One of the most common questions a rape victim hears aside from “What were you wearing?” and “Were you drinking?” and “Why didn’t you fight back?” is “Did you report it to the police?” Despite studies that show that police officers are just as likely as anyone to accept rape myths along the lines that men can’t be raped, that women should be able to fight off rapists if they really want to, and that women are likely to make false rape accusations because they like the attention; and despite statistics that show that only 2 to 3 percent of rapists are ever convicted and jailed; and despite flaws in standard investigative procedures and reports of hundreds of untested rape kits; and despite reports of rapes perpetrated by cops, there still seems to be a perception, maybe perpetuated by Law and Order: SVU, that reporting a rape to the police is the first step in getting justice.
Later, Beaulieux went to police headquarters to get a copy of the report. She learned that the crime had been downgraded to criminal sexual assault. The report, when she saw it, was filled with errors, starting with the spelling of her name. It said that she and her assailant had attended a party and then left together. They stopped to buy alcohol and marijuana on the way back to her dorm room. None of this, Beaulieux says, is true.
Aside from the rape, Beaulieux has experienced two other violations, one from a massage therapist and the other during a dance class. Neither incident, she feels, warrants filing a police report, but the matrix would help her decide who she wants to know about what happened, whether she needs to take measures to insure her personal safety, and if she wants her violators to be held accountable.
