Andy Hua

Senior Inquiry
Mrs. Rodgers, Mrs. Yonamine, Mr. Washington
February 19
He Raped Me, How is it My Fault?
A woman sits on the stand. She glances over and sees her attacker looking at her with a
menacing glare. The prosecutor asks her to recall what happened that night and as she does every
jury members face is filled with empathy. Afterwards the prosecutor walks back to his bench
confident the case has been won. The defense attorney stands and begins his questioning of the
woman. With a smug face he asks Did you consume alcohol that night miss? She does not
respond. Now remember miss you are under oath. She looks down and nods her head. As she
looks back up she now sees every jury members face filled with judgement, her attacker with
the same smug face as the lawyer, and her prosecutor mouthing the words I am sorry.
Prosecutors need to be better trained in how to combat against victim blaming so more rapists are
convicted and are unable to claim more victims.
Victim blaming is a product of our society where we teach how not to be raped as
opposed to not raping. Women are constantly taught how to prevent rape by focusing on what
you wear, how you wear it, how you carry yourself, where you walk Since society has told
them everything they need to do in order not to be raped we have placed all the responsibility on
women. This has made defense attorneys jobs effortless since the attorney can point out the
errors on the womens judgement, for example alcohol consumption, and be seen as negligence
on her part and in a sickening way justify her rape.

Unknowingly when a jury does not convict a rapist another victim will emerge. A study
done of 1,882 men at the University of Massachusetts Boston show that 71 percent of these 144
rapist were repeat offenders and an average of 6.3 rapes or attempted rapes could be attributed to
them. Countless studies have shown that rapists are more likely to rape again. By placing these
criminals behind bars we will reduce the amount of victims but this will never happen as long as
we fixate on the actions of women and place all the responsibility on them and not the people
who sexually assaulted them.
Change is difficult due to socialization because we have taught women at a young age not
to be raped and consequently placed all the pressure on them to ensure they are not raped.
Luckily this can be changed. We can eliminate the impact of victim blaming with prosecutors
better trained to combat against victim blaming and shift the focus back onto the perpetrator and
the crime committed. In doing so the jury will not be so focused on the woman action and the
crime at hand. For example if a woman consumed alcohol instead of focusing on that the
prosecutor can shift it to her being taken advantage of at a vulnerable state. If this happens more
cases will be won in the courts and less rapists would be on our streets.