Truth behind the crime

On Oct. 28, when the news of the first blitz-rape on the IU campus in 30 years was broken, our community went on alert. We were shocked at the depravity of what we could only imagine occurred that night when an unknown assailant jumped out from the misty shadows and forcibly committed the most heinous of acts upon a young freshman woman walking home from Ballantine Hall. \nThen we learned the truth. The report was false.\nAnd what was upsetting was not the lie. We reserve our judgments on individuals, only to better seek answers from our society. What was upsetting was the outpouring of sentiment, the media charade and sudden demand for high security. What we witnessed was the American culture of fear.\nRape is perhaps one of the most pervasive and ugly crimes we know. It is a private enterprise, one that can affect any of our loved ones. It is a crime that needs extensive community education to prevent. However, it must be an education that does not include sudden, knee-jerk paranoia. \nThere is no man hiding in the bushes.\nThe man is in the home, and he's not hiding at all.\nWe're all familiar with the facts: The 2000 Bureau of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey reminds us that 66 percent of victims are attacked by someone they know, such as a date rape or a family member. The obsession we have with sensationalizing this crime by lending to it the Hollywood mysticism of the leery stranger does nothing but obfuscate the truth behind rape crimes. It distracts us from becoming educated on exactly how we can help fight this problem.\nWe are not superheros. We cannot be there to prevent the extreme off-chances of loved ones actually being assaulted by strangers in the night. Not even our Blue Lights on campus can prevent that. But we can prevent the greater majority of rape cases by being aware of our surroundings, maintaining lines of contact between ourselves and our loved ones and keeping ourselves under control by understanding that there are no excuses for violent actions.\nWhen we found ourselves suddenly aghast at the story we first heard here on campus, it was not an improper response. It was naive. What deserves more of our attention and outreach is not the sudden attacks by unknowns, but the violence that goes unreported by people we know. While the news we received here at IU was the first of its kind in 30 years, a woman is actually raped in America every two minutes. These crimes go untold. These crimes receive no front page spread.\nIt's up to us to pay attention.