Trigger warning: there is mention of sexual assault in this post.
A teenage girl was sexually assaulted in her room. The police came; they took her statement and packed her clothes and bed sheets for evidence.
The police believed her and started their investigation, but her foster moms had doubts.
Why?
She seemed detached from the whole incident, and her behaviour wasn’t ‘typical’ of a victim.
For instance, when it was time to get a new bedsheet, she insisted on buying the same type she had on her bed when the incident happened.
Her foster mom thought that was very strange. Many women will never want to see that type of bed sheet again because of the bad memory it will bring. But not this girl; she wanted her bed sheet back.
Her foster moms told the Police she made up the assault story for attention.
She is a 16-year-old who has been in and out of foster homes and has exhibited some attention-seeking behaviour in the past. It was easy for the Police to believe her foster moms even when the girl had never lied about something like this before.
The Police neglected all evidence and subjected her to hours of questioning and threats. She was terrified, so she told them what they wanted to hear – she told them there was no sexual assault.
But there was.
After some time, the truth came out, and the perpetrator was caught.
By then, the girl had lost friends, jobs, access to her counsellor, and other opportunities because people thought she lied about assault.
All these happened to her just because her foster moms thought she wasn’t behaving the way victims should!
Is that how many people will behave if they are victims of sexual assault? Maybe not.
Is there a chance that out of the almost 8 billion people on earth, at least one person will behave differently in that situation? Yes
And the truth is, when you are dealing with human beings, the odds will always be even higher than one in eight billion!
Because it is not the typical response that many people will have to a particular situation, doesn’t automatically mean the person that reacts differently is not genuine.
We are not always right when it comes to human emotions and behaviour.
