We can decrease the prevalence of rape by spreading awareness that (1) consent is required and (2) it is your right and in your power to say no when you are uncomfortable. Another step we can take is to punish rapists harshly-- there is no excuse for that.

I think the answer lies with our children. Let's raise our boys and girls without gender stereotypes, without the ideas that boys should be strong and girls should be soft/nice. Let's talk to them about sex, relationships, and love early and often. Let's create an environment in which they can ask questions freely and be able to expect honest answers.

We need to respect ourselves and one another deeply enough to know the consequences of such a trauma. Rape isn't a micro, campus only occurrence, it happens every day in every state and country in the nation. Awareness should start locally- but this is a global flaw in human nature. We need to remember that sex isn't power, it isn't glory, and it should always be consensual.

Prosecute rapists to the full extent of the law; teach females they don't owe sexuality, or even attractiveness, to males, or to anyone; talk openly about what rape really is, and what sexuality really means. Ours is a rape culture, where men who rape are rarely prosecuted, the emphasis is always on female victims and what they did wrong, and where women often believe that sex is a male thing, and that their own bodies and responses are secondary, or unimportant, compared to males.' Females really have no bodily integrity. Females are seen to exist for the male gaze. Males own this right to judgment, culturally, and to having their needs placed well above women's. Females are subtly cast as use objects. This helps make rape inevitable, all too common.

Raise boys who are taught that sex should only happen when a partner says yes in words and by enthusiastic physical response.

Raise girls who are taught that their sexual pleasure is a right, and is valid with or without a partner, but that sex should only happen when a partner says yes in words and by enthusiastic physical response.

Stop this shit of making the 'where and when and what were you wearing' the method of questioning the person assaulted.

We can all try to be more aware of the kinds of people that may be around us and try to have a friend with your if you are planing on drinking. Also try to understand that no means just that, no.

Zitat von

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We can decrease the prevalence of rape by spreading awareness that (1) consent is required and (2) it is your right and in your power to say no when you are uncomfortable. Another step we can take is to punish rapists harshly-- there is no excuse for that.

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i definitely agree with the punishing part. We need to have some sort of solidarity as women here on campus and help each other out if one of us has been raped. Nothing will get done if we don't speak up but it must be many voices in unison so that we ARE heard. Once it has become clear that we DO care, and strongly care, about this issue, rape will not be ignored. It SHOULD NOT be ignored.

I honestly think the way to decrease the prevalence of rape is to completely rework the mindset that consent is a right (for the person receiving consent), and that it's alright to make anyone feel uncomfortable because "that's just the way the world is". To receive consent is a privilege, and it means that you have gained the other person's trust. It's not something to be taken lightly. As far as people feeling uncomfortable in any situation, that is simply not ok. It's simply not acceptable to make anyone feel uncomfortable because that's the social structure. Every person has the right to walk down the street or to go to a party without having to worry about if it will be uncomfortable or who he or she should go with to make sure they can escape an uncomfortable situation.

The only way is to hold people accontable, and to put the pressure off of girls to protect themselves and onto men to treat women with respect and to also make sure their male friends treat women with respect. There is a dynamic in society where guys always want their friends to come before women, even sometimes in situations of sexual assault.

If rape is a crime, one way to decrease crime it is by reporting, finding, arresting, convicting and imprisoning criminals.

Note -- that's a multi-step process, and not all of the steps are well understood at all. Example -- how long should rapists be imprisoned? What are the repeater stats for rape? It it's "once a rapist always a rapist," then life in prison is the answer. If you lock up a rapist for ten years, are you preventing crime, or just postponing it?

Other steps are governed by rules that are not well understood by the general public. Crimes have victims, yes. But if you go into criminal court and actually read the papers, you will see that it does not say [Victim] vs [Accused]. It says "The People of the State of Illinois vs. [Accused]. Is there "justice" for victims? Not in the sense that you might think. The goal is justice for "the People of the State of Illinois." The act is not a crime just because one person was injured. It's a crime because it is also an injury to all of us. But individual victims may never feel like they got justice... because that's not the goal of the system.