Guest Post: 5 Reasons Why Rape Victims Struggle for Justice

Throughout history rape has been recognized as a crime, although criminal codes – and the very definition of rape – have varied from culture to culture and from one era to another.  Whether rape victims get justice has always depended upon where (and when) they lived.  In the modern-day United States we like to think we are relatively enlightened in this regard.  We have the advantage of heightened educational and legislative efforts over the past forty years, driven largely by the feminist and human rights movements. Groundbreaking books such as Susan Brownmiller’s classic 1975 work, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, explored the dynamics of rape.  Contrary to the subtitle, Brownmiller’s book tackled not just male-on-female rape, but also homosexual rape (particularly in prisons) and the sexual assault of children.  The net result of four decades of education is that attitudes and laws are more protective of the victims than they used to be, at least in the U.S. and many other First World countries.