Reasons Why Rape Victims in Indonesia Did Not Speak Up

Sumber foto: Deviantart.Com

Throughout 2013, the National Commission on Violence against Women recorded 1.074 incidents of rape in Indonesia. The number is not the exact number of incidents happened. The number is just the tip of an iceberg. Lots of the incidents were not reported. Perception that rape is a disgrace, people’s tendency to blame the victims, and injustice related to the case legal process are three reasons that caused the rape victims to keep silent.

Many people perceive rape as a disgrace. Because of this perception, rape victims usually feel ashamed after what happened to them. This is one of the psychological impacts of rape. Moreover, after the incident, the victims tend to blame themselves, feel guilty for being raped and causing family disgrace.

Rape is a crime in which people tend to doubt the victims and re-victimize them. All of these occurred because of the existence of rape myths in the society. The myths say that women ask for being raped by showing certain attitude and appearance, men rape women because they are provoked sexually by women’s dress, women enjoy rape, and so on.

Related to legal process, rape victims usually get bad experiences when they reported the incidents. Police officers tend to doubt the victims and re-victimize them, too. Furthermore, they often suggest the perpetrator to marry the victim as a form of responsibility. Even if the perpetrators are proven to rape the victims, they usually get low penalty.

From the explanation above, we can see that speaking up about rape is not easy for the victims. The psychological impact, re-victimization by others, and unjust legal process are big obstacles that keep the victims from speaking up and get justice. If there is no significant intervention for these condition, the number of rape will be higher and higher. The condition will be worse and more dangerous for women in Indonesia.


I made this essay for my final task 
in "Academic Writing" online course futurelearn.com
This essay was also submitted in http://pastie.org/private/k4qckrb0jfb9neg6rwtrkg