Rape is not just a word

“Every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.”

This is a horrifying statement for everyone, because rape and sexual assault don’t happen to just college girls, like the mainstream media would like you to think. Rape can happen to anyone of any gender or age.

This is especially alarming, because we live in the state with the highest sexual assault rate in the entire country. The 2014 national average was about 24 sexual assault victims out of every 100,000, but Alaska’s rate was 80 of every 100,000 Alaskans. Considering there are only about 750,000 people in Alaska, this is extremely alarming.

These statistics only include reported rapes and sexual assaults. These numbers do not include the countless unreported sexual assaults.

Why wouldn’t a person report the crime of rape? There are a few reasons. First, statistics show most people are assaulted by a person they know: a friend, a spouse, or an acquaintance. That alone would make a person not want to seek outside help to deal with the crime, but then there is the process that happens after seeking help.

If the rape happened recently, a rape kit has to be completed to collect evidence. And if the assault wasn’t recent, things are even more complicated without physical evidence to support the report.

Next, the police need to investigate to determine whether the allegations are sexual assault, or something else. They question the victim. You can only imagine what that would be like. Questions that seem directed at the idea that maybe you — the victim — are just making this up. It’s clear that reporting rape may not seem worth the trouble.

Now that was regarding to rape, where there is usually physical evidence left in or on the victim’s body. Imagine a sexual assault where this is not the case. That would be much more difficult to prove and investigate, more time-consuming and just as stressful as the first scenario and certainly just as mentally and physically scarring.

There are many other factors that affect whether someone would think their case has a chance in a court of law: race, economic standing, homeless, delinquent or not (in the case of children and adolescents, which statistics show are the most targeted age bracket), etc. The list goes on.

If a prostitute gets raped no one is going to stop and think about it. People may say “She sells her body for sex, so what’s the difference?”

While the acts are similar, they are not the same. Just like any other rape, the people involved are just people. We are all equal, despite our physical conditions, our skin color, how much money we have or if we are on drugs or not.

The difference is, if the victim does not give clear consent, then no one should feel like they are entitled to that person’s body.

Rape is never OK. It isn’t OK if the victim is wearing a short skirt or chaps that expose bare buttocks — that is not an invitation. An invitation is exactly what it sounds like, someone specifically letting you know — giving consent — that it is OK for you to touch their body. If someone is drunk they cannot give consent, and it is not OK. If a woman doesn’t say no, but also doesn’t explicitly give consent, it’s not OK.

Sexual assault calls for serious penalties in the court of law. But that is only when a victim reports it, and only if there is sufficient evidence to move the jury to a guilty verdict.

We, as a society, need to put an end to our “rape culture” and say “No More.” To see what you can do to help stop rape and sexual assault go to nomore.org.