The US Department of Justice has found substantial evidence that a county attorney’s office in Montana has used excuses such as “boys will be boys” to account for incredibly lenient or dropped charges of rape and abuse. Survivors have been demeaned, diminshed, and re-victimized in litigation processes because of blatant sexism. This is disheartening and sickening to hear.
Rape and abuse are never the survivor’s fault. That is worth repeating; no matter what an attorney might say or do, rape and abuse are never the survivor’s fault. “Boys will be boys” is never an appropriate explanation, and our hearts go out to the survivors that have had to deal with hearing this come out of the mouths of people in positions of authority.
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Not only is this disrespectful to survivors, but this is disrespectful to the male sex as a whole. Not all men are perpetrators of assault, abuse and rape, and “boys will be boys” seems to imply that violent behavior is just part of being a man.
It is 2014, and the fact that this kind of behavior is being uncovered by federal officials is pathetic. For all the progress our society has made, some people still find it necessary to place blame on survivors and not perpetrators, and this needs to stop. Victim-blaming and shaming should not ever be tolerated.
