Clothes, alcohol, drugs and circumstances do not make people the victims of rape — other human beings do. Sadly our society does little to combat stigmas that damage rape victims and promote a culture where sexual exploitation exists — what sociologists call “rape culture.”

Rape and sexual assault affect every demographic and every area of the country, and yet according to the preliminary results of the Campus Attitude Toward Safety (CATS) survey released this week, 44 percent of students believed sexual violence was not a problem at UK.

According to the Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, 1 in 9 adult women in Kentucky has been forcibly raped, which does not include the cases where alcohol or drugs were involved or cases of attempted rape, statutory rape and sexual violence.

In America, about 1 in 5 women surveyed said they had been raped or had experienced an attempted rape at some point in their lives.

The statistics on college campuses across the country reflect this national trend, with studies showing that 1 in 5 girls will be sexually assaulted in college.

Although sexual assault is a problem that disproportionately affects women, men do suffer from the crime as well.

About 1 in 33 American men have experienced an attempted or completed rape at some point in their lives, and rape is an epidemic in the prison system, with 200,000 male prisoners reportedly being raped every year.

Apathy and ignorance toward the problem devalues the severity of the crime and is the equivalent of telling these victims that the damage to their image, sense of self-worth, physical well-being and psychological damage does not matter.

We don’t blame murder victims for their role in being murdered, or say that murder is just “boys being boys” and murderers shouldn’t be punished severely. But there is a large portion of our society that does in rape cases.

The shame and humilation should fall on the rapist, not the victim.

One of the reasons there are so many cases of unreported rape is victims receive retaliation and scorn from those connected to the rapists and even the people who should be supporting the victim.

More than half of students who responded to the survey said the accused person or his/her friends would retaliate against them for reporting the assault. This is a sound fear considering many assume women are just crying wolf and accusing people for attention.

If someone calls the police saying someone has murdered or is trying to murder their family, does the responder doubt them or make every effort to capture the murderer and help the victims?

There was a significant percentage of students who suspected that someone was being led away to be assaulted without proper consent or heard someone confess to rape. We can’t afford to sit by and assume things will work themselves out.

Hold rapists accountable and support victims if the crime becomes public. The only way we are going to put an end to rape culture is by rallying around victims, and rallying against sexual assault.