Americans have taken to social media to share why they didn’t report their sexual assaults with the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport, a harrowing follow-up to #MeToo. It all comes in the wake of a tweet from US president Donald Trump questioning the account of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, of attempting to sexually assault her while both were in high school.
For days, Trump has shown unusual restraint when talking about Ford, who may testify in front of the US Senate Judiciary Committee next week. On Friday (Sept. 21) something changed:
Based on federal data, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) says that two out of three sexual assaults go unreported to the police. Part of the reason people are reluctant to go to law enforcement is that so few rapists actually get punished: only about seven rapes per 1,000 result in a felony conviction, according to RAINN. But there are myriad other reasons, which hundreds of Twitter users, largely women, have recounted, sharing their own stories:
Some shared what happened when they did report their assault, further emphasizing the point: