Stop Telling Women How to Not Get Raped

[Sheldon Cooper]

10. It really is just that simple.

And the difference for women is: if someone manages to get through your lock, and robs your house, he will be convicted by the jury and sent to jail. Period.

You realize that burglars are quite skilled at picking locks, right? If one door is locked, they'll find a window that isn't properly secured, and they'll come into your house. And they're very good at silently moving through your house, taking what they want while you slumber upstairs in blissful sleep. You haven't taken away their opportunity, because burglars, like rapists, will get what they want despite your best efforts at prevention.

And when they're put on trial, the defense attorney won't argue that even though your door was locked, maybe you didn't really want to keep people out. I mean, he got in through the unlocked basement window, so you didn't try very hard to keep him out, did you? They won't argue that you have no business having expensive things in your home, providing an irresistible temptation to the burglar, will they? No, they won't argue those things, and a jury wouldn't consider them as mitigating circumstances. The burglar clearly committed a crime, and off to jail he'll go.

But a woman who has been raped gets second-guessed no matter what steps she may have taken to protect herself, and in far too many cases the jury uses her 'mistakes' to let the rapist off the hook. It really is different for women.