There are criminal acts that will always be apart of every society. Whether we hear about it on the news, know a close friend or family member, or have experienced it ourselves, rape and sexual assault will unfortunately never go away. This has led many to throw some accusations towards the United States. Many claim that America is home to a rape culture, however, despite the fact that rape and sexual violence takes place in America, this is not the case.

For those who don’t know what a rape culture is, it is defined as “ a society or environment whose prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse.” A common argument of those who believe rape culture is rampant in the U.S. is the fact that the average sentence for rape is eight to nine years. However, this is due to the fact that a multitude of evidence is often hard to find in an act of sexual violence. Then again, some sentences for rape are life in prison when substantial evidence is found. While in prison, inmates charged with sexual assault are treated like a rapist should be, like the scum of the earth. Independent released an article about a man who spent a year in prison after being falsely accused of rape. The man, who wished to be anonymous, described his life while locked up.“They would put razor blades under the door and urinate into my cell. They threatened me and my family.” This is common in prisons throughout the United States. Those who are sent to prison truly live awful lives. Unfortunately, the legal system can not ensure the perpetrators of these horrendous crimes receive the punishment they deserve in every case but they work incredibly hard to put the right people behind bars.

Rape is, to many, the worst crime of humanity. What makes it even worse is that, as stated earlier, evidence is hard to gather on rape cases. Many trials are “he said-she said” emotional battles with minimum physical evidence. Despite this, there are some who are falsely accused and even charged with rape or sexual assault. Investigations for sexual violence trials are becoming harder as it is difficult to decipher between real and made-up claims. Many of these false claims come from the side who argue there is indeed an American rape culture yet are hindering the justice system from putting rapists away. The Duke Lacrosse team of 2006 suffered horrendous public ridicule from a false rape accusation. Ten years later, an anonymous player stated in a Business Insider article “Not a month goes by when I am not reminded of the damage those accusations have had on my reputation and the public’s perception of my character.” Lives are ruined in America when accused of rape and when people abuse the legal system to ruin a life or reputation, the are further hurting rape victims as well.

Events like the Brock Turner case (Turner was sentenced to only six months after being found guilty) have been used as a main point to push the agenda of a rape culture here in the US. Once again, the definition states “ a society whose prevailing attitudes normalize sexual assault.” With the utmost outrage, thousands of death threats, and overall hate millions have shown Turner, one would have to be ignorant to not understand that our society indeed does not accept rape. Unlike America, some countries treat their women like sub-humans. In many Islamic countries, women are seen as temptresses therefore they are covered by burkas. In countries such as Iran and Syria, they have laws that protect rapists if they simply marry their victims as Samantha Raphelson with NPR reports. Purna Sen, the policy director for UN Women states in this report that  “it's often actually from their own families that women feel under pressure to marry the man who has abused them”. Some women aren’t so lucky to even keep their life. There have been many instances where women are stoned to death for being raped as the country sees it as adultery. This is what true rape culture is.

Perhaps you’ve heard that one in five women will be sexual assaulted in college. This false statistic comes from studies that only had few respondents such as AAU’s study. Only 19.3% responded to AAU’s study because most people asked had not experienced sexual assault, and hence, they failed to participate. Despite being an inaccurate measure of American campus society, this has had a Mandela effect and is perceived as fact.

As you now know, media can alter your perception. When society is told over and over the same story, it’s hard not to buy into it. This is why we as a society need to look into what we’re being told. Yes, rape is a truly hellish crime and those who commit the act deserve nothing more than to burn, but let us stop blaming society that “we haven’t taught our boys not to rape”. Instead, let’s work as a society to help improve self-defence and awareness of situations that could lead to devastating encounter.