One of the biggest cases of women coming out years after the fact when a celebrity has raped them was Bill Cosby. According to the women who claim to have been raped or assaulted by him, Cosby would drug them so that they passed out and he would have his way with them. They would add that they would lose consciousness and would be unable to remember what happened while they were blacked out. Last time I heard, most of the cases were beyond the statue of limitations, however, there were two or three recent cases that came out that could put the former sitcom star in front of a jury of his own peers. Many people came forward to defend the man, saying that the accusations are false and they know the man and there were also people who came forward and believed the women who accused Bill Cosby.
This is not about whether I believe he or current Presidential Candidate, Donald J. Trump, have or have not sexually assaulted or raped women in the past. This is about something that defenders of these people have always said to detract from these allegations. You see, I always hear people saying "The reason why he didn't rape or sexually assault her was because she waited so long to come out about what happened, she didn't even tell the authorities about it, clearly she is lying." I never understood that reaction, whether or not she was or wasn't lying about the claim. What people need to realize is that while yes, victims or so-called victims do lie up to 10% of the time in rape or sexual assault cases, that has nothing to do with the time that they come forward.
I think there are many reasons why people don't come out IMMEDIATELY after being assaulted is and I will explain the following below. The first is that they could be afraid of their attacker. If they feel as though the person who carried out the rape or assault is stronger than them or is in any place of power where they might feel bodily harm if they come forward, could fear for their lives. Instead of coming forward and risking what they feel is injury, they might just do nothing and move on. While this does hinder the police getting the perpetrators charged with the crime, it might make the victim less uncomfortable because if they do go in front of the police, they might have to risk re-remembering the pain that they went through by explaining what happened.
Which leads me into the second reason why people don't come forward. That reason is the fact that they risk skepticism in front of the police or whoever is questioning them. More often than not, there have been times where a person is explaining what happened after they were raped and/or assaulted and being told that they were being untruthful or lying. This often times comes from the court of public opinion because the woman dressed "slutty" or "scandalously" so she might have deserved what happened to her. It also happens when they are accusing someone of power and this might add to a lot of skepticism by the authorities, especially if they like or support that person or think that they would never do something like that.
Sometimes people don't come out to say anything because they are too embarrassed to come forward. Often times it isn't the fear that they might get physically attacked by their attacker for coming forward, it is the sheer fact that their name is going to be smeared all over the news. Everyone is going to know what happened to them or what they claim happened to them. While people might come out and try to console them, there will always be people who come out and again, accuse them of lying. People want to try to be strong and say that, "maybe I deserved what happened to me," or they might even say "well, he is a nice guy or she is a nice girl, this is probably just a normal occurrence and I should just forget all about it." Often times, they will try to make themselves believe that nothing ever happened so that they can keep their lives private and not try to mess up the lives of other people who may or may not deserve it.
Personally, I think it is a lot of the above. You can add in the fact that the survivor might not have enough evidence or the belief that the police won't do enough to help. I have honestly talked to women who have come forward immediately with charges and the police did not find enough evidence to convict the people responsible for the attack. A lot of times, schools do not do thorough enough investigations or absolutely no investigation at all into these crimes. I mean, yes, there are times when college rape cases are falsified, see the Rolling Stone and the University of Virginia and Duke Lacrosse rape cases for examples. As a matter of fact, people don't trust Rolling Stone because of the allegations that the magazine made attacking the accusers.
I just never understood why people have jumped on accusers of rape and sexual assault for coming out of the wood work saying that they were lying for doing so. Lets be honest, if you felt like any of the above after being raped or sexually assaulted, you kept it in for years and finally someone came out and said the same thing happened to them as what happened to you by the same person who attacked you. Wouldn't that give you the confidence to come out and say something about it? I also love it when people call accusers liberals for doing this especially when people like Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and Andrea Tantaros, who while accused Roger Ailes of sexually harassing them in the work place, are about as conservative as it gets. I don't know, it always makes me chuckle because while not coming forward often makes trying a sexual assault or rape suspects impossible it doesn't legitimate or illegitimate a possible victim of sexual assault.
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| Donald Trump and Bill Cosby |
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