There are particularly high crime rates here.
Crime rates vary from community to community and with the type of offence, but overall, you won't go too far astray by assuming that the rate of any particular crime is eight times the national average.
Crimes against women are especially brutal.
Our local paper, for all of its faults, does make an attempt to cover the court docket. Yesterday's news included stories about a woman who was murdered in her home, three women who were attacked in their beds in separate incidents (two were beaten to a bloody pulp), and a young man who was murdered in a home. We were also reminded of three unsolved reported sexual assaults and one case of causing a disturbance (a man approached a woman and her young daughter in an aggressive sexual manner).
And this is nothing unusual. A woman was found murdered in an alleyway last Christmas. A woman died after "an incident", as the police say, last summer. A woman was beaten to death a couple of years ago; it soon came to light that before her death, her killer had been evading police for almost a year with the assistance of others in his community, and that the night of the killing multiple people watched him attack her.
I just looked at our court docket. I started to count the people who were charged with sexual assault and couldn't bring myself to finish. There are too many. Far too many. And that is just the charges. Not all assaults lead to charges. In fact, sexual assaults are chronically underreported; they never even get investigated. The real number is far higher.
The typical victim of chronic violence in this jurisdiction is an Aboriginal woman with children who has been suffering from repeated acts of physical and often sexual violence at the hands of a family member over a long period of time, and the violence has been getting worse. These women are terrorised for many years, shamed for speaking out, and often cannot bring themselves to testify. Their bodies give the evidence against their attackers.
Nobody is safe from violence, of course; we have a serious problem with men who get into physical fights and harm each other while drinking. But this is the typical victim profile.
For many years I have wondered what it would take to bring people in this town to outrage over the horrific assaults against women that go on here. Black eyes and broken bones didn't seem to do it. Sentencings didn't seem to do it. Vigils and "safety walks" didn't seem to do it.
But now we know what it takes. Our community is up in arms.
What it took was for middle-class white women to report that strangers had assaulted them.
Middle-class white women deserve safety. They should never be attacked, and they should feel safe in their homes and communities. And so should everyone else. The recent outpouring of support for middle-class white women has a very ugly undercurrent of victim-blaming for everyone else.
A co-worker called yesterday and mentioned there have been lots of assaults. I told her there are always lots of assaults. She said she was concerned because a woman had been attacked in her bed. I reminded her that other women had been attacked in their beds, too, and had suffered far greater injuries that were described in that day's paper. She helpfully pointed out that those women forgave their attackers and they could just leave. I told her I couldn't keep talking to her because I was too angry.
I happened upon a group of acquaintances who told me they were horrified that anyone could wake up to find herself being assaulted. I told them that is one of the most common scenarios for sexual assault here: a woman falls asleep in her own bed or at a friend's house and wakes up to find herself being assaulted. They weren't sure what to make of this information. One of them told me that other cases aren't the same; women who are on the trail at four in the morning are somehow different, and women who are drunk...well...
I told them I was getting too upset and could not continue the conversation.
Victim-blaming is a way to protect yourself inside your own mind. Those other women were attacked because they wore certain clothes or went to a certain place or did a certain thing. You don't do those things. Therefore, you are safe. You are not safe. Violence against women harms our society and puts us all at risk.
Stranger violence is a terrible, horrible thing. Nobody should ever be a victim of stranger violence. The perpetrators of these crimes need to be held accountable for their actions. But statistically, I can tell you how to protect yourself from being a victim of sexual assault in this region:
1) Don't have a partner or any relatives.
2) Don't go to parties with people you know, and never spend the night.
Yes, you should secure your home. The lock on your door is an important safety tool. But you are in the most danger from people who have the keys.
Crime rates vary from community to community and with the type of offence, but overall, you won't go too far astray by assuming that the rate of any particular crime is eight times the national average.
Crimes against women are especially brutal.
Our local paper, for all of its faults, does make an attempt to cover the court docket. Yesterday's news included stories about a woman who was murdered in her home, three women who were attacked in their beds in separate incidents (two were beaten to a bloody pulp), and a young man who was murdered in a home. We were also reminded of three unsolved reported sexual assaults and one case of causing a disturbance (a man approached a woman and her young daughter in an aggressive sexual manner).
And this is nothing unusual. A woman was found murdered in an alleyway last Christmas. A woman died after "an incident", as the police say, last summer. A woman was beaten to death a couple of years ago; it soon came to light that before her death, her killer had been evading police for almost a year with the assistance of others in his community, and that the night of the killing multiple people watched him attack her.
I just looked at our court docket. I started to count the people who were charged with sexual assault and couldn't bring myself to finish. There are too many. Far too many. And that is just the charges. Not all assaults lead to charges. In fact, sexual assaults are chronically underreported; they never even get investigated. The real number is far higher.
The typical victim of chronic violence in this jurisdiction is an Aboriginal woman with children who has been suffering from repeated acts of physical and often sexual violence at the hands of a family member over a long period of time, and the violence has been getting worse. These women are terrorised for many years, shamed for speaking out, and often cannot bring themselves to testify. Their bodies give the evidence against their attackers.
Nobody is safe from violence, of course; we have a serious problem with men who get into physical fights and harm each other while drinking. But this is the typical victim profile.
For many years I have wondered what it would take to bring people in this town to outrage over the horrific assaults against women that go on here. Black eyes and broken bones didn't seem to do it. Sentencings didn't seem to do it. Vigils and "safety walks" didn't seem to do it.
But now we know what it takes. Our community is up in arms.
What it took was for middle-class white women to report that strangers had assaulted them.
Middle-class white women deserve safety. They should never be attacked, and they should feel safe in their homes and communities. And so should everyone else. The recent outpouring of support for middle-class white women has a very ugly undercurrent of victim-blaming for everyone else.
A co-worker called yesterday and mentioned there have been lots of assaults. I told her there are always lots of assaults. She said she was concerned because a woman had been attacked in her bed. I reminded her that other women had been attacked in their beds, too, and had suffered far greater injuries that were described in that day's paper. She helpfully pointed out that those women forgave their attackers and they could just leave. I told her I couldn't keep talking to her because I was too angry.
I happened upon a group of acquaintances who told me they were horrified that anyone could wake up to find herself being assaulted. I told them that is one of the most common scenarios for sexual assault here: a woman falls asleep in her own bed or at a friend's house and wakes up to find herself being assaulted. They weren't sure what to make of this information. One of them told me that other cases aren't the same; women who are on the trail at four in the morning are somehow different, and women who are drunk...well...
I told them I was getting too upset and could not continue the conversation.
Victim-blaming is a way to protect yourself inside your own mind. Those other women were attacked because they wore certain clothes or went to a certain place or did a certain thing. You don't do those things. Therefore, you are safe. You are not safe. Violence against women harms our society and puts us all at risk.
Stranger violence is a terrible, horrible thing. Nobody should ever be a victim of stranger violence. The perpetrators of these crimes need to be held accountable for their actions. But statistically, I can tell you how to protect yourself from being a victim of sexual assault in this region:
1) Don't have a partner or any relatives.
2) Don't go to parties with people you know, and never spend the night.
Yes, you should secure your home. The lock on your door is an important safety tool. But you are in the most danger from people who have the keys.
If anyone gives you any shit, please feel free to punch them, and tell them it's from a victim of sexual assault, you're just passing it along.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteIf I could share this post, I would. Yes to everything.
ReplyDelete