Are the recent headline cases of packs of young men violently and viciously raping young girls barely past the age of puberty a new and gruesome trend, a case of media sensationalism, or proof that these attacks are finally getting the attention that it should have gotten all along? There's an element of truth in all three possibilities.
The gang rape of an 11-year-old in Cleveland, Tex., and the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in a Riverside County park bathroom were shocking by any standard. Since it had all the requisite sex, violence — and the alleged attackers were young black males, this insured that it would be headline news.
But rape, that is rape of teen girls, is not new. It is far more widespread than is commonly reported, let alone discussed. Some experts say that rape is the most under-reported serious crime. Police and rape crisis groups agree that probably no more than 20 percent of all rapes are reported. A study by Dr. Christian Molidor found that more than one out of three teenaged girls reported that they were punched, beaten or physically intimidated, and forced to have sex against their will. Another study by Dr. Christine Kaestle found that 13-year-old girls were six times more likely to have sexual intercourse if a boyfriend was six years or more older than if she were dating someone her own age. The odds went down as teens got older. The studies clearly show that not only is rape, or some form of coerced sex, a major crime problem, it poses an extremely lethal threat to young girls.
Nothing Can Stop the Plague
The race part, though, is overplayed, deliberately, especially if the victim is non-black. The rapes of young girls cut across all races and nationalities and societies. A cursory glance at the gruesome litany of rapes and sexual attacks and molestation of girls and young boys in March alone shows its prevalence. Some of the attacks did make the news, and the attackers were white males (and in a couple of cases white females). The news from the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya are filled with incidents of wholesale kidnappings and rapes of young girls by warring factions. The endless strife in the Congo has taken the rape of young girls to colossal proportions, and has drawn the ire and disgust of humanitarian and women's groups worldwide. But public attention, shame, and even headlines, sensational or not, haven't been enough to stop the rape plague.
The reasons aren't hard to find. Rape is, as it's always been, about power and control over women. The most vulnerable and defenseless of all are young teen and pre-teen girls. They are and have been the long standing prey of predators. Again, the perpetrators have cut across all racial (and occasionally gender) lines. Rape has been a crisis issue and cause of fear among many women and girls for so long precisely because it was ignored for so long.
How Can You Not Mention It?
The Dept. of Justice, for instance, did not even address the issue in a study “Rape in America” until 1992. Despite the headlines on the rape cases, and in some cases, long sentences that have been slapped on rapists in the most heinous cases, rape is still under-reported and under acted on by police, and in far too many cases under prosecuted by District Attorneys. Women's groups have repeatedly charged that police foot-drag in catching alleged rapists when the victims are poor black women. They say that if the victims were middle class white women or girls police and city officials would pull out all stops to catch the rapists. A decade ago, community groups in East St. Louis were outraged when they learned that city officials turned down offers from the FBI to help in nabbing a serial killer suspected of killing 13 women during a two-year span. Red-faced city officials back-pedaled fast and accepted FBI help.
Police and prosecutors bristle at the charge that they are less diligent when it comes to nabbing alleged rapists and that they have even set up task forces as in the Philadelphia serial rape attacks to collar suspects. There's truth to this, and where police move quickly and diligently to apprehend suspects it sends the strong message that rape is not just a problem for women and girls, a problem that they alone are responsible for. But it's a social scourge that police, prosecutors, the courts, educators, religious leaders, parents, and, most importantly, men and boys must take responsibility for ending.
Whether it's Moreno Valley or Cleveland, Tex. or Afghanistan, or the Congo or Darfur or anywhere else in the world, rape assaults that occur are a hideous stain on any society. Those who perpetrate sexual attacks deserve the harshest punishment. And they should get it.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He hosts nationally broadcast political affairs radio talk shows on Pacifica and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
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