People marching silently Thursday during Take Back the Night did not hear much besides traffic’s humming engines, creaking brakes and the piercing blows of a whistle.
The whistle screeched every two minutes to signify how often sexual assault occurs in America, said Bekah MillerMacPhee, University of Idaho’s Women’s Center’s assistant director for programs.
The event, in combination with the Katy Benoit Safety Forum for the first time, aimed to increase awareness of sexual, interpersonal and domestic violence.
Nicole Etchemendy l Argonaut
Members of Lambda Theta Alpha lead the silent march during Take Back the Night Thursday night on UI’s campus.
The vigil’s path began outside UI’s Admin building, where the safety forum’s keynote speech was, and within minutes, attendees crossed the lawn to reach Katy Benoit’s memorial bench. The bench was decorated with electric candles and vases filled with pebbles that attendees placed, each pebble representing a survivor of sexual violence they know.
“When you hear these things in the news and you walk by (Katy’s) bench, I don’t want you to think these things happen somewhere else. They happen in our community,” keynote speaker Erin Tomlin said.
The students participating in the vigil, a crowd large enough to fill a city block’s sidewalks, didn’t even pass Benoit’s memorial bench before the first whistle sounded.
The event began at 7:30 in the Admin Auditorium with a speech from lifelong Palouse resident, Vandal alum and former Moscow city prosecutor, Erin Tomlin, who is currently an attorney at Tim Gresback’s practice.
Speaking out about sexual violence is no easy feat, Tomlin said, but Katy Benoit was brave for taking a stand and talking about it.
“The Benoit family was incredibly gracious in working with the university,” Dean of Students Blaine Eckles said. “The lasting legacy they want for their daughter, Katy, is to help save other lives through her experience and her life story.”
Katy Benoit died Aug. 22, 2011 after a UI professor shot her. Benoit, a graduate student at UI, suffered abuse from the professor and had recently ended their relationship.
Tomlin’s speech included commemoration of Benoit, commentary on state sexual violence statistics and ways to create a safe culture at UI.
Citing a study from the Idaho State Police, “Sexual Violence in Idaho,” which analyzed statistics from 2009 to 2015, Tomlin said only four percent of reported rapes result in a guilty conviction for a sex crime. According to the study, 45 percent of rape charges resulting in a guilty conviction are amended to a non-sex crime. Overall, out of the 3,269 reported rape cases in this time period, a mere eight percent resulted in a guilty conviction, the study noted.
Tomlin, citing the police study, said 72 percent of sex crimes happen to victims under 18 years old. There is also a gender disparity in victims of sex crimes compared to other violent crimes, whose victims are about half female, the study said. Eighty-three percent of sex crimes, she and the study said, happen to females.
Unethical journalism and rape culture were among the reasons these statistics sit so high, Tomlin said. Referring to the headline of an article on Brock Turner, the rapist that forcibly had sex with an unconscious girl behind a dumpster in early 2015, Tomlin said to call him a rapist, not a swimmer.
“I don’t care about your resume at this point,” she said.
Creating a culture of safety where people stand up against sexual violence, victims are believed and not made into the accuser, Tomlin said, is vital.
Victim interview methods also need to be improved, she said. During traumatic events like sex crimes, the brain blocks memory. Interview methods need to account for this neurological reaction instead of asking the key facts of the traumatic event, she said.
Often victims can’t recall all the details of the traumatic event, she said, which creates doubt in law enforcement, which leads to the high statistics.
MillerMacPhee and Tomlin reminded students of confidential and reporting resources for survivors.
Confidential resources include Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, the UI Counseling and Testing Center, the Ombuds Office and Gritman Medical Center. Non-confidential resources, which commence investigatory proceedings, include the Dean of Students’ Vandal Care report system, the UI’s campus division of Moscow Police Officers and the Office of Civil Rights Investigation.
Kyle Pfannenstiel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @pfannyyy