Still turning a blind eye - Confronting sex crimes

We are very quick to condemn the public gang rapes, sometimes followed by the victim’s murder, that seem routine in India.

We don’t waste a moment to condemn scandals like the abuse rings uncovered in Rotherham in recent weeks. We recoil in horror when the insane extremists of Isis take a break from beheading or crucifying their victims to rape and abuse women or girls, but we are far less animated about confronting the culture that allows so many sex crimes to be committed in this society with impunity.Today, the head of the Rape Crisis Network, Ellen O’Malley-Dunlop, warns that many of those who commit sex crimes in this society do so without any consequences. She warns that “these heinous crimes” and our response to them are surrounded by ignorance, fear, and myth.

She writes too that victims are often reluctant to report attacks because they feel they will not be believed or that they might be accused of provoking the attack. The picture she paints is of a dysfunctional and darkly dishonest society that because it refuses to confront these ever-present demons facilitates them.