TOW 15 - In This Rape Case, the Victim Was 4 (Nicholas Kristof)

I’ve been watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit for as long as I can remember. No matter how many disclaimers they place in the beginning of the show, they will never convince me that the storylines are fiction. The plot in most episodes turns my stomach, add in the images, expressions, and dialogue and it simultaneously sends chills down my spine. But simply reading words on a computer screen gave me the same, if not worse, effect. I appreciate Nicholas Kristof stating simply the facts for the first half of the article because in a case like this the situation speaks for itself. Not only does Kristof use this structure to appeal to his audience, but in his title he states “the Victim was 4” and then in the first statement continues talking in a sense by describing her: “She’s a 4 year old named Ida…” Kristof encourages his American audience to spread awareness of sexual abuse in other countries besides the States. Immediately, connecting to something most Americans understand, Kristof establishes the price it would cost Ida’s family to arrest her rapist: $11.50. Number after number, Kristof throws statistics at his audience comparing the rape statistics of the 1970s to now, the arrests of the United States to third world countries that don’t have the same luxuries, the attitudes of men from different places, different eras, different lifestyles; the first two showing drastic differences, the latter not so much. There are bold statements in this article that provoked a variety of emotions within me personally, from disgust to empowerment to sympathy. One in particular spoke volumes to the idea of rape culture: “You were drinking. You were making out with him. You still call it rape?” That’s how Kristof describes the past view of rape in law enforcement and since the decline of that idea there has been a decrease in the number of rapes in the last four decades. Yes rape has declined since the 70s, but society has progressed immensely, so yeah I’d hope that number would be lower than it was. Yes America has made a nice start to putting rapists behind bars, and yes other nations should follow its footsteps in that sense, but rape culture is still prominent and thriving. Kristof is right to call out the Nigerian government and their lack of support for rape victims, but I think he embellished a bit on the United States’ amount of support.

A child, 4, waits to give a statement to the police in a rape case in Nairobi, Kenya, where many rapes go unprosecuted. Audrey Hall/Show of Forcehttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/opinion/sunday/kristof-in-this-rape-case-the-victim-was-4.html?ref=opinion