Lying About Rape Deeply Affects The Real Victims

9-17-2009 National:

It's not just the students and their families who are impacted by how the false rape story turned out. According to the FBI, less than 2 percent of reported rapes and other crimes end up being false accusations – but even that small percentage can have a powerful effect on real victims.

Anytime the subject of rape comes up in the news, countless victims who've survived sexual assault are affected. Aria Smith says she was raped in college two years ago by a classmate, and what's happened at Hofstra makes it tough on other victims.

"I think it definitely discourages you from coming forward because it makes it a lot more difficult for people to actually believe you when there's so many people coming up with just false stories," she says.

While Smith reported the rape to police, she says it took some time to open up about it to her friends and family.

"I realize it's not my fault and that I know I'm not to blame. Unfortunately it is a common thing, and I think speaking out against it is what will help prevent it from happening," she says.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, every 2 1/2 minutes someone in the United States is sexually assaulted, and most of the attacks are never reported.

"One of three to one out of four, depending out of what statistics you're looking at, women will experience some sort of physical violence including rape or sexual assault against them over the course of their lifetime," says Fern Fleckman of the Ryan Community Health Center.

"They hope that they're going to be fine and that it's all going to go away, but we know that people have walked around for years and years really not living at their full potential, because they're recovering from rape. They shouldn't be ashamed about needing or wanting help," says Harriet Lessel of the NYC Alliance Against Sexual Assault.

Experts in the field say it's never too late to get help, and often times it will take years for rape victims to seek out professional counseling to help heal the psychological scars. ..Source.. by Cindy Hsu