Wall of Silence

I didn’t know that sexual assault actually happened. I didn’t know it occurred with someone you love or someone that you have met before.  I thought a rapist was some stranger—the boogieman—in a dark parking lot with a ski mask on that only happened every once and awhile.

So many battles of sexual assault are hidden in our country, and the statistics are tough to embrace.  One in three Native American women suffers sexual abuse. One in five women in the military is sexually assaulted while in the military.  One in five women is the victim of rape or attempted rape on college campuses.

This week, I worked on a summary of Legal Momentum’s National Judicial Education Program two-day program, Understanding Sexual Violence, at the Tulalip Tribal Court.  In the Tulalip Tribe of Washington, among other Native American reservations, of the small 15 percentage of rapes reported, there is a tremendous protection of rape offenders. In the rare instances that perpetrators are held accountable, the highest sentence that they can receive is limited to one year in the Tribal Court, yet oftentimes there is no conviction at all.  Even after the Vice Chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes, Deborah Parker, revealed her harrowing experience of sexual assault as a victim of molestation, the House of Representatives still wants to remove the Native American Protections in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  Who is against violence against women anyways??

At Lincoln Center last week, I saw The Invisible War, a documentary on military women and the hidden battle of sexual assault that they faced in the military.  These women who fight for our country have been subjected to sexual assault and rape, yet nobody is doing anything about it.  Nobody is fighting for them.  The military is a severely flawed infrastructure so much so that military women are more likely to be raped by a fellow solider than killed by enemy fire.  Since all cases are dealt from within the military, the perpetrators rarely make it to court, viewing rape as an ‘occupational hazard.’  The military oftentimes even turns on the victims, blaming them for adultery, for example, as if the rape was consensual sex.  The nature of a rapist is that they are repeat offenders. Since they are not punished, the rapists learn how to rape better and know that they won’t be caught.  Even more disgraceful, these serial rapists are now moving up in comman.  For example, one survivor’s perpetrator won the Military Professional of the Year Award during her rape investigation—oh what a twisted reality we live in.  During The Invisible War, I couldn’t help but think of my female friends in ROTC at Duke.  Will they be subjected to sexual assault?

Tulalip and the military, although seemingly different, are very similar in their silence that encompasses sexual assault, similar too to colleges and universities. In university ‘court systems,’ the perpetrators are not often held accountable.  Although the most severe punishment is expulsion, a perpetrator rarely receives this punishment–and my home university of Duke is no different. To my knowledge no one has ever been expelled as a result of a student conduct hearing related to sexual misconduct.  Students have been expelled for plagiarism. Is plagiarism more serious than sexual assault? Perpetrators too often get a slap on the wrist for their crimes, a ‘boys will be boys’ if you will.

At Duke, a newly reformed statute of limitations states that a victim must report within one year of the sexual assault or rape if the student wishes for a conduct hearing.  When victims are dealing with PTSD, depression, school, anxiety, and healing, the added pressure to report only benefits the rapist.  Since most rapists are repeat offenders, what is the motivation to stop raping? When does this vicious victim-blaming cycle end?

Rape is not unique to college campuses, the military, or Native American reservations.  The reality is that perpetrators and survivors are everywhere.

There is hope, though.  The creation of the documentary The Invisible War, Legal Momentum’s work with the Tulalip Tribal Court, along with all the work of Duke Student Government, Develle Dish, and Duke’s Women’s Center demonstrate that there are people that care. There are people that seek justice for these atrocities.  The reality is that we are not made to be silent.

I only hope we can break the silence.

 

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