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As most people know, Kobe Bryant will soon stand trial in a Colorado court for allegedly raping a young woman. The trial of public opinion, however, is well underway.

Much about the case has already been said by almost everyone. Still, what strikes me the most about this whole fiasco is not the fact that its importance is overblown (and it is very much overblown), but that I have heard many people, on TV interviews and in person, defending Bryant in a particular way. They seem to say something like, “Kobe just isn’t that kind of guy.” Or, “But he seems like too nice of a person to do something like that.” A friend of mine said, “He didn’t do it because he doesn’t need to rape girls; he’s loaded and famous.”

And this is where I get confused. A statement like, “He isn’t that kind of guy” implies you know what kind of guy he is. But you don’t. No one does, aside from people who actually associate with him, like his friends, his family and maybe Phil Jackson. But most likely, you do not know him. You’ve seen him on KCAL during Laker games, or in Sprite commercials, or in news reports, or if you’re lucky enough, maybe you’ve seen him in person at the Staples Center. These experiences do not equate to knowing the character of a person. You don’t know Bryant any more than I know David Letterman or Bart Simpson. And I’d be willing to bet that those who don’t think rape is in his character didn’t think adultery was in his character, either, and he has admitted to adultery.

I have no idea if he did rape the woman. But if he is found guilty, I hope they throw the book at him. Should it come to light that he did rape her, then he should go to prison for as long as the law will allow. Rape is the worst crime. It is so horrible because it is so unlike any other crime. It is not like robbing someone, or regular assault, or even murder. It is a sexual crime that assaults and essentially robs the victim of personal dignity.

This entire incident and the enormous media attention lavished upon it expose our culture’s views on rape. Perhaps people don’t want to believe Bryant raped a woman (regardless of whether it actually happened). Some people will say things like, “Well, what did she expect? She went into a hotel room with Kobe Bryant. She can’t go in and then all of a sudden say no.” Bryant claims he and the woman had consensual sex. Others may say, “She was asking for it by choosing to go into the room with him.”

Statements like the preceding ones reflect a larger problem within the American society. Nobody “asks” to be raped. Rape is always a crime, regardless of whether two people are drunk and “things get out of hand,” or if there is misunderstanding, or if someone jumps out of the bushes and drags a woman screaming into his car (although only 10 percent of rapes happen in this manner). No matter how dumb of a situation people may put themselves in, they are never asking to be victims of a crime.

Attitudes in this country regarding rape have a long way to go. Statistics are depressing; some studies say that as many as one in six American women will be the victim or rape or attempted rape in their lifetime, and the U.S. Department of Justice says a woman is raped every two minutes in America. An even more appalling statistic: 66 percent of rape is committed by someone the victim knows, called acquaintance rape. Maybe the worst statistic is that only about 6 percent of rapists, or one in 16, will spend even one day in jail for their crime. And despite these grim numbers, the United States is still one of the few places in which rape is aggressively prosecuted, albeit not perfectly.

What is it that causes rape? How can it continue to occur so frequently? Simply put, rapists were raised poorly. Excluding (but not excusing) those rapists who are mentally ill, rape is often the product of bad parenting. Mothers and fathers must raise their boys to be men. If a boy sees that his father loves and respects his mother, and knows his mother loves him, it seems less likely to me that he will one day become a rapist.

But, what, if anything, went wrong with Bryant and this girl? Is it that his father never taught him to respect women, or that he had a hateful relationship with his mother? Is this girl simply lying to make a quick buck? Was she contributing to her own (alleged) victimization by going into a hotel room with Bryant? I doubt we’ll ever know the exact answers to these questions. One thing, however, is certain: The way this society handles rape has a lot of room for improvement.

Raimundo is an economics and history student.