Tonight, our guest speaker was Kim from RAAP, Rape Assistance and Awareness Program. She presented us with some interesting figures about rape. According to the handout, Colorado law defines sexual assault as sexual penetration either orally, vaginally or anally with another person who does not consent. Consent itself is an agreement of free will between two people with all information relevant to the act.
In Colorado the age of consent is 15. However, if a person is under 15 and the other party is more than 4 years older, it is considered statutory sexual assault. There are other conditions about being in a position of trust and such, too. Consent cannot be given if either party is: intoxicated, forced, threatened, coerced, unconscious or outside the age of consent.
I was surprised at how high the rate of occurrence is. 1 in 4 girls, 1 in 6 boys, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 17 men will be victims of an attempted or completed sexual assault. Even more staggering is the number of 60 percent of rapes/sexual assaults is not reported to police. This is what the attackers want. Silence is their ally. Considering the stigma and shame associated with being a victim, it’s no wonder attacks are not reported. This society still, on some level, blames the victim. This needs to stop. No one deserves to be sexually assaulted. Shine a light on this issue and examine it. That is one way to help deter this horrible crime on our fellow humans.
