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polimicksOk, so in the last post I had comments from people I like, and generally respect. Snide comments about how I'm taking a "really controversial" stance by saying that rape is wrong. And also stating that there's no "pro-rape lobby."
I'm glad that you're both intelligent and informed enough to realize that rape is wrong. However, the way rape victims are treated by the police, by the courts and the press demonstrates over and over and over, that not everyone realizes this.
Many people believe that when women are raped, they must have done something to deserve it, including the women themselves. Men who rape evolve amazing mental defenses to be able to deny the reality that they are indeed rapists.
Women who try to press rape charges are still frequently asked by the police if they're sure they "want to ruin this young man's life like that." If that isn't pro-rape, I don't know what is.
Women are interrogated about where they were, if they knew their attacker, what they were wearing, what they were doing... Any time a woman tries to report the rape by someone of a "higher" social status she is immediately accused of being a gold-digger, of trying to ruin a "good man," of having an agenda. When a woman accuses any man, her entire life is turned upside down, every part of it is scrutinized as if she were the accused rather than her rapist.
And if anyone says a damn thing about false rape reporting after reading my post on it, I will personally skin you and then give you your own ass as a hat.
And you know, this is one thing that really pisses me off. People consistently, when blaming women for their own rapes, make the analogy of a guy walking down a bad street wearing expensive clothes with money hanging out of his pockets. There are two ways that analogy breaks down:
1. Someone violating a woman's body with rape is not the same as having something external to your being like money or a watch stolen.
2. Even if the guy was drunk and walking down a bad street, no one is going to ask him if he's sure he wants to ruin the mugger's life by pressing charges. Charges will be pressed in far better than half of all reported muggings. And no one is going to try to defend the mugger by saying the guy asked for it. No one. They may think he's been a fool, but everyone knows that stealing is a crime and that the guy who ripped him off broke the law. It doesn't work that way with rape. Ever. Not even with children.
That is why suggesting that rapists be held accountable and that rapists be charged IS controversial. It's why demanding that rapists DO jail time is controversial. And further, if you're so bothered by these posts, don't fucking read them.
I'm glad that you're both intelligent and informed enough to realize that rape is wrong. However, the way rape victims are treated by the police, by the courts and the press demonstrates over and over and over, that not everyone realizes this.
Many people believe that when women are raped, they must have done something to deserve it, including the women themselves. Men who rape evolve amazing mental defenses to be able to deny the reality that they are indeed rapists.
Women who try to press rape charges are still frequently asked by the police if they're sure they "want to ruin this young man's life like that." If that isn't pro-rape, I don't know what is.
Women are interrogated about where they were, if they knew their attacker, what they were wearing, what they were doing... Any time a woman tries to report the rape by someone of a "higher" social status she is immediately accused of being a gold-digger, of trying to ruin a "good man," of having an agenda. When a woman accuses any man, her entire life is turned upside down, every part of it is scrutinized as if she were the accused rather than her rapist.
And if anyone says a damn thing about false rape reporting after reading my post on it, I will personally skin you and then give you your own ass as a hat.
And you know, this is one thing that really pisses me off. People consistently, when blaming women for their own rapes, make the analogy of a guy walking down a bad street wearing expensive clothes with money hanging out of his pockets. There are two ways that analogy breaks down:
1. Someone violating a woman's body with rape is not the same as having something external to your being like money or a watch stolen.
2. Even if the guy was drunk and walking down a bad street, no one is going to ask him if he's sure he wants to ruin the mugger's life by pressing charges. Charges will be pressed in far better than half of all reported muggings. And no one is going to try to defend the mugger by saying the guy asked for it. No one. They may think he's been a fool, but everyone knows that stealing is a crime and that the guy who ripped him off broke the law. It doesn't work that way with rape. Ever. Not even with children.
That is why suggesting that rapists be held accountable and that rapists be charged IS controversial. It's why demanding that rapists DO jail time is controversial. And further, if you're so bothered by these posts, don't fucking read them.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-18 02:38 pm (UTC)There really isn't, the reason for this is not really the system so much as it is the society we live in, so long as juries are willing to let some rapist dick head off because "She was asking for it" then defebse attys will continue to try and proe that she was "asking for it" in ab effort to secure aquitals for their clients. Therefore police and procecutors must ask such horrid questions.
Also in many cases the reason the women are asked things like "Are you sure you want to ruin this man's life?" is because the police and DAs want to know that the women in question is willing to go as far as is needed to secure a conviction. It is a device to test her, because what is done at that point is nothing compared to what the defense atty will do later.
Also keep in mind that the circumstance of the crime is important as one of the things the DA must prove is the state of mind of the purp, the way that the penal system works is that it matters very little what the victim thought was happeneing, what matters is what the purp was thinking. Therefore the DA must prove to a jury that there is no way that the purp could have thought that the sex was consentual, this is why rape is so contentious and why the statement from the victim is so important.
So yes the way these cases are handled is brutal and seems very unfair, and in many ways is, to the victim, but the procedure is designed to maximize the chances of getting a conviction which one would hope is what the rape victim wants to happen when she reports the crime