The law, courts and sexual offences

I’m starting this thread, for many reasons,
primarily because I often don’t “understand” the length of sentences given.

As a woman I’ve found myself in situations I couldn’t handle, many many years ago. I won’t go into details, but it was extremely scary and luckily someone came along and literally “rescued” me.

In my mid teens I was sexually assaulted, twice, by two different much older men. They would have called it “a harmless grope”.

No woman, man or child should ever be put into this very frightening situation by anyone.

In all three incidents, I walked away physically unscathed and didn’t report it, you simply didn’t! I didn’t tell my Mum either.

I would hope things are different now, but somehow I doubt it.

Lots of sexual assaults and rapes are still not reported and I think it’s still because people are scared they won’t be believed, scared of reprisals and dread the entire process.

Then there’s the awful gruelling court cases and, in some cases, pathetic penalties.

How can we change this? Why does this still happen? ☹️☹️