09/29/2026
This is long. It should be.
Rose Runners believes survivors.
We have been following Jane Doe’s story and the allegations involving seven current and former Cornell students. Her story has received national attention, but the reality behind it is much bigger than one woman, one fraternity, or one university.
Nearly half of American women have experienced r**e, sexual coercion, or unwanted sexual contact in their lifetime.
About 73% of r**es and sexual assaults are never reported to police.
And while fear of false accusations is constantly invoked when women come forward, research examining sexual assault reports made to police has consistently found false reports to be rare. One major meta analysis estimated the rate at about 5%.
Think about those numbers.
Most sexual violence never reaches the police at all. Of the cases that do, only a fraction result in charges, and an even smaller fraction end in conviction.
So “Why didn’t she report?” is not the gotcha people think it is.
Neither is “Why wasn’t he charged?” or “Why wasn’t he convicted?”
No conviction does not mean nothing happened.
And believing survivors does not mean abandoning investigations or due process. It means taking someone seriously when they disclose sexual violence instead of beginning with the assumption that they are lying.
Think about the women you know.
Your friends. Your sisters. Your coworkers. Your mothers. Your daughters. Your brides.
Statistically, many of them have experienced sexual violence.
Some never reported it. Some never told their families. Some may never have told anyone.
And THE PEOPLE WHO HARMED THEM DID NOT DISAPPEAR simply because nobody filed a police report.
They are still classmates, coworkers, friends, boyfriends, husbands, brothers, sons and neighbors.
That is part of r**e culture.
We scrutinize what she drank. What she wore. Why she went there. Why she stayed. Why she froze. Why she waited. Why she cannot remember every detail perfectly.
Meanwhile, we often treat the absence of an arrest, prosecution, or conviction as evidence that the assault never happened, even though the overwhelming majority of sexual violence never makes it that far through the criminal justice system in the first place.
We can do better.
Rose Runners is a flower company. We celebrate love for a living. But love without consent, safety, dignity and respect means very little.
To Jane Doe, and to every survivor whose story never became a headline:
You deserve to be heard.
You deserve to be taken seriously.
You deserve to be safe.
