Rape survivors are invited to make t-shirts about their experience and hang the shirts on a clothesline. For many it is a brave step they take toward speaking out about their histories with sexual violence. Families and friends of victims are also welcome to create t-shirts.

Most sexual assaults go unreported and the problem is more widespread than many realize. Even when the crime is reported the victim is often blamed for instigating the attack.

Rape is also systematically used as a weapon of war by governments around the world. And the so called developed nations like the US are no exception to this.

The statistics on sexual violence provided by the Clothesline Project are startling:

- Every 2.5 minutes someone in the US is sexually assaulted.
- One third of girls in the world are forced into their first sexual experience.
- Only 1 in 16 rapists will ever spend a day in jail.
- One in four women, from age 14 upwards, experiences sexual violence by an intimate partner.
- In 2003 one in every ten rape victims were male.

In memory of a loved one who died as a result of sexual violence.

One in four women, from age 14 upwards, experiences sexual violence by an intimate partner.

One third of girls in the world are forced into their first sexual experience.

Sign text:

RAPE AS A TOOL OF WAR
AROUND THE WORLD

This is not rape out of control. It is rape under control. It is also rape unto death, rape as massacre, rape to kill and make the victims wish they were dead. It is rape as an instrument of forced exile, rape to make you leave your home and never want to go back. It is rape to be seen and heard and watched and told to others: rape as spectacle. It is rape to drive a wedge through a community, to shatter a society, to destroy a people…..

WSSA <3's the Clothesline project!

In solidarity,

WSSA at CSULB

WSSA <3's the Clothesline project!

In solidarity,

WSSA at CSULB

Our seaside tourist town of 54,000 is suffering an epidemic of rape, and the police and City Council are on the frontlines of covering it up.

A woman is four times as likely to be raped in Santa Cruz than in other cities in California. And if she is, the SCPD is unlikely to investigate the crime. Arrests are made in only 13% of verified rape reports compared to a nationwide average of 37%.

We also have a higher rape rate than Berkeley, Santa Monica, or San Luis Obisbo. There are no public service announcements or blue ribbon task forces to examine why current practices are not working. Vice-Chief Patty Sapone, the highest ranking female police officer on the force, blames the reported high rate of rape to a transfer of manual reporting to computer data entry.

see: http://cityonahillpress.com/article.php?id=1291

and http://www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/cc/archives/06/4-25meeting/4-25rpt/cm253.htm

and http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/02/10/18478155.php