- The legal definition of rape varies from state to state.
- Rape is generally defined as forced or nonconsensual sexual contact.
- Definition of rape in Massachusetts: Penetration of any orifice by any object, force or threat of force, or sexual contact against the will of the victim.
- Consent cannot be legally given if the person is impaired, intoxicated, drugged, underage, mentally challenged, unconscious, or asleep.
- Rape and sexual assault is about power and dominance.
Stranger Rape: When a person is raped by an unknown attacker.
Aquaintance Rape/Date Rape: When a person knows his/her attacker.
Coercion: The use of emotional manipulation to persuade someone to do something they may not want to do.
Example: "If you love me, you will have sex with me."
Statutory Rape: Sexual relations involving someone below the "age of consent."
No requirement of Force.
Age of consent is Texas: 17
- 191,670 people were raped in 2005.
- 91% of rape victims are women and 9% are men.
- 99% of rapists are male.
- More than 1/4 of college women reported having experiences a rape of rape attempt.
- Drug use, especially alcohol, is often involved.
- One study shows that in 47% of rapes, both the victim and offender had been drinking.
- Over 2/3 of all rapes occur in someone's home. This is contrary to the belief that a lot occur outside, which is actually rare.
- From 2000-2005, 59% of rapes were not reported to the police.
- 38% of rapes are committed by friend or aquaintance. 29% by a stranger.
- Sexual Assault: 2nd degree felony, 2-20 years; $10,000 fine.
- Agg. Sexual Assault: 1st degree felony, 5-99 years; $10,000 fine.
- Indecency with a Child: 2nd degree felony if sexual contact occurs; 3rd degree felony if intention is to arouse. 2-2 years; $10,000 fine.
- Rape is common, but only a small number are reported. This is due to stigma associated with being the victim of a sexual crime, and to losing virginity before marriage.
- From Nov. 2008-2009, there were over 400 cases of rape reported.
- It is common for law enforcement officials to arrange an agreement between the victim and offender outside of law. This is usually money paid by the offender, which is shared by the victim and the authorities.
- If a rape is expected to be investigated properly, the victim must pay the authorities. Otherwise, progress is slow.
- There is also a chance that the offenders family will pay the authorities to aquit him.
- In 2007, there were 85,000 women raped in the UK.
- This figures out to be about 230 cases per day.
- 1 in every 200 women were raped in 2006, but only 200 men were convicted.
Rape
Stats and Definition
Does Evolution Explain Why Men Rape?
The yes side argues that if women today are to protect themselves from rape, and men are to desist from it, people must be given advice that is based on knowledge.
Insisting that rape is not about sex misinforms both men and women about the motivations behind rape--A dangerous error that not only hinders prevention efforts, but may actually increase the incidence of rape.
They envision an evolutionary informed program for young men that teaches them to restrain their sexual behavior.
The no side argues that rape laws were, in the begining, only violations of the man's right to his possessions.
If we as women are to redress the imbalance and rid ourselves and men of the ideology of rape, we must fight back on multiple levels.
Question
Imagine that you are a clinician treating a man who has raped women.
Based on the arguments of Thornhill/Palmer and Brownmiller, how would you go about trying to understand this man's behavior and treating him psychotherapeutically?
Conclusions
Yes: Females have evolved to carefully select mates who best support their offspring. That is why we understand that sex is "something females have that males want."
No: The intent of rape is not merely to take, but to humiliate and to degrade. Thus, men have always viewed sex as the "female treasure."
Texas State Rape Statutes
Yes: Evolutionary biologist Randy Thornhill and evolutionary anthropologist Craig T. Palmer assert that the reasons why men rape are misunderstood. They contend that, rather than an act of gratuitous violence, rape can be understood as a biologically determined behavior in which socially disenfranchised men resort to this extreme act in order to gain access to women.
No: Journalist Susan Brownmiller argues that rape is an exemplification of the male-female struggle in which men humiliate and degrade women in a blunt and ugly expression of physical power.
Cambodia
Definition of Rape
Yes: Rape takes place not only amoung human beings, but also among various other animal species.
No: Rape is a brief expression of physical power that exemplifies the male-female struggle.
United Kingdom
Democratic Republic of Congo
United States
Yes: Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer
No: Susan Brownmiller
- In Eastern Congo, the propensity of rape is described as the worst in the world.
- Estimates to be as many as 200,000 surviving rape victims today.
- One study says that there are about 400,000 women raped annually.
- Rape is used as a "weapon of war."
South Africa
Yes: Men might resort to rape when they are socially disenfranchised, and thus, unable to gain access to women.
No: Access to women does not deter men from rape, as evidenced by the existence of officially sanctioned brothels for American soldiers during the Vietnam War.
- South Africa has one of the highest incidences of child and baby rape.
- More than 67,000 cases in 2000.
- It's believed that a significant contributing factor is the myth that having sex with a virgin will cure HIV/AIDS.
Yes: The fact that men are able to maintain sexual arousal and copulate with unwilling women suggests that men have evolved psychological mechanisms that enable them to engage in forced copulation. This ability may reflect a "rape adaptation."
No: Rape is not a crime of irrational, impulsive, uncontrollable lust; it is a deliberate, hostile, violent act of degradation and possession on the part of a would-be conquerer, designed to intimidate and inspire fear.