In Oneonta, police received a total of 12 rape cases in 1999, up from five the previous year. The majority of those were acquaintance-rape cases, according to Detective Sgt. The increase in the number of rape accusations is even more disturbing when you figure in how many victims choose not to report the attacks to rape crisis centers or the police. Many young women do not want to go through the ordeal of a rape trial. They know that their actions during the incident will be excruciatingly picked apart by a defense attorney to the point that the victim will feel she is the one on trial.
Some girls feel a terrible shame in the mistaken notion that it is all somehow their fault.
Maybe I was dressed too provocatively or somehow sent the wrong signals to him. I'm probably to blame. I shouldn't have been drinking that night and when I let him kiss me he must have gotten the wrong idea. All that is terribly misguided, of course. Letting any rapist off the hook is never a good idea and only leads to more rape and more misery.