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In reply to the discussion: How to Lie with Rape Statistics: America's Hidden Rape Crisis [View all]BainsBane
(53,031 posts)A Ph.D. criminologist told me the number one factor in the violent crime rate is the percentage of young men in the population. As the population of young people has declined, so has violent crime. Murder rates are at their lowest point in a century. The problem is when people pluck rape stats out of that context in an effort to prove that rape really isn't that prevalent. Most of the time they do so in order to invalidate the experiences of rape victims. The fact is, the percentage of women and men raped has not changed during those same thirty years, even as the overall numbers seem to have declined. In terms of people's experiences, rape is as prevalent as ever, and there are no signs that the judicial system takes it more seriously than it did thirty years ago. In fact, the opposite may be the case. as women are no longer seen as having virtue, too many judges seem to feel nothing has been taken from a woman who has been raped. It appears to me that rape is taken less seriously, not more seriously, that in past generations.