30679: fofoye (reply) Re: 30662: Forrest (reply) RE: 30652: Kathleen (reply) 30648 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: FOFOYE@aol.com

Statistics are not kept in Haiti, and if they were kept on sex  crimes, they
would be inaccurate.

There is great social stigma attached to rape, and  victims seldom speak out
even to their families. Sex crimes are more  often than not committed by
someone the victim knows, as such women  are twice victimized because often the
perpetrator is the family's  sole breadwinner which makes him omnipotent.
Reteaveks are frequent  victims, and in no position to accuse the head of 
household
or  one of the sons of the family by fear of being repudiated.

Other than that, whom would the crime be reported to? There is no  justice
and no judicial system in Haiti. This has futher encouraged crime  against 
women
who certainly do not want to spend the rest of their lives being  pointed to
as the dirty one or the bad one even if the rapist was  her father, brother,
uncle, friend or a complete  stranger.



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