In December, editor-in-chief Olivia Krauth wrote a feature on the prevalence of rape culture at U of L. Since then, the Cardinal ran an entire two-page spread on creating a consent culture at U of L, thanks to PEACC’s new consent campaign. Nonetheless, U of L students, fans, alumni and Louisville community members have seemingly disregarded these concepts in light of rape and sodomy charges against former U of L basketball player Chris Jones.

Upon media reports of the charges, Louisville fans and community members took sides. Allow me to remind you that only two groups of people have any place in taking sides on sexual assault charges: the parties involved and the court members involved in the case. If you did not witness the crime, you do not get to accuse the victim of “making it up” or “milking” the alleged perpetrator’s infamy. On the flipside, we also cannot assume the alleged perpetrator is guilty.

While writing the Cardinal’s rape culture article, Krauth found out that a very small number of students have reported sexual assault at U of L in the last five years. While I am hopeful that the number of reports represents an accurate number of sexual crimes that have occurred in that timeframe, I find it hard to believe that less than a handful of people have had sexual intercourse without giving consent, especially considering the fact that legally, no one can give consent while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. And while I also think this low number could be attributed to a lack of knowledge on what actually counts as consent, I think there is another major reason these crimes are being under-reported: victim-shaming.

As soon as the news reports starting circling social media, people began to assume the two victims must have been making up the charges, and were just trying to ride the coattails of the media hype surrounding Jones’s removal from the men’s basketball team on Feb. 22. This is a classic example of victim-shaming.

If you speculate as to why these victims chose now–among all this bad Jones press–to report, put yourself in those women’s shoes for a moment. How hard must it be to accuse a star basketball player on one of the top 25 teams in the country of rape? Until we eliminate rape culture, a whole city is likely to become your enemy in that situation. Now that Jones is no longer on the team, the women probably felt safer in reporting the crimes. They probably felt more empowered to receive some semblance of justice in the crimes allegedly committed against them.

But alas, people continue to blame it on victims, only furthering the fear and shame victims must go through in deciding whether or not to report. This incidence really makes me question the number of unreported sexual assault incidents that occur annually at the University of Louisville.