Since 1975, a few steps have been taken to combat this insidious crime, but not enough. A lack of funding for rape prevention and a pervasive reluctance to admit that rape in Utah has reached the level of a crisis or even to talk about it at all are all contributing to the problem.
But there should be no doubt about the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in Utah. After a national study estimated that one in five Utah women is raped at some time in her life, Utah officials were doubtful. So the state asked the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice to conduct its own survey.
The numbers were somewhat less surprising but still alarming: "Only" one in eight Utah women is raped. The survey followed another year of Utah's rate of reported rape climbing above the national average. Child molestation surpassed rape; more than 14 percent described being assaulted as a girl.
Sexual predation and the reluctance of victims to report the assaults (only 20 percent of assaults, including rape, are reported) feed on each other. Most victims were assaulted multiple times, often by the same individual. The survey indicated that many were pre-teens when the assaults began, and the victim usually knew the attacker, who was often a relative or friend of the family.
Education is the only effective weapon against rape. But Utah victim advocate organizations have to share an annual federal grant of about $300,000, the only funds available exclusively for rape prevention. Utah's state government contributes nothing.
The federal cash is divided among nine programs, primarily in schools. Programs at Utah colleges and universities are helping teach men not only to treat women with respect but to speak out against violence they may witness or hear about.
However, by the time people are of college age, damage may already have been done. Children also must be taught that no one has a right to touch another person or force them to do anything. Girls should be encouraged to report assaults to a caring person in authority. Education should take aim at attitudes that excuse sexual violence.
Such programs, and the girls and women they can help, desperately need financial and moral support of Utah's leaders.
