Did she ask for it?

I was excited to see this op-ed printed in yesterday's New York Times, especially since this sensitive issue was being tackled by a man, Nicholas Kristof (I love him by the way, he's written lots of pieces about trafficking). I've watched a lot of Law and Order in my time and in every rape case they treat the victim well, expedite her rape kit, have results almost instantly, and then go out there and catch the bad guy.

Well...that's not quite real life. Human Rights Watch released a 68-page report last week about the status of rape kits in LA County and the results were positively frightening: "...in Los Angeles County, there were at last count 12,669 rape kits sitting in police storage facilities. More than 450 of these kits had sat around for more than 10 years, and in many cases, the statute of limitations had expired."

Ok, so rape kits can be expensive and unfortunately not every woman who she was raped actually was. Yet we let this small small minority of cases taint the way we see all rape victims. Not to mention the social stigma--if a woman walks around in revealing clothing or makes any sort of overture to a man then she must have been "asking for it." Kristof asserts, and I agree, that the lack of urgency assigned to rape indicates that sexual crimes are still not seen as the serious rights abuses that they are.