The “Weinstein effect” reverberated far outside the entertainment business, leading to an 83% increase in sexual harassment complaints in California in the first three months of 2018, and a 60% jump in New York. In Hollywood, scores of men were forced from their jobs, including actors, producers, directors and high-ranking executives.
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Well these are some depressing statistics, "A 2012 study found that only one out of every nine rape and attempted rape allegations submitted to the LAPD resulted in an arrest, and less than one in 20 resulted in a prison sentence." It seems like on paper the LAPD was doing the correct thing--"The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office was initially so overwhelmed by the volume of reports that it set up a special “entertainment task force” to review the cases," but the failure is that "to date, L.A. prosecutors have not filed a single criminal charge." I know the legal system is complex, but that is really quite baffling. It seems like movement happened in NYC due to the fact that "prosecutors have faced pressure to bring charges against Weinstein. Detectives publicly faulted prosecutors for refusing to file charges against him in 2015, and that led the governor to seek an attorney general’s investigation of the D.A.’s handling of the case." That is amazing, and I am very impressed with the public move by those detectives who put themselves on the line to publicly call out something they saw as unjust. In order for this to succeed, survivors need those in power to believe them, push and work for them, and fight for change. I don't know if thats the reality we live in.
Sexual Harassment is not a new thing in the professional world. And neither is the fact that rarely are the perpetrators of this crime are punished. And this article clearly articulates that.
When the complaint against Harvey was filed, a stir was caused in the entertainment and the muggle world. It was not because people were unaware of something like this in the entertainment world; it was the strength of the person who spoke up which appealed to people and gave the other victims the courage to speak up against such behavior.
From that day, many people have spoken up against Harvey and other such people, which has questioned the power holders of the entertainment world and how they have been successful in misusing their power.
But even with these many reports and a wide-spread movement, nothing has quite changed. Nobody has been pressed with charges and the atmosphere of oppression is pretty much the same which is depressing!
There’s a pretty widespread mentality that women who come out about their experiences with sexual assault and rape are lying. We’ve seen so many people, even in high places in the government, spout “facts” and “statistics” that hold no real statistical, logical, or biological backing. But the fact that they are saying these things impacts everyone on the lower levels, especially women. It’s sickening that only one out of every nine resulted in arrest, and less than one out of every twenty of those got a prison sentence. When you have women brave enough to talk about their experiences who are shot down and don’t get the justice they deserve, it creates this culture of women who don’t want to talk about their traumatic experiences because they think that that’ll happen to them too. I understand to some degree why it’s hard to prove these cases and actually lead to an arrest. If there’s no forensic evidence then from a completely factual and legal standpoint it would be nearly impossible to corroborate the allegations. That’s the problem with having waited so long to report an incident. I think that trying to make it less of a taboo with the #MeToo movement is a good idea and hopefully will help women come out about their problems sooner.
It’s wonderful that more attention is being brought to issues of sexual harassment in the work place and out, as well as to the unequal treatment of women in general. The #MeToo movement has made women more comfortable with telling their truth and more confident in actually being heard.
However, given the prevalence of social media and the ease of access to a wide audience, revolutions are becoming digitized and therefore spread more quickly – which can be good or bad. As the article stated, victim statements being broadcast on social media before being given to the authorities can cause a muddling of stories and a very emotion driven chain reaction.
Because of this, I can see why it would be difficult for the police to gather accurate accounts of information from victims that have been interacting with each other. Before the age of social media, victims/witnesses/suspects would all be kept separate so that one’s story would not effect the other. That is becoming increasingly more difficult.
This isn’t to speak against social media or the #MeToo movement in any way. I think we are heading in the right direction and that social media can be a great tool, but it must be used wisely. And I do believe that it has contributed to the lack of criminal charges when there have been so many accusations. Sometimes with such emotionally driven problems, it’s difficult to take a step back and make sure that our words are helping the cause and not hurting it.
This article represents a repeated problem in our society, our country, and our entire world in general. That problem is that the people in charge are not being held accountable for their actions. We saw this in 2008 with not a single major banking CEO being held accountable for their actions in destroying the economy and the housing market in the second greatest economic disaster in American history. We see this now as well with infinite issues with our President, his business ties, and his repeated dishonesty. Sexual assault in this country needs to be taken more seriously and become less taboo to report. One major issue that is mentioned in this article is that the event is reported far too late for them to act upon, making much evidence or witnesses hard to track down, if not impossible. Again, the accusations should be taken seriously, and people who are responsible should be held accountable, but we should not vilify people if they are not actually guilty.
This article left me in shock. Not one person was prosecuted? Out of hundreds? This is so discouraging in so many ways. What effect did the #metoo movement have on the legal system you ask? What this article has taught me is that the police heard over 100 cases and not a single one was prosecuted. The article cited a statistic: only 1 in 9 reports end up in a criminal charge. The author acted like this was an excuse. Where are those 11 you should have prosecuted. You had a whole freaking task force for this. Another way this article was so deeply troubling when the second half took on a victim blaming defence for their units lack of criminal charges. Namely victims coming forward to late, or victims refusing to relive their horrific experience over and over again with a criminal prosecutor. According to the article women “botched” their own case by even participating in the online #metoo movement. I’m truly horrified that the police thought it was perfectly okay to say if you post on social media “What you’re really doing is giving the person that committed the crime the opportunity to go do it again.” What the hell? I thought we were past cheap victim blaming in order to cover for your own incompetence! We can do better.
I honestly do not understand why there are still SO FEW accused rapists in jail. The #metoo movement created a safe, supportive space for women to talk to each other on social media about the horrendous crimes committed against them. You would think that a powerful movement like this may alter some of the statistics about how often rapists are actually held responsible for their actions, but alas -- it has not. I am tired of people saying that women are doing this for attention or revenge to ruin a man's life. That is crap. That is why it takes women so long to report cases. They know they won't be believed, they know there will be conspiracy theories made about them, they know justice will not be served. In the midst of the #metoo one year anniversary, and the Kavanaugh trial, a new hashtag has emerged: #WhyIDidntReport. This makes me so sad. The fact that this article says women have ruined their cases by talking about their pain on social media is crap. Their assaulters were never going to be convicted in the first place, and society just needs to find an excuse to victim blame - per usual. I think this movement is still being born, and I hope to God that we start to see some more justice served.
This is both horrifying and not surprising to me. I think part of the reason that nothing is happening is that we have very little experience as a culture or as a government prosecuting rapists or people who sexually assault. It is great that all of this is coming out but unfortunately it takes a long time for things to change and for law to catch up to culture. This is by no means an excuse but I don't believe that until we have a president who cares about this and a senate who cares about this the law will not match the ideas of the people in this country. This week has shown us over and over again that those who represent us either can't understand or don't care and it is our responsibility to get those people out of office. I hope to see a large shift in the way we use government and the way that everyone sees victims of sexual assault. The older I get the more I realize that things don't change as quickly as I want them to but that they always find a way to be right in the end. We'll get there. It will be slow and painful and we'll have to march and vote but we'll get there. Hopefully before I have a daughter.
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