 26, 2008 12:01 am
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Recently, there was an article about a man who attempted to rape, if not completed a rape, against a woman walking home at 3 a.m. Saturday.
Is she to blame for walking home late? For walking home alone? For dropping her shoes and turning around to get them when the assault took place? Of course not.
The article focused on risk-reduction tactics: “Don’t walk alone after dark,” “find a way to get a ride if no one is available to walk with you after dark,” “be aware of your surroundings.” While these things can reduce one’s risk of being assaulted, they all focus on victims’ behaviors.
It would be nice if we could instead focus on the perpetrators behavior and at the end of the article say to men, stop attacking and raping women.
While I appreciate the fact that a rape made the news, and that Police Commander Debbie McDermott acknowledged that most rapes are not perpetrated by strangers, I think the point has been missed.
Instead of risk reduction, we should instead focus on prevention as that is what will really put an end to rape.
I serve as the Sexual Violence Education Coordinator at Minnesota State University. The purpose of Wednesday’s Take Back the Night Rally and March is to do just that, take back what’s rightfully ours and make nighttime safe for everyone.
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