• In the United States, 1.3 women are raped every minute. That results in 78 rapes each hour, 1872 rapes each day, 56160 rapes each month and 683,280 rapes each year.
  • 1 out of every 3 American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
  • The United States has the world’s highest rape rate of the countries that publish such statistics. It’s 4 times higher than Germany, 13 times higher than England, and 20 times higher than Japan. SOURCE

Those are the only statistics I will include here as this isn’t about statistics, it’s about attitudes.

My first week living in Miami the sister of a friend was gang raped in her apartment.  Her boyfriend who shared the apartment with her opened the door (it was daytime) to a man he recognized from the apartment complex.  That man and two others who weren’t in view at first forced their way into the apartment.  They physically overcame the boyfriend, tied him up and proceeded to gang rape his girlfriend in front of him.  Police seemed to think that it was a drug deal gone wrong and the rapists were never brought to justice.  Regardless of any supposed drug deal, the woman wasn’t fair game for an act of revenge.

A couple of years later, I was living in another Miami apartment complex where I was friends with the manager’s wife.  One morning as we met by the pool, she told me a 16 year old was raped in her apartment when she opened the door to a man in a electric company uniform…..the man didn’t work for the electric company, he had used the uniform ploy a number of times in the area to gain entrance to apartments where he proceeded to rape whatever woman was home.  The manager had made the comment to his wife “what did she expect when she walks through the courtyard in her bathing suit.”  As I looked at her in horror as she seemingly agreed with her husband I replied “so do you and so do I.”  It was Miami and we lived just steps to the pool so many of us walked through the courtyard in our bathing suits.

I spoke with the apartment manager and asked if he was going to warn the women in the complex about the man in the fake electric company uniform and he indicated he just wanted to keep it quiet.  I was appalled and I called the local police department who sent a representative to a meeting I set up that was open to occupants of the apartment complex.  The police officer warned the occupant’s that this man had raped before and gave everyone tips to protect themselves.

Unfortunately attitudes toward women who are raped haven’t come as far as we would like.  Many people still wonder what the woman did to bring it on herself.  Maybe she shouldn’t have been out after dark, or maybe she shouldn’t have gone to this party or that bar.  Maybe she really wanted it.

Until we take rape more seriously and become righteously outraged about the crime of rape then the United States will continue to have a shamefully high number of rapes.  We shouldn’t wait until rape touches the life of someone we love….every rape is an act of outrageous violence and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and punished with the longest prison term possible with no possibility of parole.  Rape  is all too common in our society and it’s time we all work together to change attitudes and ensure the safety of the women of America.