Twitter user compares rape to a stolen wallet to highlight victim-blaming Journalist and web producer used analogy of a stolen wallet for rape Posted numerous Tweets to her 13,000plus followers SubstitutedÂ theft into excuses given to victims of rape Illustrates how differently we treat sexual harassment to other crimes Sick of reading more and more reports about sexual violence towards women one journalist has used Twitter to highlight the absurd way many victims of rape are treated. In a string of tweets to her 13,000 followers, writer and web producer Catlin Kelly substituted rape for a stolen wallet in arguments often used in attempts to play down the sexual crime The twist on words hit a nerve with many as it illustrated quite simply and starkly how victims of sexual harassment can be treated very differently from other crimes. Journalist Catlin Kelly used the analogy of having a wallet stolen to demonstrate how much victim shaming goes on in rape cases She sent many tweets demonstrating the absurdity of some of theÂ arguments commonly given to victims in an attempt to minimize the crime or prevent them reporting it The first tweet by the New Yorker illustrated how the blame is often placed at the feet of the victim. I think that guy I know stole my wallet. Well, do you have proof? Were you drinking that night? What were you wearing when this happened?' it reads. Catlin, who tweets from the handle @atotalmonet,Â then entered into a full Twitter rant, posting: 'Nobody is going to want to hang out with the girl who cried stolen wallet. You should really think hard about what you're saying here. 'Are you sure that you didn't just GIVE him your wallet, and now you're embarrassed about it? Maybe there was just some miscommunication,' a tweet reads, swiftly followed by: 'But he seems like such a nice guy. Plus, he already has already has a wallet. Why would he need YOUR wallet? Catlin's followers soon joined in, offering other arguments and excuses commonly offered to those trying to report rape. The New York based journalist shows how the blame is often placed at the feet of the victim Government statistics released in January 2013 estimated that 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year @msbellows tweets: 'You probably were showing a little too much wallet. If you'd covered up that wallet, he wouldn't have taken it,' while @DanielYRubin says: 'Did you yell at him not to take it? How loudly? Why didn't you bite his hand? With your teeth? One user simply replies 'THANK YOU'. '[The metaphor] just came to me,' Kelly told The Huffington Post. Â 'Probably somewhere out of frustration at all of the recent horrible stories about rape and seeing so many people doubt victims, almost as a reflex, in ways that people who are victims other crimes rarely seem to face.'Â Â Catlin's tweets hit a nerve with her followers Rape Crisis charityÂ explains: 'Government statistics released in January 2013 estimated that 85,000 women are raped on average in England and Wales every year, that over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted annually, and that 1 in 5 women (aged 16 - 59) has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.Â The same study reported that 28 per cent of women who are victims of the most serious sexual offences never tell anyone about it, and we know from our experience within the Rape Crisis movement that only around 15 per cent of women and girls who experience sexual violence ever report to the police. Rapists use a variety of excuses to attempt to discredit the women they rape and to justify their crimes. But no-one asks or deserves to be raped or sexually assaulted and 100% of the responsibility for any act of sexual violence lies with its perpetrator.Â 'The rules imposed on women's behaviour allow rapists to shift the responsibility for rape onto women wherever possible, so that rapists are sometimes portrayed as victims of malicious allegations, carelessness or stupidity.Â There is no other crime in which so much effort is expended to make the victim appear responsible.