AP Photo/Hermann J. Knippertz
Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Hermann J. Knippertz)
Annons
Yet the media would still rather talk at length about false accusations, even if they are rare. Depending on the statistics and the country, they account for between 1 and 9 percent of all reported cases – in Germany that number lies between 3 and 5 percent.The reason behind all that is that in German law, the victim's behaviour plays a big role when it comes to sexual assault. In order to get a conviction, the victim must prove that they resisted the violence. This is a completely absurd requirement, largely based on numerous myths about how sexualised violence is carried out. That's why staring in shock – a common and natural reaction to violence – often leads to the perpetrator being acquitted. Just imagine that the burden of proof for theft lay on whether the person robbed had adequately defended themselves: "Sorry Miss, you didn't hold on to your purse tight enough, it's your own fault."Amid all this, the perpetrator's skin colour or religion is irrelevant. With what happened in Cologne, we'll have to see whether those sexual assaults end up being as thoroughly investigated as the property theft that occurred simultaneously. To date, 90 women have filed complaints according to Zeit Online, with 75 percent of them concerning sexual offences. Two of them are rape cases.According to German law, in order to get a conviction for sexual assault, the victim must prove that they resisted the violence.
Nobody's denying that people with immigrant backgrounds or of the Muslim faith are also guilty of committing sex crimes. But to act as if their cultural background has "programmed" them to do so, while making all sorts of excuses and downplaying the crimes of white Germans, will always be racist rabble-rousing.The clearest thing to come out of the debate around what happened in Cologne as of yet is that Germany has a sexism issue and a racism issue. Both are deep-rooted and were not "imported". It's our responsibility as a society to move towards a culture that celebrates mutual consent and respects boundaries. And that applies to all people, because one sexual assault is one too many – no matter where it took place and who it involved.Everything We Know So Far About the Mass Assaults on Women in Cologne on NYE