To be enraged there is no outcry over the scale of violence against women and girls?

[NoLoveofMine]

Just a handful of the girls and women attacked and in some cases murdered by men unknown to them for no other reason than their sex in the UK in the last few months alone:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-40529081
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/27/man-arrested-in-manchester-over-alleged-of-four-year-old-girl
www.itv.com/news/london/2017-04-24/e-fit-appeal-after-12-year-old-girl-sexually-assaulted-in-swimming-pool/
www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/15339336.Mother_speaks_out_about_sex_attacker_who_assaulted_her__brave__daughter_after_getting_off_Twickenham_bus/?ref=mrb&lp=14
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/28/man-who-raped-stranger-hours-before-his-wedding-given-life-term
www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15280636.VIDEO___Dangerous__rapist_jailed_for_life___but_are_there_more_victims_/
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40345133
www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2017-02-28/police-outraged-by-rape-attack-in-ipswich/
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rape-sex-attack-manchester-manhunt-13236465
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-39377626
amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/apr/12/vadims-ruskuls-jailed-murder-pardeep-kaur-hotel-worker-m4
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/police-step-up-patrols-after-15yearold-girl-sexually-assaulted-in-twickenham-a3592681.html
www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/chiswick-assault-woman-19-shoved-to-ground-and-repeatedly-punched-in-random-attack-a3429646.html

Just a small number of those I can remember off hand (which actually made any news) from the last 10 months alone. Then, to compound them all, there was this:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-40763620

Pretty much all of these made only small local news. I just do not understand how people can't see the scale of this and how people can't fear for their daughters.

Thank you stella

I get that some people make those dreadful comments when seeing rape cases

But have these people no shame, no brain!!

MNHQ

Do you have a formal definition of victim blaming for reporting purposes

Is it done on a post by post basis

Maybe if we can start on this site...

"It's fucking everywhere

Yep, even right here on MN. There was a case a while ago, local to me, where a 19 year old was convicted of the rape of a 14 year old he met on a night out. The comments on here and on FB were disgusting, blaming the girl, her parents, anyone except the perpetrator. Loads of support for the rapist, how his life had been ruined etc.. Comments along the lines of 'well how was he to know, are we expecting men to ask for ID now?'. Well, yes it'd be a fucking start.

Oh and he was let off with a slapped wrist .

Thing is misogyny is deeply ingrained in our society and upbringing. People I trusted and thought would help me, turned their backs. In fact most people have in some way blamed me and it's not cos they are bad people, per se, it's because they are, like all of us, part of a twisted, warped society. Most of those who have hurt me with their attitudes have done so out of ignorance.

Police who would rather victim blame, a church, a school, but really, most people.

Rape jokes and cat calling, "slut shaming" use of words such as "bitch" stuff like that, that is every day and seen as normal.

Don't even get me started on the transgender stuff

I remember that LowGravity. In fact I think the girl was 12, though it'd be abhorrent either way of course.

It is all about respect and I think gradually women as being less and less respected it's a slow drip drip effect.

The popularity of people like Kim kardashian, the wide eyed shocked selfie with the duck pout. Religion where in most women are seen as second to men. the fact that we are not encouraged to challenge people because woman are taught to be apologetic and accommodating. We bend over backwards to appease men and we must stop.

Yes, you're right, she was 12, remembered after i posted.

I had a look at the ONS link and it plays down the 20% increase in sexual assault. Instead it puts it at 0.3% rise from last year, stating that this isn't really an increase. Well actually it is.
20% is a massive increase. They state this most likely an increase in people reporting. So basically they haven't a clue.
I bet most women have been sexually harassed, assaulted, raped at some point in their life. There are so many issues around reporting this that stops most people. Also it's ingrained in women to accept. Like the dick pic thread, a lot of women don't even recognise it's happening.

I think any campaign to encourage more women to report is kinda flawed unfortunately. There's at least one 'should I report what just happened' thread on here every weekend, and the way women who have reported talk about how they were subsequently treated... I couldn't in all conscious push another woman to go through that. Very often the 'it's your responsibility to report' line is used, which is just another form of victim blaming really, although of course it comes from a different place.

I wonder if there's anything we (MNers) could do about amplifying the Everyday Sexism campaign tho? I'd be happy to share, for example, my historical sexual assault if it helps build a picture of how widespread this shit is. But I didn't report it, and 30 years on, I couldn't report it now. No-one knows it happened.

Also whether it's increasing or not, it's widespread and generally only makes small local news. Two 15 year old girls have been sexually assaulted whilst going about their days in broad daylight in one small area of London alone - Twickenham - in the past few months, by different attackers, yet it's scarcely reported beyond their local news site.

As you also say AtSea this doesn't even factor in the street harassment which many women and girls suffer regularly from such a young age yet is often passed off as just something to expect.

Another poster has already said this but I will say it again. I think this due to an increase in pornography and how mainstream and available it's become. There are over sexualised images of women and girls everywhere, one of the reasons I came off Instagram. Women who are overly sexualised are idolised (Kardashians). Women and their body's are not respected by men or females. Women are seen as purely sex objects. Due to pornography nen expect women to act out those fantasies. Girls and women feel pressured to live up to them. I truly worry for my DD all the time, sins of the things she tells me she has heard and seen at her school turn my stomach.

How about a Campaign telling men not to rape.

No one cares because men think they are more important than females. Women and girls are insignificant. We're still second class citizens, in the view of many.

30 years shouldn't make a difference.
However the way things are handled is terrible. I have not had positive experiences with the police. Instead my reporting of ex's who think they are entitled to do what they want has lead to the police claiming I'm an unfit mother which has then meant XH who is nasty has contact with DC which is worrying.

stella there's a much wider issue here though. But rape is the most severe so I see your point.

Much time and effort is spent on campaigns educating women and girls how to stay safe and try to avoid being attacked. But where is the education for the potential attackers to stop these crimes happening in the first place? Why should we be frightened to walk along a street even in broad daylight in a residential area? I'm not usually a nervous person but I'll admit that I was concerned about the cars driving past me as I walked home yesterday afternoon. I'm well aware that something like this could happen to me, my sister, or my friends at any time.

What I don't understand is that these men must have sisters, daughters

stella there's a much wider issue here though. But rape is the most severe so I see your point.*

Yes yours are absolutely right, just get fed up with the onus being on women again.

In my view there needs to be a big push back against how accessible pornography is to our children it's the most damaging element. If you are a teen boy and have never had a girlfriend and all you see is porn. Your views of girls/women will be shaped by it. There is also a huge number of girls who watch porn too so we need to think about the impact on girls too.

Well I've recently seen a thread on here talking about the vigilante groups who try to catch child sex abusers. Some of the comments on that thread were interesting. Some posters were more concerned about the perpetrators rather than the risk and harm these people posed to children. I think this is a wider issue with several threads.

1. What it means to be a girl and woman is being threatened
2. There is an increase of child sexual offences from adults to children/ lenient sentences
3. There seems to be a story everyday in the papers of professionals eg. Teachers have sex with their pupils. Apparently that's ok as they get lenient sentences if at all.
4. The easy access children have to pornography
5. The increase of sexual and physical violence between young people
6. The increase of sexual violence onwards women

To be honest I wish simple things such the watershed would be brought back. The days when certain content would not be shown on tv before 9pm. There is an increase in sexualised, violent programming also easily accessible to children, but I fear it's too late to turn back the tide.

So many lines have been eroded and all of these things are placing our children but specifically girls and women at increased risk

As far as the stats are concerned this is the first year in decades that crime stats have increased largely due to the increase in reported sexual offences but unfortunately this is being downplayed by the government as the PM was the home sec who has cut police numbers to their lowest level in decades and refuses to believe that may be part of the reason.

Unfortunately due to the under reporting of sexual offences today and in the past we will never truly know the scale of the problem (except to know that it is worse than we think) or whether it is increasing or decreasing. I think that it is incouraging that the number of reported sexual offences has increased in the last year as I truly believe that this is because there is more confidence to report.

I know the police are not perfect in all this but things have changed and huge improvements are being made in the way sexual offences are dealt with and hopefully there will also be a rise in detection rates (haven't seen any stats on this). Unfortunately the police are still being stripped of resources which isn't helping matters.

Some stats from gov.scot (Scotland)

Sexual assault accounted for 39% of Sexual crimes in 2015-16. This category has been on an upward trend since 2011-12, having increased by 36% since that time. This includes a 6% increase from 3,727 in 2014-15 to 3,963 in 2015-16.

Rape & attempted rape accounted for 18% of Sexual crimes. with Rape & attempted rape increasing by 60% overall between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

In the five years from 2010-11 to 2015-16, sexual crimes in England & Wales increased by 64% compared with 43% in Scotland and 42% in Northern Ireland.

Yes, as often pointed out these increases are in part due to increased reporting but not wholly. And let's not forget these stats are based on the 15% of victims who do report. As mentioned previously, regardless of stats we know sexual violence against women is widespread and by and large ignored by our sexist and patriarchal society.

I've never forgotten an article by Jill Tweedie during the Yorkshire Ripper murders - asking why decent men kept quiet about violence against women. It changed the way I thought.

I wish I'd cut it out and kept it as I can't find it online - couldn't even see it in the Guardian archive.

I'm mother of a son incidentally.

I dont think a campaign telling more women to report is where to start

I think making it an utterly abhorrent crime and stopping people from victim blaming would be a start

Once just about every comment is about the perpetrators guilt rather than the victims fault then more reporting would follow

When women call girls who wear hairbows tacky and chavvy And likely to be pregnant at 15, and use language such as those type of girls, we have a massive problem that wont be solved any time soon.

When we have women at mnhq who allow 9 year old girls to be called chavvy tacky and likely to be pregnant at 15 for wearing a hairbow stand, we have aassive problem.