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Letter: Confidentiality vital to healing

The Columbian
Published: December 19, 2014, 4:00pm

I felt a myriad of emotions reading Froma Harrop’s Dec. 15 column, “Make identities of rape accusers public.” I doubt Harrop knows what it feels like to be a victim of this crime.

I do.

While driving through another state years ago I was pulled over by a “police officer.” I complied with his command to accompany him to the police station. Instead, I was taken to a remote area and sexually assaulted. I initially reported it but the offender, a police imposter, has yet to be caught.

I immediately went into the blame game. I made a lot of mistakes that day as a result of my shock and fear.

While Harrop states that rape victims “should feel no more shame than those who are slashed or punched in the face,” this is an all too common response, and is hard to overcome. Physical scars can heal — emotional scars from this type of trauma can last a lifetime, and cause crippling results for the victim who has to live with the memory, fear and shame for the rest of her life.

I believe that both the victim’s and alleged perpetrator’s identity should be withheld until there has been a trial. Under no circumstances should the victim’s identity be made public unless they agree to it.

Far too often rapes go unreported because of the nature of the crime. If the victim’s identity is publicized, reporting would drop even more.

Jan Perkins

Vancouver

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