Women report it and don't get believed, or there is light sentencing

I should also note some women's stories are trusted without question, and that's a bad thing. There's problems on both sides of the equation. You're definitely right about that. 100% agreement there.

All I know is the US legal system implements a presumption of innocence for the accused, and we should be thankful for that. Instead, the people above you made snarky comments about "low conviction rates" as if we protect rapists. FUCK NO! We protect the accused because it's innocent until proven guilty! I agree we should support people who come forward about being raped without assuming the accused is a guilty asshole. "But isn't that a contradiction?" No, it's not. We shouldn't say they're sluts or they asked for it, and we should hear them out; but if the evidence isn't compelling enough, we can't throw the accused in prison simply over "might haves". It's shitty for the victim if the accused gets off when he/she actually did rape, but I'd rather we don't start the Witch Hunts all over again and start imprisoning people over "might haves."

What makes me sad is we Americans, as a country, don't generally approach this impartially with a desire to hear both sides out. When UVA's Phi Psis were accused of rape, Rolling Stone rolled with the story without fact checking and many people sent the guys death threats and vandalized their chapter's house over an accusation. Alternatively, we used to slut shame big time and it's clear defense attorneys still do this as a tactic to win the case for their client (to be impartial, it's their job; ethically, it disgusts me that attorneys employ polemics to win a case).

This whole place is a shitshow of whataboutism emphasizing "who is worse" when we could be objective with our comments. But no, clearly we have to be snarky and fucking shitty about what sentence is reasonable. I think 6 months is too light a sentence, but I don't like the "let 'em rot" comments we're seeing in here either. Right now I feel there's no middle ground for people like me to stand on while emotionally charged dickheads run their mouths like it's fucking cool.

/rant

For the record, I liked your post. You're completely right that there's a problem with under-reporting.