How Even an Article on Not Blaming Rape Victims Can Blame Rape Victims

Over at Slate, Rebecca Ruiz has an article, “Why Don’t Cops Believe Rape Victims?” We know that blaming, shaming, and disbelieving victims contributes both to rape victims not reporting to police and rapists being free to continue raping. The Slate article focuses on the ways that rape victims respond to the trauma, and then talks about how increasing scientific understanding of how the brain responds to trauma can be used to convince law enforcement agents that their interpretation of a victim’s flat affect, cloudy memories, and other responses – namely, their assumption that victims are lying – may be incorrect. Here’s the thing. The articles says the following, which could be Ruiz’s work or that of an editor. I don’t want to demonize Ruiz, just to point out this example of how deeply entrenched blaming rape victims really is: In the past decade, neurobiology has evolved to explain why victims respond in ways that make it seem like they could be lying, even when they’re not. What that sentence means is that rape victims act like they’re lying, but with *science!* maybe we can be convinced that they’re not really making it all up. A better and more accurate approach would have been to say: Neurobiology partially explains why victims respond how they do. In the context of rape culture, we (including law enforcement) frequently interpret those responses incorrectly and blame/distrust the victim. With that compari...
Source: Women's Health News - Category: Medical Librarians Authors: Tags: Abuse, Rape, & Safety Government police rape culture victim blaming Source Type: blogs