Sara Bernard recently visited Tanana, Alaska, to better understand why the state has “higher rates of sexual assault than anywhere else in the United States”:
Growing up in Tanana, a town of 254, the prevalence of this kind of thing was common knowledge, but rarely discussed. Everyone knew the local elder who’d molested and raped his daughters and granddaughters for decades until he was arrested for touching another family’s girls; after four years in jail and another half dozen or so at a cabin downriver, he was back on the village tribal council. One of Geneva’s great aunts was molested and raped by an uncle for years; dozens of years later, the aunt’s grown daughter told her that the same uncle had molested her, too. Sometimes people pressed charges; most of the time, though, nothing happened. …
It’s only in recent years that some Alaskans have begun to speak publicly about this problem. In many places, silence still endures. But Cynthia Erickson hopes that the “old way” will eventually fade, and that speech, above all else, will empower victims, shame perpetrators, and interrupt the cycle of trauma where it starts: in childhood.
A 2003 study underscored some key reasons why rape can be a much bigger problem in rural areas than urban:
In general, victims of sexual assaults in rural areas have difficulty disclosing the crime, especially in cases where the victim knows the perpetrator. Informal social codes dictating privacy and family reputation reinforce the propensity not to report these crimes. The low population density and high levels of familiarity virtually assure that rural victims of sexual assault will have little anonymity, compounding the problem of severe under-reporting. Other barriers to reporting include the experience of greater physical isolation in rural areas and a general distrust of outside assistance.
The analysis focused on data obtained from Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Mississippi. The research conducted in Pennsylvania revealed significantly higher rates of sexual assault in rural areas of the State, while the data from Oklahoma indicated that reported rapes did not reflect the true prevalence of rape in rural areas. Rates of sexual assault in Alaska and Mississippi were higher in rural areas than in urban areas.
The Dish 