I saw this tweet the other day. Actually one of the dumbest tweets that I have ever seen. Here is the tweet:

I understand what this tweet is trying to say, but the author has completely missed out on the patterns on why rapists rape in the first place. It’s like he is saying that the things like women walking alone doesn’t matter. Or a drunk woman. Or a woman in a short skirt. The author has completely missed a prime opportunity to inform women that these behaviors do matter, and that a woman shouldn’t do them.

Rapists tend to have a pattern. They select their victims based upon several factors. It can be anywhere from hairstyle, hair color, clothing, behavior, locations, and several other factors. Years of study have gone into the behavior of rapists. Countless conversations with actual rapists have also gone into the determining of what rapists look for in a victim.

You may have heard of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) or the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU). They are two names for the same Unit in the FBI. The BSU was the original name and the BAU is the current name, however, they are the same thing. This Unit was literally formed to try and dive into the minds of all types of criminals from rapists, murders, thieves, and many others in between. The goal is to find out who criminals are, how criminals think, and why they commit the crimes that they do. Tons of research has gone into understanding the behaviors and patterns of criminals and tons of interviews with actual criminals have too. Over the last 50 or so years, the FBI has been able to develop a profile of most criminals and how they think. The research that they have come up with concerning rapists and their behaviors has been widely published. Therefore, the FBI has developed a list of behaviors that women should try to avoid at all costs, because these types of behaviors tend to attract rapists. Everything listed in the tweet above, except for the rapists, are simple patterns that rapists look for in potential victims. It’s silly to say that walking alone in the dark doesn’t cause rape, because it is, after all, a behavior that rapists look for. To get technical isn’t helping future victims. It’s foolish to say, your skirt can’t rape you. The nighttime sky can’t rape you. Walking doesn’t rape. Only rapists can rape you. That’s not the point. The point is that rapists look for women, in the dark, walking along. They look for other patterns such as women with long hair that’s in a braid or bun. On their cell phones as to be distracted. Plus, a number of other factors.

The Ripley County Sheriff’s office in Indiana has put out a memo on statistics of rape and some ways to avoid it. You can find it here.

The point is that it’s silly to say that only rapists rape while ignoring potential factors that contribute to a women getting raped. It’s a fact that you are less likely to get raped if you walk in a group rather than walk alone. It’s a fact that you are less likely to get raped if you don’t present yourself in a flirtatious manner than if you do. Do these things make a woman invincible to getting raped? No. Of course not, but it sure does lessen the odds.