Amy WashburnDec 3, 2022

THREAD:
1) I don’t talk about it much, but I am both a rape survivor, and a survivor of entirely separate gender discrimination and wrongful termination in the workplace. The laws surrounding each offense are antiquated, and often unfairly work against the victims.

TW: This thread is about rape.

Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022

2) I did not report my rape. I knew the rapist, had been in a relationship with him previously. I had invited him into my apartment, in which he had formerly been a resident, for the purpose of picking up some things he’d left behind.

I won’t get into the details of how it occurred, exactly; suffice it to say, I said no, multiple times, and he didn’t stop. I tried to push him off, and he didn’t stop.

Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022
3) I couldn’t budge him, so I endured. That didn’t make it right. He didn’t hurt me, physically. That didn’t make it right, either. He didn’t see it as rape. I did. I do. I explained to him why I did. He apologized “if I hurt you.” Well, yes, being raped hurts. I would not have been explaining it to him, if it hadn’t. I wouldn’t have taken the time – we were done with each other.
Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022
4) Neither of us had been drinking, nor were we otherwise impaired in judgment. I had no bruises, there was no physical altercation, apart from the penetration itself. It was my word against his, and I was leaving for another state the next day, unlikely ever to see him again. Can you see why I didn’t bother to report it? What would have been the point?
Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022
5) This took place long before the #MeToo movement. I’m an attorney, and while I don’t practice criminal law, I did do an externship with the public defender’s office when I was in law school.
Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022
6) I know the nationwide statistics: it’s estimated that for every 1,000 rapes, 384 are reported to police, 57 result in an arrest, 11 are referred for prosecution, 7 result in a felony conviction, and just 6 result in incarceration. Of those 6, I guarantee you, all 6 involved violence. I would have gotten about as far as Christine Blasey Ford.
Show threadAmy WashburnDec 3, 2022
7) And that’s how a lot of rape victims feel, and that’s why only just slightly more than one third of all rapes get reported. Victims don’t take reporting seriously, because when we report, we aren’t taken seriously, and most times, nothing happens.
EdenDec 3, 2022
Show threadAmy Washburn

8) Due process for defendants is necessary, and should be inviolate, don’t get me wrong – I’m a big fan of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. But when the procedures that have been built up to “protect due process” in fact run roughshod over victims, it’s time for a review.

Only 0.5% of rape cases result in arrest. That’s not due process for defendants. That’s bending over backward for them.

Dec 3, 2022 at 11:30pmWeb