Rape in the USA

[ThomWV]

I was just thinking, speaking of women I know who are about the same age I am (61), just about every one of them can recount having been raped at some time in their life, somewhere between date-rape and a stranger with a knife. That says something very uncomfortable about our nation.

[Captain Angry]

1. Unfortunately, I don't think it's limited to the USA.

There are a lot of violent people in the world.

It's sad.

[undergroundpanther]

10. Darfur

Sometimes I wish I could hide in the trees with a high powered rifle and shoot the rapists over there, just blow their brains out.And keep killing the rapists trying to rape until they STOP IT or the rapists are killed off.

http://www.refintl.org/content/article/detail/10154/

[cliffordu]

11. I am so there, too.....

[2Design]

2. other countries are worse on women - I get angry how usa is but

am grateful I was not born in the middle eastern countries or some India or other countries - the atrocities against women that are reported from India are appalling - stoning, vaginal circumcision, throwing oil or burning a woman, gang rape approved by the village, etc.

[seabeyond]

3. my father in law said i should be thankful......basically the same thing. quit bitching

it is worse elsewhere. i was pissed, and offended and a huge fuck you to him

nah, that isnt a good justification when a person says about every woman raped....

ya but elsewhere.

screw elsewhere. here, where we are. there is a problem

[undergroundpanther]

12. Yes Here is where we are

And because it is horrible in Darfur that does not make it less horrible over here. Rape is a horrible act.I wish people would put away the dehumanizing trauma measuring sticks when discussing these things because rape ruins lives no matter where rape occurs it ruins lives. I think people should focus on the crime and hate the rapists for the choices rapists make to exploit others...

[fudge stripe cookays]

59. Unless they're hookers.

Then they can't be raped, right? It's a gray area or something like that.

[seabeyond]

65. you imply i think a hooker cannot be raped. that was bogus. i have never said that

misinterpretation on your account and others. of course a prositute and anyone else, male female child baby can and have been raped.

the gray area i was talking was my rape in general and how rape is not always so black and white. i believe it was a smart alick comment about a wife not being able to be raped. a stupid remark. the gray area when it comes to rape is all over and clear. but an example would be the duke case. if one would actually seriously and without agenda discuss rape then you would better uderstand what i mean about gray area, .... on both male and female side. but this is not about that for you.

you are wrong. you are pinning a filthy conclusion on me that is not true.

[fudge stripe cookays]

68. There are no gray areas with rape.

It's wrong. No means no. Whether it's a stranger, whether you're on a date, or whether you're married.

[seabeyond]

69. no yes no yes no yes no yes noooooo

this is where i was attacked on the duke case before they were cleared. talking about my own rapes i acknowledged that there were lessons learned for me, my responsibility. and boy... all those that would have supported me if i allowed myself to be victim, turned and attacked cause i dare to see there were things, if i was smarter, older, more experienced, what to do that might have prevented it. even clearly saying the male chose to rape. on him 100%.....

no yes no yes no yes no yes noooooo

of course there are gray areas and it does no good to correct if we cant all own it. and be honest.

this seems to be the area honesty is soooo very hard for so many.

[Zuiderelle]

70. Saying there are gray areas of rape is like saying there are gray areas of murder.

Certainly there are more painful murders, more gruesome murders, more horrific murders, some murders could even be called painless. But they are all murders. There really is no gray area there.

Likewise, there are horrible rapes in which the rapist takes several hours (or even days) to repeatedly rape their victim, rapes that occur during war, rapes that happen to young women on dates, rapes that happen to women who are drugged in bars and don't even know what's happening, rapes that happen to women when they are forced to do something they don't want to do by their husbands.

They are all horrible, and there are no gray area rapes. Murder is murder. Rape is a rape.

In fact, rape is even less gray than murder. You could accidentally murder someone, but there's no accident to rape.

[seabeyond]

73. in my own personal experience

i could see on one occasion where i could have done better getting the message across. it was not consensual, and i dont know that the guy got it.

he may have
and was a pig and raped
and maybe he didn't. i was young, .... inexperienced and drunk. as much as that does not justify rape, .... i was too drunk to know if his intent was rape.

some may not see that makes a difference. hence why i said in that one post my view on rape is a little different than others.

[Zuiderelle]

74. We can all look backwards and think of ways we could have handled horrors like that better.

But it doesn't change the fact that rape is rape. There is no excuse, and there is no gray area.

[seabeyond]

75. i think there is a gray area, rape is rape and there is no excuse.... n/t

[Zuiderelle]

78. There's AN EXCUSE sometimes? Really? Sounds like you are saying your rape was excusible.

That's flabbergasting.

[seabeyond]

79. damn.... i re read and realized how that sounded, tried to pull off as fast as could

let me say clearly....

and please do not purposely try to misconstrue. to huge a subject for me

rape is rape.... always
there is no excuse.... always

SOMETIMES..... there is a gray area

if anyone takes it somewhere else, .... what jerks

[Zuiderelle]

80. I didn't intend to misconstrue. I really did just respond to exactly what you wrote.

I'm glad we agree that there is no excuse.

We will continue to disagree on whether there's a gray area. I'm sorry for the horrible experience you had, but no matter how you make excuses for what happened, you weren't AT ALL TO BLAME. Not one iota. Not if you were passed out drunk and naked. There's really no gray area to rape. The man has to intentionally commit the crime, whether the victim is fully awake or comatose. There's no accident there, and there's no gray area.

[seabeyond]

81. comatose and naked is clear rape in my book. but thank you

for accepting the clarification of the post

[fudge stripe cookays]

71. Own it?

Gray area?

I will always believe a woman who says she's been attacked until I find out otherwise. Whether she's a hooker or otherwise. Meanwhile, there are others on this board who think that those in the sex industry and call girls do not deserve our respect. That is nauseating.

[seabeyond]

72. regardless

of your opinion of prostitution, that has nothing to do with this thread.

[fudge stripe cookays]

83. And rape had nothing to do with the other thread...

until someone said prostitutes couldn't be raped. If you have been violated yourself but then deny other women that right to make their case, then you are part of the problem.

[seabeyond]

86. you are regressing accusing me again of stating prositutes cant be raped. and the rape issue

was brought up by the people defending prostitution.

continually trying to give me that i said prositutes cant be raped is a bullshit, chickenshit, cowardly and weak way to argue not to mention dishonest.

re reading your post i do not think you can be any more offensive.... what an ass

[fudge stripe cookays]

88. That works both ways.

The ass thing, I mean.

[Breeze54]

41. It's not any different. Rape is rape. and it is dismissing of American women, to say

'they don't have it as bad as other countries.". :grr:

Rape is bad in ALL countries!!!! :grr:

[seabeyond]

4. i think... but then i am told not an issue..... mostly by men n/t

[undergroundpanther]

14. It's because men

Have historically benefited from the cultural subjugation and abuse of women,that's why they minimize it so easily. Some men do not like the idea of gender equality. Because they like the power trip they get from inequality..Social darwinism fits in with this..

http://www.boundless.org/2000/features/a0000236.html
http://endviolenceagainstwomen.blogspot.com/
http://abyss2hope.blogspot.com/2008/02/gray-rape-of-excuses-for-hapless.html

[seabeyond]

15. dehumanizing.

that is what it is all about.

dehumanizing.

when someone says how can a man....

dehumanize

how can those soldier torture in iraq....

dehumanize

it is so simple and anyone can do it. doesnt have to be the monster

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. Right. n/t

[undergroundpanther]

18. I dehumanize

The people who would hurt me, the rapist, the torturer and thug.
Because their choices to dehumanize people that are not a danger to them,makes them a monster.
Yes some choices are that toxic.

I don't dehumanize people who are not rapists, pedophiles or torturing thugs.

There are people and then there are monsters who became monstrous by their own choice,like rapists.

I am not one bit ashamed to hate those who would destroy people for their own power trips.
And that is what rapists do.

I;ll stand up for people who are being exploited,but I will not be kind to exploiters.
Big difference.

[seabeyond]

67. just a huge

i am so sorry for your pain

:cry:

[TheWraith]

19. You want to stop and think about that statement a little bit more?

Or would you prefer to blame all men, ever, everywhere, for the behavior of a handful? By which logic, of course, all women are rapists and murderers too. And of course, extending your collective-guilt argument, every black person is personally responsible and complicit for, say, the Rwandan genocide; every person of Japanese descent is the same as the butchers of Unit 731; every white person is Hitler, every Asian is Khan.

Or maybe you should wake up and recognize that people are responsible only for their own behavior, not for every grievance you want to transfer to them from someone else who they remind you of.

[seabeyond]

22. "behavior of a handful?"... 1 in 3 females raped, i say more than a handful of males

but that is an excellent example of reducing the significance of the problem of rape in the u.s. by suggesting it is only a handful of males that have a problem. minimizing the problem, then we dont really have to address.

[fizzgig]

23. the last stats i saw said one in seven men will be sexually assaulted

but i have a feeling it is a much higher number

[gollygee]

24. And most of those rapes are committed by men as well

If one in three women and one in seven men are being raped, there are certainly more than "a handful" of men doing the raping. Though it seems obvious to me it's a minority of men, it can't possibly be a small enough minority to be described as "a handful".

[Iris]

85. but that still doesn't tell us that 1 in 3 men are rapists.

It doesn't account for all that rapists are psychopaths and probably commit this crime more than one time in their lives.

[seabeyond]

87. correct. and we know it is not a handful. that is what i said. to say it is a handful

diminishes the problem.

[ensho]

58. 'handful' you jest. and yes all men are to blame because they have not

stopped the racists or even tried.

[BoneDaddy]

82. Wow the generalizations are flying

funny how rules change so quickly for some people.

[Triana]

43. It's all about power and control with those men...

...that's it.

And I also don't appreciate the minimizing "well, women in other countries have it worse!" argument.

SO WHAT?! That in NO WAY excuses or minimizes what women in the US have to deal with. It simply DOES NOT. PARTICULARLY when it comes to RAPE.


Deny.

Blame.

Minimize.


HOW MANY times do these tactics get used when we're talking about abuse of and violence against women in the US - AND their lack of (equal) rights and representation in our society and legal system and in our gov't?


EVERY.

SINGLE.

TIME.


The "women in other countries have it worse" meme is a MINIMIZING tactic.


I am NOT swallowing that jizz. It doesn't MATTER.


HUMANS are being abused, killed, and raped and denied basic human rights based on their sex - IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Period.

There often is much less we can do about what happens in other countries -- but WE CAN DO SOMETHING - a LOT in fact, about what happens HERE.

SO...WHY has nothing been done?

(HOW MANY progressive female Presidents have we had?)


There you go.

[Fridays Child]

5. And only about 6% of rapists ever spend a day in jail...

...according to www.rainn.org.

[cliffordu]

6. I just found out - after looking for my biological father for 20 years,

(I am 56) that after I found him a month ago, not only is he NOT my bio father, that I am a child of rape....


Uncomfortable is feeling like a stain for a couple days. I'm getting over it, slowly.

My poor mother, though, sheeit.

[Mojorabbit]

38. I am sorry

you are going through this. It must have been jolting after searching so long.
:hug:

[cliffordu]

42. Thanks for the hug, mojorabbit

The first couple of days were absolutely devastating....I am getting better, though. Fortunately my half sister is by my side as is my lovely wife of 25 years and friends all over the nation.

I used to write for a living. I think I'll write about the path from learning my stepfather wasn't my real father at 6 years old to finding the man who I was then told was my biological father 50 years later, and then learning my true origins.....

It is a uniquely American multi-generational story of drug addiction, alcoholism, mental illness and child abuse:

This is just fact, and I turned out magnificently whole in spite of the family I came out of -

There is no self pity in this tale. It made me who I am, and that is not a bad thing. It simply is the truth.

Thanks again,

c

:hug:

[undergroundpanther]

7. Rape is trauma

And one thing people also forget it is ALWAYS the rapists choice,the rapist is who chooses to target and traumatize the victim.
What I wonder is what about our culture and people makes rapists think that it's ok to choose to rape someone,and rape is something they can get away with?

Rape will stop when it is made too costly to the rapist personally to even think of making that choice.It needs to be painful enough that a rapist will stop and decide it is not worth it to rape someone.
I think women need to understand fighting against a rapists is one way to stop rape,being silent and not even taking this asshole to court is not a way to deter rape.Killing a rapist is self defense,just as much as harming rapists that try to impose and hurt people. Pain can FORCE rapists to stop.. People need to understand the danger rape poses to women,and children. That rape is a crime,and it is ALWAYS the rapist who is doing the choosing To harm another person..Rape is ALWAYS the rapists fault ALWAYS.

http://www.pandys.org/wasitmyfault.html
http://womensnet.org.za/pvaw/help/mythrape.html

The world is NOT just. And we are ALL vulnerable.


Rape victims are a glaring reminder of our own vulnerability. No one likes to think they could lose control over their own body or life. By deciding a rape victim did something concrete to deserve the assault the observer creates a false sense of safety. If they can avoid doing that particular thing or action then they create the illusion of invulnerability for themselves. Creating a firm boundary between ourselves and accussers or rape victims (us v/s them) also creates the illusion of invulnerability.

http://www.ibiblio.org/rcip/invuln.html

And movies that excuse rape or glorify it do not help people see the ugly truth of what rape and torture is, the aftermath,and the damage done to the scarred person.

[Breeze54]

44. Don't mention 'marital rape' though. It's non-existant!

:sarcasm:

At least it is in the courts, last I heard. :grr:

[Echo In Light]

92. True. Prison rape is likewise non-existent...or doesn't really matter, cause it's "those people."

Quite revealing how people are culturally conditioned toward selective perspectives.

[seabeyond]

66. movies that excuse rape or glorify ... entertain. it is to entertain.

i want to know how many women, or those raped find it entertaining.

[Echo In Light]

93. The recent rash of torture-as-entertainment movies is disturbing

[Indenturedebtor]

8. Yes I know a lot of women who have been raped

It's sad and disgusting.

I know eye for an eye has its issues, but I wonder if that would help?

I think that part of the problem is that parents don't teach their children not to do this. I know it's intuitive to most of us that rape is so very not ok... but my parents never told me this... ever. Why?

[undergroundpanther]

9. Because

Child abuse reinforces a hierarchical culture such as this one is.
It makes abuse or be abused invisible like air.. but to the people who have been sensitized to the way domination and control games are pushed onto people they can't help but see it. And people who do not want to face the ugly facts like this world is very unjust and it is unsafe and that society is sick,they'd rather tell themselves lies or blame the wounded ones for getting wounded or make claims how someone else is "over sensitive" rather than look at their own behavior or words and be responsible for them and the hurt they cause.

Our culture tolerates rape and it tolerates child abuse.What if all that money we are blowing killing Iraqi people went to rape prevention and child protection?
http://communitiesresponsetosexualassault.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/rape-culture/

This study shows the long term damage child abuse causes.
http://www.cavalcadeproductions.com/ace-study.html


Unlike many speakers, (and this summary) Jensen does not use euphemisms for murder, rape and genocide. Instead he graphically describes the violent, ugly side of human nature, and connects it to human violence against nature.

More than one attendee asked, "did he have to use such awful language that was so denigrating, especially to women?" To which Derrick would respond, ""Well, that's exactly the point. Our culture uses that language every day, with reference to women and entire people. Somehow its OK to spell out 'fuck Iraq' on an aircraft carrier, as a prelude to killing tens of thousands of people, but it is offensive to use that same word in a person-to-person situation, like a lecture, to unmask its objectification of individuals, social groups, and nations (see "Freedom Fries")".
Jensen's jarring, profane, angry presentation ultimately focuses on objectification as the key problem with our culture. We objectify each other, which allows incredible acts of violence, and more subtle modes of discrimination and exploitation. And we objectify nature, with the same results: our culture has violently exploited nature. It's easy to do when you don't enter into a personal relationship with the exploited.

http://www.illahee.org/lectures/archive/derrickjensenlecture

[knitter4democracy]

13. It's extremely common.

I was sexually assaulted by a radiology tech, and my SIL was drugged, abducted, imprisoned, and raped (her friends managed to track her down and rescue her). She refused to press charges, preferring to blame herself. I tried to press charges and found that I couldn't. I couldn't even that that chick fired or sue.

[undergroundpanther]

16. I wish every rapist was dead.

I wish every rapist was forced to feel what the victim felt and would be made to blame himself for his choice and hate himself for it.Knitter you did not deserve that shit,and I feel so sad for you. As for the rapist radiologist who hurt you and the asshole who hurt your SIL, I would love to rip both their bellies open with a gutting hook for what he chose to do, to you both. In my opinion rapists do not deserve to live after doing such a crime against humanity. I hate the rapist and I have no forgiveness for them,especially if they make excuses for rape .I admit it, I want all rapists dead..and I wish all potential rapists to have to think of the suffering that will happen to them personally before choosing to rape, if there was any Justice in this world that is how it would have to be .But this is not a just world. I hope you have been able to find a place of safety and heal too.

[knitter4democracy]

25. I'm working on it.

:hug:

I don't think rapists should die, but I do think they should pay a lot for their crimes. They should have to face what they did and rot in solitary for a long time. I'd say they should die, but I don't think it's right for the state to kill its own citizens. Instead, they should go to prison for decades, life even.

[undergroundpanther]

89. I would be glad to throw the switch

myself.

After convicted I don't care who does it,let the rapist die. He won't be alive to escape jail ,wait and stew for whatever years,stalk and rape the victim again,and the rapist definitely will not be able to rape anyone again rotting in a grave.
I am well aware the death penalty is useless as a crime deterrent. As I see it the death penalty has one purpose. It exists to permanently stop one rapist from raping anyone again forever.

[undeterred]

20. I have been trying to explain this to a pro-life candidate.

First, that one in three American women will be raped. But that every woman has her story - I know this because I was the victim of an attempted rape and I worked with victims for 7 years after that. The police operate on the assumption that for every reported assault there are 9 others: ONLY 1 IN 10 GETS REPORTED because women feel shame and fear. And of those that get reported only a very small percentage get prosecuted. Maybe 1 in 10, maybe less. And none of these are prosecuted in time to legally establish that a particular act was a rape.

So those who say that abortion is only permissible under certain circumstances- like rape and incest-are totally out of touch with the reality of girls and womens lives, with the lack of reporting and lack of prosecution.

[ensho]

60. true

nt

[marions ghost]

21. I bet there's not a man alive

who hasn't had the conscious thought at some point in his life, "I am SO glad I'm NOT a woman." (whereas it's pretty common for women to wish they were men at some point).

OK men--anybody out there who can claim never to have thought this?

Until that changes, there will be no equality between the sexes.

[undeterred]

26. Men get raped too,

And not just in prison. When I was a rape victim advocate, I was shocked when I found out that we would be called to the hospital to see male rape victims too.

In Chicago there was a van going around a gay neighborhood with 3 homohateful straight men who would abduct a gay man, gang rape him, beat him up, and dump him. Sometimes the men would report it as a sexual assault, sometimes they did not- so as with women, the shame and fear were great. The police probably treated female rape victims better than gay men. The person who trained us was from Gay Horizons, and thats where the gay victims went for help, if they went anywhere.

I saw two male rape victims in the ER and it was pretty traumatic for them too. One of them was 18, mentally retarded, and a prostitute. I just held his hand and listened for a while.

[knitter4democracy]

34. A gay friend of mine was raped at college in the men's dorm.

He doesn't talk about it. The school did nothing. Seeing him last year at a friend's funeral so happy and so healthy after going through hell at our college made me think that he got the best revenge on those bastards.

[Echo In Light]

53. Funny how such "bastards" are usually very popular, 'pillars of the community'

[knitter4democracy]

84. Very true.

They were guys that everyone thought were great Christian men and future leaders in the church (it's a small evangelical Christian college).

[Mojorabbit]

39. I have never

wanted to be a man. I have been assaulted but never would I give up being a woman.

[marions ghost]

91. sure I know

there are plenty of women who have healthy self-images and have grown up with the idea that they can be anything they want, even in this hostile man's world. Thankfully societal attitudes are changing somewhat. Strong women like you will lead the way into a better future.

My point was that there is not a MAN alive who has NOT had the thought, "I'm glad I'm not a woman." It's common sense--men would be crazy to see being a woman as a plus when they were born into a position of superiority. If you think that our culture does not have a strong preference for males, look around. It isn't hard to see it. We are only now coming out of the long Dark Ages...it will take many centuries before women are seen as being equally valuable and respected, many centuries yet. It will happen someday though, because to keep half the population in a strait-jacket (or bound-feet, or corsets, or whatever mental image of restriction and subjugation you like) is not an advantage to humankind.

As for men being raped, well that occurs, and not only physically but in other ways as well. The men that this form of degradation happens to understand what it's like being a woman all too well. But that's a negative viewpoint, isn't it? Men everywhere have a hard time seeing the positives about being a woman, no matter how many women will argue that there are some benefits to it. Until that view changes, we will not have a truly egalitarian society.

[Greyhound]

62. I had that thought, but I've also thought at times it would be good to

experience the world from such a different perspective also.

[Mike03]

27. One of the events that really changed my life forever was having

a friend turned up raped and murdered. We had gone to school together, although she was a few years younger than me, and was friends with my sisters.

In fact, she was murdered on March 11, a full moon.

Maybe my response is a bit off topic, but this crime obsessed me enough to spend (or waste) five years writing about it.

When you know someone who has been raped/murdered, I guess it is normal that you are never the same afterwards. Do you think that is a fair statement?

[ThomWV]

28. Yes, I do think that is a fair statement.

[Mike03]

31. Thank you. You know, in all these years, no one has ever given

me permission to feel devastated about the rape and murder of this person. I was always told that I should just move on and forget about it.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart.

[seabeyond]

35. to forget, would be to not honor her. i say what you

who you are is the very best for her.

you honor her.

[Withywindle]

45. Who the hell told you that?

Bullshit. Move on and forget?

That serves the perpetrator, not the victim. It's the victims who DESERVE to be remembered and thought about with love and grief and determination to never let it happen again.

Perps, now, they ought to die alone in their own shit and have their bodies dumped in landfills.


I've been there too. She was a friend of mine in college, it happened a couple years after we'd moved on and were in different cities. July of '93. I still feel the grief and the horror and the rage. It'll never completely go away. I don't think it should.

:hug: for you and your friend. Make peace with the loss if you can, but never forget. They're not the same thing.

[knitter4democracy]

33. How could you be the same afterwards?

My SIL was abducted and raped, and I will never forget that phone call when MIL called to tell us that they'd found her and that she was in the ER going through the rape kit. I was so glad she was alive, I was so angry at the rat bastard predator who did that to her, and I was just a wreck. None of the family is the same now. Not really. It's always there, in the background. If she'd died, it would've broken my MIL entirely, and the rest of us would've been severely damaged.

I think it's entirely fair to say you'll never be the same.

[undeterred]

37. Yes, it is devastating.

My friends sister was raped and murdered at age 16 by a serial killer who was not apprehended till 15 years later. It was about a year or so before I met him. People forget that violence against women affects men too. In this case, the mother was in a rage against everyone for a year and a half, but after that she really was the only one who could talk about it. The father and brothers had a mix of anger and guilt and sadness that took years. She was the baby of the family and I think that they all felt that somehow they each should have been there to protect her.

The person who did this is a sociopath who was eventually convicted of 2 murders but associated with at least a dozen more. He was already in prison for life so he pled guilty and the mother got to give a victim impact statement, 25 years after the murder. She talked about all the things she missed, all the things the whole family was robbed of. All her high school friends were there. They were robbed too. Her orthodontist had to identify her body because she was tortured. I never met her, but her death affected my life profoundly.

So yes, Mike, your response is normal. Evil is like one little pebble in a pond that spreads out ripples in every direction. It affects so many people.

When the serial killer was finally convicted my friend called me up and said he was thinking of going to visit him in prison and ask him why he did it. His wife told him no, so he was calling me, and I said no. He died in prison.

[Blue_In_AK]

29. It's true.

It happened to me. Back in those days, though, there was no such term as "date rape," so being coerced to have sex against one's will, or while one was too intoxicated to resist, was just "what happened" to girls who found themselves in that position. The same was true of being sexually harassed on the job, which also happened to me to a really shameful degree in one instance. We had no recourse other than to put up with it or get a different job, which is what I did. Much has improved in the past 40 years. At least we have terms for these assaults and are being encouraged to report them. That was certainly not the case in the old days.

[question everything]

30. And if it is true that Rev. Wright thinks that white girls ask for it

while black girls get raped, than we have here more than just a physical rape; we have here a rape of life and honor of girls.

Someone posted this in GDP.

[treestar]

95. Is there any proof Wright said any such thing?

[JerseygirlCT]

32. Doesn't it though?

And it's not something most are even comfortable talking about. There's much more there than we know.

Isn't it horrendous that we have such a shared experience, and it's not even allowed in polite company to speak of it?

[citizen snips]

36. I know someone who was raped.

The result was hyper-sexuality and I have not found the courage to tell the person that she needs professional help.

[ensho]

63. yes, that happens alot

you could try saying something in a small way and then change the subject quickly. the thought will be in her mind for her to think about for awhile, etc.

[femrap]

40. Our country does not have the WILL

to stop rape. It could be done, if we had the will.

[Joe Chi Minh]

52. Too much money in the porn and prostitution industries. A massive

sector in which there will never be a significant economic downturn, as long as they are a prime staple of mainstream US culture.

[AngryAmish]

54. Are you saying porn and prostitution causes rape?

More porn than ever in the US -- much less rape. I don't know about prostitution. Where are your stats on that one?

Anyway, rape is way down in the US. Something like 85% reduction since the 70s. Look it up (or look at the article I posted downthread). The problem has gotten better.

[femrap]

56. And slavery is OK as long as it is women and children

used for sex. If there is reincarnation, I would like to try out a planet that is unisex for a change. Wonder how they would ruin a peaceful existence?

And now even the Left defends this as 'freedom of speech.'

I refuse to get depressed today....! Thx for understanding though...usually I get flamed about being a religious prig.

[ensho]

64. true - porn sucks up poor girls/boys the same as the military does

lots of money for the porn barons

[Shine]

46. I've never been raped, thank goddess

When I was a Politics major student in college I remember doing a big paper on the history of rape laws and how overtly sexist they were back then. Did you know that originally rape was considered a property crime against a MAN, i.e., the woman's husband or father??! The violation of the woman's body, herself, was almost beside the point. What was more important, however, was determining how her "damaged goods status" would effect the future financial and societal status of the man. Pretty amazing.

[VotesForWomen]

47. if i was ever raped, i wouldn't even go to the police; i would deal with itmyself, if you know what

i mean (assuming i knew the perpetrator and where to find him). women have been allowing themselves to be doormatts for way too long.

[VotesForWomen]

48. if i was ever raped, i wouldn't even go to the police; i would deal with itmyself, if you know what

i mean (assuming i knew the perpetrator and where to find him). women have been allowing themselves to be doormatts for way too long.

[AngryAmish]

49. It is not a consolation, but the incidence of rape is way down from the early 70s

Still too high, tho.

[seabeyond]

50. i dont believe that. i would have to see stats instead of a simple statement n/t

[AngryAmish]

51. kay

read the whole article, but incidence of rape down 85% since the 70s.

[seabeyond]

57. to go around insisting rape reduced 85% per this report is irresponsible in my mind

there is a lot in the very article to suggest 85% reduction is not factual. per the fbi stats alone. not to mention all the questioning on the number

[Gormy Cuss]

76. The DOJ survey with the 85% drop off has a different base from the FBI stats.

The Victimization survey tries to capture all crimes, not just those reported. The FBI stats are reports and only reports that meet the narrower definition they use. Therefore, the numbers are unlikely to ever show the same incidence.

What both do show is a rather substantial decline. Why there's been a decline is the core question. I can think of three reasons for a decline in both the DOJ survey and the FBI stats: 1) The popular definition of rape isn't the same as it was three decades ago, 2)there is an increased reluctance to report/admit to victimization, or 3)rape rates are declining.

One can argue about how much of a drop off there has been, but since both of these measures show a pattern of decline over the past few decades, something has changed.

[seabeyond]

77. i do know/believe rape numbers have decreased. starting seeing it in

clinton time. i was not arguing a decrease, .... was 85%

on edit: with a thread like this it is a good reminder too

[Echo In Light]

55. That the U.S. incarcerates greater numbers than any other country is disturbing also

[ThomWV]

90. It doesn't bother me as much how many we lock up as it does how many go back to jail

I am haunted by the low recidivism rate they have in Canada. People who get locked up once in Canada do not get locked up again for the most part. Here if you get locked up once the probability of you being locked up again increases greatly. Why?

[Greyhound]

61. If you know 3 women, you know at least 1 rape victim.

It is a world-wide plague, and the sad fact is that the other half of the population tolerates it.

:kick: & R

[treestar]

94. I don't know a single rape victim

But that doesn't mean there is no such thing as rape. This is anecdotal. Rape is always hard to get statistics on; always will be.

[seabeyond]

96. you dont know, if you know. very personal not often shared.... n/t