One in four means one of my roommates. By the end of my four years at the University, that one in four could be me. Yet the University Police reports a startlingly low number of rapes in recent years. In 1995, there were no reports of rape at all. In 1996, only one was reported.
Rapes occur and go unreported.
After the trauma of assault, many women cringe at the idea of confronting the hassle of administrative details or the humiliation of a trial. This need for privacy is understandable. When someone assaults another person, he or she violates that person's privacy. The desire to regain that privacy is a natural reaction. Keeping those stories confined to small groups, however, exacerbates the problem by making it seem non-existent.