University of North Carolina football player accused of sexual assault: 'Everything was completely c

[ColemanMaskell]

25. Also that effect you mention is not confined to athletic situations

It is common for a victim to be further persecuted for reporting the offense.

This seems to me most tragic in the cases where children are involved. An important common occurrence of this is when a stepfather, or a mother's boyfriend, assaults a child (or children) from a previous marriage, that is, pre-existing children of whom he is not the biological father. The child reports the assault(s). Too often the mother blames the child.

It isn't only children, though, and it isn't confined to rape cases.

Coincidentally enough, Trump is currently trying to accuse his long-suffering Democratic opponent of persecuting the women with whom her ex-husband allegedly had affairs. I doubt that happened, but I'm pretty sure there are analogous cases where wives do go after the women involved with their husbands, consensually or otherwise.

An athlete is in the situation of having a group around him that will rally immediately to his defense, regardless of whether he's guilty. However celebrities, rich people, people with family connections and so on are in a similar situation of having a ready group handy to spring to their defense, however inappropriate that reaction may be in a specific case.

It's a good point you make, and one that doesn't get enough attention. Fear of such persecution often makes victims reluctant to report assaults, enabling the perpetrator to continue and even emboldening him to escalate his offenses.