Media And Rape Victims

            The names of rape victims traditionally have been withheld by the news media, in order to protect them. Yet, many people question whether this special treatment actually does rape victims wrong: In the sense that they are separating them from other victims of violent crimes. I strongly believe that it's up to the individual victim to decide weather or not they want their name and picture announced and published on the news. There are many victims that chose not to be reminded of the nightmare they went through. However, there are victims that want to express their brutal attacks. In my opinion, I personally wouldn't want my picture or name announced as a rape victim, for the fact of being judged before being known. .
             Rape victims continue to be the best-kept secrets in the nation's newsrooms. Since withholding rape victim names is so widely accepted, if the mistake is made of naming the victim, they simply apologize for their error and find themselves justifying their actions to other news organizations as well as the audience. The decision not to print rape victims" names is a matter of sense and sensibility. I think it's common sense that they get permission from the victims before publishing their names. Many victims feel the rapists are not punished, as they should be. Rapists are rarely successfully prosecuted. For every 100 rapes reported in this country, only five rapists end up in prison. Sentences are relatively light, averaging 10.5 years, and the usual time served is approximately five years.(1) .
             In reading an article regarding rape victims, it states, women are not use to talking about the rape if it happened to them. Women under 18 are often too terrified to tell their parents because they were either drinking or hanging out with the wrong crowd, when they were attacked. .
             The top concerns expressed by rape victims were; their families finding out they had been raped, people believing the rapes were their fault, people outside the family learning that they had been raped, and their names being made public by the news media.