It is tough. We all want to live in a perfect society, but unless there is some sort of radical change in the way we all live, with proper welfare, education, support at all levels, all ages, then that will never happen. The crimes are committed by people, who were once children of parents, and many are failed somewhere along the line - people brought up well with kindness, wealth and access to support are rarely the criminals, so we need, ideally, to get to the root cause - what makes men, and women sometimes, act like this?
But, and this is the unpopular thought - people do need to protect themselves too. If you accept that there are rapists in the world, you must protect yourself from them. I have lived in some rough areas in my time, and I have avoided being mugged, whereas a friend has been robbed several times. If you have nice things, you hide them, you leave them at home if you can - you don't walk through Harringay or parts of Coventry with a flashy watch showing in the middle of the night, because you will get targeting if you do. Women should not have to cover up, I certainly would not ever want that to be a rule, but women do need to understand when they are putting themselves at risk. A pervert, rapist etc. is like a burglar - they are often opportunist, looking for an easy target. Drunk girl, bit wobbly, skirt, on her own - easy target. Woman walking assertively, jeans - not an easy target.
But that is not a popular opinion - people want women to be safe from male predators, and also want women to be able to act however they want. Until we can be sure to properly educate every boy and man, and monitor and check they are all of sound mind, and intervene when people show signs of perverted behaviour and thoughts, then we won't be able to stop some minority of men from acted the way they do.
