April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Unfortunately, this issue isn’t as simple as telling people not to sexually assault someone. There is much more that needs to be done. 

Designating a month as Sexual Assault Awareness Month serves two purposes: to raise our awareness of the frequency of sexual assault and what sexual assault encompasses and to educate us on how to prevent sexual assault.

The facts are deeply disturbing. Sexual assault is probably the least reported  of all crimes. When reported, the conviction rate is among the lowest. Reporting sexual assault can bring shame, blame, retaliation and humiliation to the victim. If your purse is snatched, people don’t ask what you were wearing, but if you are raped, that question can be and has been asked. 

Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), the largest group working to fight sexual violence, reports a sexual assault occurs every 98 seconds in this country, and every six minutes one of those assaults involves a child. One in six women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape; for men the figure is one in 33. In more than a quarter of sexual assault cases, the perpetrator is an intimate partner, which makes defining the act as criminal emotionally fraught.

Sexual assault covers a wide range of activities. A catcaller treats others as visual scenery rated on some sexual attractiveness scale, rather than recognizing them as fellow human beings with dignity and purpose. Expecting wait staff to allow groping similarly dehumanizes people and reflects the use of power to act out in a sexual manner.  

But what about the second purpose of this month. What can we do to prevent or decrease sexual assaults?

RAINN asks people to pledge to respect others’ boundaries, ask for consent, intervene, notice and nurture one’s self and others. When you see actions or speech that are assaultive or could escalate, the RAINN group recommends four steps: create a distraction, ask directly about what is happening, refer to an authority if you do not feel comfortable or capable of handling the situation and enlist others in paying attention to the situation. 

We can all be more aware of the many ways people assault others sexually and to learn to intervene when we see it happening or are in situations that could escalate.