My co-workers shared that today, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 is Denim Day in LA. http://www.denimdayinla.org/
History
Italy, 1992
An 18-year old girl is picked up by her married 45-year old driving instructor for her very first lesson. He takes her to an isolated road, pulls her out of the car, wrestles her out of one leg of her jeans and forcefully rapes her. Threatened with death if she tells anyone, he makes her drive the car home. Later that night she tells her parents, and they help and support her to press charges. The perpetrator gets arrested and is prosecuted. He is convicted of rape and sentenced to jail.
He appeals the sentence. The case makes it’s all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. Within a matter of days the case against the driving instructor is overturned, dismissed, and the perpetrator released. In a statement by the Chief Judge, he argued, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”
Enraged by the verdict, within a matter of hours the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened the California Senate and Assembly to do the same, which in turn spread to Patricia Giggans, Executive Director of Peace Over Violence, and Denim Day in L.A. was born.
Facts
Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.
One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department, there were 1,117 rapes during the year 2003, with only 260 rape suspects arrested.
82.8% of rapes committed by an intimate are not reported to the police.
35% of college men who voluntarily participated in psychological research conducted at several universities indicated they might commit a rape if they knew they could get away with it. (That's HORRIFIC!!)
Two million children around the world are forced into prostitution every year.
Law enforcement arrests for Internet sex crimes against minors is on the rise.
15,000 to 19,000 people with developmental disabilities are raped each year in North America.
Survivors deserve support and assistance, not shame and blame.
We want to build healthy relationships, families and communities free from sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence.
Take a look at this flyer.
http://www.denimdayinla.org/actionkit/15_ways_flyer.pdf
Please do your part people.
Peace.
2 comments:
thank you for posting this very enlightening and much needed information. i personally know the effects of sexual abuse, assualt, and rape. it's ironic that i keep reading things like this because a couple of months ago i said i wanted to volunteer at a center for sexual abuse survivors and i know for sure it's my calling.
this is extremely important for us to be aware of and not ignore, my aunt who is developmentally chanllenged was sexually assualted so i know all to well about this type of thing...
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