Jump to content

You didn't report it...


Guest

Recommended Posts

soulconstance

I'm not sure if I could have gone through a trial... I probably would have broken down. It would have given me so doubt and I think I doubted and tore myself apart enough.

But there are days I still regret it, knowing that he's still out there and probably assaulting someone else..... :angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never reported most of my assaults.

With the rape, the way it happened, I doubt the police would even see it as rape. I also didn't acknowledge it as such for three years after. Now, even if I could technically file a report, I'm plain scared of secondary wounding from ignorant people if I speak out. It's hard enough for me to tell my story.

With my b-brother, so many "experts" see sibling abuse as normal, experimental, whatever... again, I wonder if someone is going to label it as fooling around and not take me seriously. I have lived long enough with that, I don't want to hear it again :( Not only that but I thought with my b-mother knowing when it happened, that was enough... until she too labeled it as normal and basically took his side.

I've since informed my extended family what he did, as well as some of my b-father's inappropriate behavior. They are all siding with my b-family and have even suggested they sue me. So now I'm afraid if I go to the authorities and they find out it'll add fuel to the fire.

I never reported my fourth grade teacher to the police, but I did finally tell the current principal a couple of years ago. She actually did a lot of footwork and talked to old teachers and the former principal for me, she too didn't want this guy out and about to hurt other kids... turned out he'd died a few years ago after spending 20 years in a wheelchair from a horrible motorcycle accident, probably no more than a year after what he did to me. As evil as it sounds that to me was a blessing and sentence enough, it guaranteed he couldn't hurt another child.

My childhood T filed a report with the authorities as part of her legal obligation when I told her about a former next door neighbor molesting me while babysitting when I was two or three. I think I was about 16 when we did this... I was really surprised at how EMPOWERED I felt. That T has since died and I have no idea where my former neighbor is anymore... he and his family moved away when I was in preschool. It's been suspected that his father was at the least molesting his sister and maybe even him.

Yes, I have wondered if there are others, and yes if there are I would feel sick over wondering if I could have stopped it sooner, and yes I would feel like I committed a sin of omission. But at this point, I feel like I'm doing the best I can to break the cycle by telling others when someone is dangerous, especially since statutes probably prevent legal action from being taken anyway... and ultimately it is still the PERP who is responsible for his or her own actions!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

For many years and still today sometimes I feel guilty for not turning in that, so called, man of the cloth. I was given the opportunity to do so. The district head members of that particular denomination placed me in a room and asked me what I would like to do about it. I asked them, "How many believed me." None would really answer. Their response was, "That is irrelevant right now. This is not a trial. We are here to find out what you want to do about this situation." I, feeling like they didn't believe me anyway, and fearful I didn't have enough evidence to prove my case said, "I want him to get counseling." I wanted that in hopes it would change him and he wouldn't harm another child. They asked me several questions. I felt like I was on trial. One question that really sticks out in my mind is, "How are you going to prove that this happened?" I froze, because I felt I knew they didn't believe me and I couldn't think of any way to prove. I was so young, what did I know how to do such things? The one thing that made me the angriest was my dad had taped all our phone conversations, and never mentioned them to me or anyone else until a year or so later. I thought it is too late to do anything about all of this now. Again, the guilt has haunted me for years, just knowing this, so called, man of the cloth might hurt someone else, only she would be hurt worse than me.

After reading some of these entries, I realized that most of you are right. I am not responsible for his or my dads' actions, only mine. I did what I could do with the knowledge I had at the time. I felt I did all I could do. I even went with the advice of the assistant pastor of the Church. I also realized that even if he was convicted, who is to say that when he was released that he wouldn't do it again to someone? Putting predators away usually just stop them for a little while. They don't stop at that. My biological father molested my sister and myself and only got 2 yrs. in the pen. After his release he continued his old habits. Years later, he found us again. I can only speak for myself, but he began to 'rape' me over and over for a few more years to come. I didn't know what to do. The thought never crossed my mind to turn him in, because I felt I was just as much at fault as he was. Actually in almost all of my 'rapes' I felt like I asked for it to happen. I must admit, I still do sometimes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to think that I'm not responsible if my 1st 2 abusers did it agian, because I was too young to speak up in the first place! :bawling: blondie24

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd like to think that I'm not responsible if my 1st 2 abusers did it agian, because I was too young to speak up in the first place! :bawling: blondie24

Hun, that is what we are trying to say here. You are definitely not responsible at all. Being too young to speak brings no fault to you at all, actually whether you were too young or not, if they decide to do this again then they are responsible for their own action. You just need to comfort that child within, hun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It happened when I was very young. My parents went to the police and it was documented but they felt were shouldn't proceed because I was very young and didn't have the vocabulary to go into intimate details.

When I was 13 I got very sick with anorexia and my parents thought the reason I kept getting sick was because I didn't have "closure" so they tried to reopen the case. When the proceedings were moving on I stopped eating completely and ended up in the ICU with heart and kidney damage. After that I kept relapsing over and over and went in and out of hospitals for 6 years.

My T tells me now that the only way I could get my family and the police to listen to me was to stop eating. I did want justice but I was still very young (I mean 13 I was still in elementry school) but I was very scared. That was the only way I could at the time get the message across that I didn't want to do this - even if I couldn't just say the words.

All my T said it wasn't my fault. That I was young and shouldn't expect so much from myself. That I was very sick and understandable terrified. Thats proceeding with the case wouldn't necessarily deter him from doing it again....but that doesn't always make me feel any better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

little_miss_cliche

I didn't report it either simply because there was too much going against me for it to ever get any further than being a statement at the bottom of a huge paper pile and I was scared. I understand the guilty feeling, but we are sometimes only strong enough to do so much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I must admit it never occurred to me to feel guilty. I was too busy being angry.

Triggers - lots of them

I blocked my CSA from my memory for over 20 years, only vaguely recalling that something happened whenever I was stumped by my own behaviour. When it did come back it was far to late to consider doing anything about it, combined with my memory being full of gaps and no ability whatsoever to figure out how old I was in any of my memories. In my memory, my life starts when I was 9 with odd flashbacks to another movie. My older brother was one of the abusers and my mother refuses to entertain any notion that I know what I'm talking about. I suspect that he abused one of my nieces... someone sure did. And the only thing I could do was to start talking about my abuse loudly so he'd get scared. I think it worked.

When I was 16 my boyfriend raped me at a party. We were both on acid. He asked a guy outside of the room for a knife but the guy said no. Potentially that makes him a witness. My boyfriends best friend. Not good for me. Also not good for me that about 10 people saw me making out with him earlier and saw me walk into the room with him. On my side would be that I had a scab running the length of my spine for a week or two after that night until it peeled off. As I said, I was on acid. Where's my case?

When I was 33 I went to a friend's house for dinner and "civilised conversation" as I had requested for the evening plans. Expected to leave early in the evening. His house. No witnesses. I had two martinis which I figure later were either triples or contained a drug. Woke up tied to his bed. Miraculously got away with it just being assault and not rape. This one is one I wanted to report. My boyfriend (on and off) who lived with the guy asked me to drop it. Told me I should have known better. History: I had engaged in a threesome with the both of them many months earlier. My boyfriend, if pressed, would have testified against me.

When I was 34 I suffered a back injury and was an invalid for about a month. I used a bar stool to get around my house as I couldn't walk. My employer, whom I had been dating and was breaking up with, brought my cheque to the house for me. I was making coffee. When my back spasmed I leaned over the stool. He raped me from behind... but was kind enough to pull my pants up again when he was done. I almost pressed charges until it became evident that he would tell them I had not done my job properly and he had brought me my last cheque. Claiming the rape charges were backlash for being fired. So I'd also lose the $2000 they still owed me... and he's the type to sue for slander if I lost the case.

Guilt? I never had a chance at winning. None of them.

I did however, find a way to get the last asshole fired and cost him $18 000. Better than nothing.

I have a lot of admiration for the women that put themselves at such risk to see justice done. I wish justice was done more often. You all deserve better.

Edited by ursula
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

we're never responsible for assholes that rape. i know that many women feel guilt for not pressing charges but it is simply not our guilt to bear if this person goes on to offend. any offence prior to us and after us is their responsibility.

that said, i felt guilty for a long time for not bringing particularly my stepfather to justice for what he did. but when i considered the odds, they were stacked way in the favour of him. a police officer of considerable standing and me a teenage runaway. who would have been believed? police always stick up for their own. i also had very little evidence to back up my story. but it is something i've made peace with now and have had to in order to heal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
ScribeGirl13

The first time it happened, I tried to tell someone. No one would listen. I was laughed at and I was called a liar by my mother. I was five at the time.

The second time; I didn't bother to report it, even though it was someone else that time.

The third time, the person responsible tried to have me commited to a mental institution for 'outlandish acusations'.

And then it was my boyfriend who I lived with; and I had no other friends nor a support system.

The next time, I didn't think I could report being raped by a woman; as I myself am female. I didn't know if it still counted. ((Does it?))

The last time, I decked the man who tried. Broke his nose, in three places and a knuckle in my right hand. The violence didn't solve anything, though I did get away. ^_^ A plus, I suppose. But I really wish I didn't have to hit him.

I probably won't report them. I don't know if it would change anything. And while they may or may not do what they did to me to someone else; the statue of limitations has expired on three of them so what difference would it make?

I feel guilty; but at the same time, whenever I tried to tell someone before, they didn't believe me. And when I try to get help, things go from bad to worse.

I called a local help center in Tampa and the woman said that it would be 90 dollars since I wasn't a "high risk" case. So because I'm not going to kill myself I have to pay 90 bucks? I don't have that money. I don't have ANY money to spare. What the hell?

Edited by ScribeGirl13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
enraged2009

I will start off my first post on this newly joined forum in the You didn't report it section as I have finally decided to share my experiences albeit pretty anonymously.

When I was a young (about 4-6 years old) I was molested by my older cousin who is 8 1/2 years older than me. (that would have made him 12-14 years old) I don't recall much about all that happened but I have flashes of things that a young girl should have not had to remember.

My parents divorced when I was 3 years old leaving my mother a 23 year old single mom and scared to death. She tried to make it on her own, paying a home mortgage, all the utilities, while working as a newly hired nurse at a hospital (for those who know new nurses tend to get the crappy schedules) plus raising a pretty mellow 3 year old child. She would drop me off at my grandparents house most days so a babysitter wasn't really too much an issue.

When I was about 4 years old she met my step-father and he stayed over most nights after about 8 months of dating. He was young, bold, and manly but terrified of kids. He tried his hand at watching me while my mom worked, I am sure that he did fine as he turned out to be quite a dad later on in my life, and finally suggested we move in with my mother's sister and her boyfriend (who was his buddy) in a house together to save money. Sounded simple enough right? The deal was set and the house was rented.

I don't remember much about it as I was so little but I do remember I shared a room with one of my male cousin's. This cousin was about 1 1/2 years older than me and my best friend in the world. His older brother had his own room, my mom and stepdad had theirs and my aunt and her boyfriend had theirs.

I don't remember a time line so I can't really say if the abuse started right after moving in with them or after a time. Flashes of memories come to me to this day as if I am watching a tv screen through currents of water tumbling down a drain. Blurry then clear then blurry then clear. Most of what I remember is having fun with bunny rabbits and dogs and playing hide and go seek but the blurry images are of my older cousin being left as a babysitter and giving me baths everytime my mother would leave us alone. Another blurry almost out of body image of me watching from behind him laying my little body down on the bed and me asking "Do you want me to not put on panties again?" Blurry images of him having me lay beside him on a couch covering us with an afghan to slip his hand down my pants while watching Scooby Doo on tv. Flashes of his younger brother being in the room watching also come to me as well.

I can say I do not ever remember any penetration with anything other than his fingers.

I recall laying on the couch one time begging and crying to my mother to put desitin on my "poopie" because it hurt taking my panties off and pointing to the affected area. This particular memory plagues me as everytime I think of it it is always taking place in the house we lived before we moved in with my cousins but I have no recollections of anyone else touching me inappropriately.

I remember times when my mother would tell me to take my hands out of my pants and to not touch my private parts or her not being able to understand why I would never have underwear on under my pjs or would fight her to put them on when she was getting me ready for school.

I can say that these events do not really invoke fear in me as I never remember being afraid of him even when he did have his hands down my pants. I do later in life have a violated feeling when thinking of these events and wished I did or could find the guts to "out him" to the family. I do know without a doubt that I wouldn't be believed by the majority of my family and these events have lived longer than the statute of limitations so no criminal charges can be filed. So I almost get a feeling of why bother to even bring it up? My only fear is that he may have done the same to my little sisters or his daughters or even the kids that his wife babysits.

He is supposed to be a reformed changed Christian who has accepted Christ into his life but has recently morphed back into the pot smoking alcoholic he used to be. Maybe his behavior change is what prompted my tightrope walk down the path of seriously thinking of reporting him. In my quest to heal myself I do not want to ruin this man's life for the things he did as a child but on the other hand if I find he has done the same or worse to other children how will I feel that I didn't report him then? I hope for his sake that if he has truly become a man of God that he has sincerely asked Jesus to forgive him. Because as Jesus did say "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences!" I have opened up to my husband and bestfriend who are wonderful supports for me. I guess time will tell as to the actions I will need to take to get myself centered. I am 31 years old now and still cry as I think of those times and events that stripped me of my innocence so many years ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

My thoughts are on two levels. On a rational, objective basis, I don't think we can ever take responsibility for someone else's actions. Even if we give someone step-by-step instructions, they make the choice to follow them. Many of us know what it's like to act through fear or threat or actual violence/force but I don't think we can apply any of that to rapists or abusers. They're the ones who inflict the violence. They're responsible for their own actions, whether or not we report what they've done to us. We're just as powerless over whether they attack someone else as we were when they attacked us.

On a less rational, subjective basis, I think I would feel responsible if I found out any of my perps had hurt someone else. I know I'd never forgive myself, I'd always wonder whether it would have happened if I'd said something. The fear that my dad would abuse another child led me to report him 2 years ago. No charges were brought because there wasn't enough evidence. He did lose his job though, where he had contact with children. He learned I wasn't going to keep quiet any longer and I'm not afraid of him any more. The guy who raped me when I was 12 was the son of someone my dad worked with. I didn't tell anyone because I thought I'd get into trouble or wouldn't be believed. I guess I saw it as him being an ignorant, hormone-driven teenager rather than a rapist. I don't think I even realised a 15 year old could be a rapist. Even though he threatened me with a knife so I'd keep quiet...he's a paramedic now. Would I feel responsible if he attacked someone else? Hell yeah.

The last time I was raped was after a night out at uni, we'd spent most of the night talking and drinking, people had seen us laughing and having a good time. If I accused him of rape, no one would have believed me - least of all the police. It's the misconstrued 'girl has a few drinks, goes too far with a guy then cries rape' stereotype that defense lawyers latch onto faster than fruitflies on a rotten banana.

Either way, I guess it doesn't matter whether we're actually responsible. Point is we feel it, however hard we try to tell ourselves otherwise. And it doesn't help that so few reports result in trials or convictions, that we're made out to be the perps and the perps made out to be victims. Who can blame us for not reporting when it'd more than likely end up with us being hurt even more than we are already?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I tried to report it but it did no good, the police did not even listen to me. I know he will get away with it and that is the hardest part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

astralvigilante

I had no idea that it was actually rape until 3 years after it happened and Kansas doesn't prosecute a woman raping another woman as RAPE. So...reporting it would have been pretty useless for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I joined this site 2 years ago. I don't remember posting anything. I guess I posted once, and then never came back. It's two years later and I still feel exactly as I did then - guilty.

I still feel guilty.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I carried years of guilt. Always thinking anyone "he" hurt after me was all my fault.

I was carrying a burden that wasn't mine. Don't do this to yourself! Walk lighter and care for yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

hmm i did report it, but i didnt want to but they said if i didnt id be responsible if he did it to someone again, the police to told me that in ways like " how would you feel if he did it to someone else" my aunty came straight out and said that it would be on my head if he did it to someone else! so guess what i reported it! then i didnt want to tell my parents i would have told someonwe else i would have got support but i just didnt want to tell my parents, but that write was takin away from when i was 15 i had been in a childs phyciatric hospital for depresson mood disorder and a diferent supressed sexual abuse when i was 9. so they looked me up and told me they were telling my parents if i liked it or not, and they werent very nice about it! so my parents know and that was horrible oh that was worse than horrile i hated it and now anytime i ever do something wrong they bring that up and stick it in my face, actually no they did now i think theyve just forgotten.

abywho so i reported i didnt want to tel my parents they were told i was takin to a hospital and they did stuff to me to get evidence that i think was worse than the actual rape, ahh i havent actually got to talkinng about what actual happened so maybe not. i dont even now if ive blocked it out if ive just moved on or if actullly i havent a clue

at the start i was instistant that it wasnt my fault but everyone was saying it was even though they didnt kow the story. but now i think maybe it was? maybe it didnt happen? maybe im the guilty one

anyway so i reported it then a year later they tell me DPP have decided not to bring it to court and thats it noting more they can do because it his word against mine! so then i think of sueing but then my parents decide to get seperated, decide tonot like me anymore, and copletly forget, its all coming up again and i dont like it, i dont have time to deal with it now though i have to get my portfollio in for college, i have no suport

ok bbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr calm down... im angry and now paniced i think i might need to stop

no what i really need is to cry.... but fat chance of that happening

grrr i hate this, sorry for writing so much... sorry! thanks for this place being here! sorry for the terrible spelling i cant spell at all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LittleMockingbird

Thanks to everyone who posted here. I really appreciate it. Ive been trying to deal with this guilt lately and its nice to know that others understand how I feel. <3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
welshspirit

i was sexually assaulted over a twelve hour period. i couldnt fight back as my two young children where asleep upstairs. i kept trying to keep him calm and talk my way out of it. trying to persuade him to stop. i didnt report it because i believed that the police would bring social services in for being so stupid as to trust him and allow him into my home. i hid away from family and friends for days untill the bruises had gone. slso i didnt report it because. three years before i had reported my brother to the police for abusing me when i was fifteen. they tried to twist everything and place the blame on me even threatened me with prison for incest. and threatened to do blood tests on my daughter to check that my brother was not her father. the assault was five years before my daughter was born. they did apologise to me and i know that this would not happen these days. but it fuelled my fear of reporting it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
white0rchid

There are a lot of strong posts here that make sense. It took some time for me to understand, but it's true that you are not responsible for anyone else's actions. I did not report what happened, but it won't be up to me what he decides to do, ever. I hope no one else is hurt. I couldn't report him for various reasons such as no evidence, and that he was a stranger, but I am not in control of him.

Smiles!! =o)

:butterfly:

white0rchid

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I think it comes down to what is best for you, every situation is different.

My RA insisted on taking me to the hospital.

I refused a rape exam, I knew from the beginning I would never prosecute it.

She also told me she was concerned about "this person being on campus with other people".

A few days later she asked me if I was just going to "let him get away with this".

I've heard a theory, no one ever regrets reporting a rape, I honestly think I would have.

There was no evidence, no bruises, no injuries, no witnesses. They could prove I had sex with my boyfriend and I was crying in the common room of my dorm afterwards, you can't convict someone on that.

I stayed in the relationship, I stayed quiet. Who knows what the fall out on small college campus would be if I had tried to leave him or if I had told.

Edited by serena
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

My partner had an Apprehended Violence Order and a sexual assault charge before he met me. The assault wasn't severe, so he got off with some good behavior bond and some counseling. In our relationship of almost 2 years, I've been raped on multiple occasions and even strangled, so I think there's some sort of escalation going on there. As someone who's on the end of being in a relationship with someone who had previous charges against him and who is now suffering the consequences of his actions towards me, I am of the opinion that reporting it is the right thing to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I chose to not report. I did not tell anyone for months. I was terrified by the threats and humiliated. I felt like I should have known better than to be in that position. Because I work in the mental health field I felt like I should be able to "fix" it all. I had always been one of those people who lectured others about not reporting a crime. But after the horror of reporting my father, I knew that I could never go down that road again. I sometimes look back (It has been five and a half years) and wonder if things would have been different if I had reported them and what they did to me. But hindsight is 20/20, and on the whole I am glad that I didn't report it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...