Being raped is scarring enough. But, having it plastered on the front page of a newspaper would be soul-crushing. That is why we do not publish the names of victims of sexual violence.

We want to inform the community of what’s happening, not damage the reputations of victims.

Don’t let the thought of being named in this newspaper as a victim be a factor in turning away help or not reporting an incident. That won’t happen.

Look at some of the stories we have published this semester in regards to rape and sexual violence.  Not once in “Rape suspect ‘actively eluding’ authorities,” (Sept. 29), “Man accused of raping UGA student in custody,” (Oct. 4), “‘Nobody listened’: Former student built history of abuse,” (Oct. 20) or any of our crime notebooks have we included the name of a victim.

We do not publish the names of those who have been assaulted.

If the name is in a document, we redact it. If the person speaks with us, we put the age of the person and their sex. No name. Period.

The crime notebook doesn’t exist to embarrass those who have been raped, molested or abused. It exists to let people know where rapes happen, where students are being attacked and other incidents students want to consider when they are determining their safety in certain areas around Athens.

If you have not reported a sexual assault out of fear your name will appear in this newspaper, you can rest assured we will not reveal your identity nor any identifiable traits that could lead someone to know the person we write about is you.

Reporting the identity of the victim takes a backseat to informing our campus what happened and who did it.

— Charles Hicks is the opinions editor of The Red & Black

The editorial board is made up of Rachel G. Bowers, Joe Williams, Adam Carlson and Charles Hicks