Jessica Valenti
How Very Bad Men Get Away With Rape
It takes one person to commit a rape, but a village to let them get away with it over and over
It can be easy to forget that sexual assault is a crime committed by a very small percentage of the male population. You might think otherwise, considering how many women have come forward in the last year with tales of abuse and the epidemic number of sexual assault victims in the U.S. — one person every 98 seconds.
The truth, though, is not that most men abuse women — it’s that the small number who do are able to get away with it multiple times. For example, according to a 2002 study, six percent of men attempt or commit rape, but more than half of them will attack more than once, averaging about six rapes each.
Why is this minority of bad men able to get away with abusing women over and over? Because “good” men make it easier for them.
You don’t have to be an abuser to enable abuse, and over the last few weeks, Americans have watched that reality play out on the national stage.
Knee-jerk sympathy for men accused of wrongdoing isn’t new.
