Home of the blame

There’s an epidemic sweeping across the United States.

No, it isn’t the swine flu, drug addiction or boy bands.

It isn’t an epidemic that can be cured by medication or turning off the Grammys.

It’s something much deeper, much more cultural.

The United States is a society that blames victims, and it’s growing out of control entirely too quickly.

Every two minutes in the United States, someone is sexually assaulted, totaling about 207,754 reported sexual assaults a year.

This number is extremely low compared to the actual number, since 54 percent of sexual assaults are unreported.

So many people who are sexually assaulted or raped, it seems, are too uncomfortable or feel unable to report their experience to the proper authorities.

Now, this could be because there aren’t enough police to handle the reports.

The reason there are so few reports is because the United States has bred a society where we blame victims before we blame perpetrators.

In the U.S., we teach girls to act in certain ways in public. “Don’t dress like a slut!” “Don’t go out late at night alone!” “Don’t get too drunk!”

Very rarely do we hear parents reminding their sons to behave themselves when acting sexually towards someone else.

“Remember to ask for consent,” “No means No,” and “Don’t do anything to someone they don’t want you to do” are rare phrases in American culture.

While Indiana University tries to use tools such as “Culture of Care” to try and create a safer campus, it’s simply not enough.

The Culture of IU isn’t one of caring, but one of shaming.

In one of my political science classes, we were given a scenario where a man warns his wife not to leave the house or he’ll “severely punish her.”

The wife leaves the house anyway and is killed by a hitman the husband hired.

We were then asked to choose who was most guilty for what happened to the wife.

Out of the 10 groups in the class, 9 blamed the wife for her death, saying she was
“told not to leave, but she did anyway.”

Among the explanations I heard, “She got what she deserved” came up multiple times.

Sadly, this type of attitude is common in the U.S. discussion of rape, murder or theft.

We blame victims for being “careless” or “stupid,” instead of blaming the actual criminals for being, well, criminals.

Call me crazy, but I think we can do better than a society or campus where people are afraid to walk alone after dark.

Women shouldn’t be forced to hide away their favorite pair of shorts because they make her “a target.”

Gay men and women shouldn’t have to hide who they are because they’re afraid of being assaulted.

If we ever want to make an actual change in the violence levels at IU or the U.S. in general, we need to focus less on victims preventing crimes and more on preventing people from becoming criminals.

Hopefully we can turn the U.S. from the “Home of the Blame” to the “Land of the Free.”

­— ajguenth@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Andrew Guenther on Twitter @GuentherAndrew.