Legal vs. Moral Judgments

Lean in guys, I know it would suck to be falsely accused of rape, but that is not on the same level as surviving rape. #I DONTCAREWHATYOURMOMTOLDYOU. I know we’re all special snowflakes, though as the media, law, government, #ALLTHETHINGS would have you believe, white, hetero, cis men are the most special snowflakes.

I read the Rolling Stone article that is all over the place, and it was horrific, triggering, and awful. Might “Jackie” be embellishing or misleading in parts of her story? Sure. Maybe she even lied, though statistically speaking that is hella rare, and she took leave from university at the time of the alleged rape, her health suffered, grades slipped, withdrew from friends and family until she was finally forced because of suicidal ideation to ask for help, but yeah, bitches lie. Of course, the Rolling Stone article and retraction, where they sacrificed a source and is so offensive to sexual assault survivors and journalism, came out when the Newsroom aired an episode where a rape victim was interrogated by a random man (Don) because her rapists weren’t convicted, which obviously means she is making it all up. We’re not going to get into the politics of throwing a woman who is disagreeing with you in the writer’s room over the rape storyline because why would you need a woman’s opinion?

The character, Don, claims that he can’t air this story because he can’t make a moral judgment. Now, I’ve seen a few episodes of the show, and Don makes moral judgments all the time. But he can’t believe a woman about her lived experience because those poor boys (sounds like CNN and those poor rapists whose lives are ruined, one of which is already out of jail). I don’t have empathy for the falsely accused. I don’t wish them ill, but that inconvenience of a false accusation lasted how long exactly? A semester? Did they even investigate? Was your name made public and then you were shunned by friends and family? Are you triggered when you sleep with someone else? Because rape survivors have long term consequences like being triggered years later. Having another person’s actions define you. Having to explain to a new partner why you’re freaking out over what they perceive to be nothing and the shame associated with that. PTSD, depression, therapy bills, difficulty holding employment, trust issues, physical injuries, nightmares, and the band plays on. So play your tiny violin bros.

I always believe the victims/alleged victims. I believe them because I know the stats, and I know rape culture. I know that it isn’t that bad for accused rapists, and I know this because national media talks about the poor boys that were found guilty of raping an unconscious girl. Because she was asking for it. Because apparently all woman are asking for it if you survive. And I believe victims because most of the survivors I know never reported. That is a moral judgment. Have I been wrong? Yeah, probably. But at the end of the day, I’m not sorry I believe the victims, no matter how unbelievable she might be, because anyone can be raped, and while everyone isn’t a rapist, I’ve knew people I didn’t think could be rapists that were.

Do I feel that all accused men should be jailed and lose their jobs? No. I think you have to go through the legal system if you want that kind of justice…we can discuss whether that is real justice, what justice means, and justice for whom. That is a legal judgment. See there aren’t legal consequences unless you go through the legal system. Now in the episode, the girl in question named her rapists, after she didn’t receive justice from the school or the police, and she made her own website which allows people to name their rapists, sometimes anonymously. Anyone else, having flashbacks to the women jailed for naming her rapist after a judge ordered her not to?

Moral judgments aren’t equivalent to legal judgments. You are free to make the former about things based on how you perceive them. Legal judgments, not so much. But as we know, from recent instances of police brutality/murder, sometimes the justice system fails, and it fails people who aren’t considered the most special snowflakes more often. A lack of legal conviction doesn’t mean a person is innocent. It means a broken and biased system that disproportionately targets men of color said they were innocent.  

A quarter of men admitted to committing rape in the largest international study on rape

Yep, that’s a real figure. Not kidding, not exaggerating. Tara Culp-Ressler had a piece summarizing the report on ThinkProgress, and I’m using her article more than the others I’ve read where the articles were brief, also the actually report is pretty lengthy.

The United Nations published a pretty hefty study on the roots of sexual violence across six countries (Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka) and lasted two years that included 10,000 men. Take minute and think about how involved that had to be. I really like research just a reminder methods matter. The study was the largest scientific project on the subject so far, and the specific aim was to investigate the “under-research” area of male-perpetrated rape. The study found that on average one in ten men living in the areas covered by the study admitted to raping someone in their lives, this excludes partners because the figure gets hella scarier when partners are included. Of course, the regional attitudes within Southeastern Asia about sexuality are going to influence the results. However there are some striking things that come out of the study with some generalizable results.

First many people don’t actually know what rape is. The researchers intentionally opted not to use the word “rape” in their questionnaires about Asian men’s sexual histories. Instead the questions asked specific questions about the situations sex occurred such as have they ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex” and have they ever “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it.” This most likely helped the researchers get accurate information from the men being interviewed. Culp-Ressler notes that lines of consent aren’t often learned and as a result people don’t know when they are violating someone and they might not believe they committed rape. Michele Decker, a public health professor who co-wrote the commentary on the new study said, “Rape doesn’t just involve someone with a gun to a woman’s head. People tend to think of rape as something someone else would do.”

Second, rape can occur in marriages. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone reading this blog. I talk about sexual violence between partners often. The UN study found rape between married partners was more common than rape between people not involved with one another. Obviously, a sexual history or even a legally binding contract doesn’t give someone a right to your body, which somehow isn’t getting through to men.

Third, rapists are repeat offenders. This also shouldn’t be a surprise to readers of this blog. It is estimated that among college age men only five to ten percent of the population commits sexual assaults, but those that do, are repeat offenders. Pair that information with the estimates that one in three college aged women have been raped. In the UN study, nearly half of those he admitted to rape, said they had raped at least once, but went on to rape multiple victims. Almost twenty three percent said they had raped two to three people, twelve percent had raped four to ten people, and about four percent admitted to raping more than ten people. Take a long breather. A Harvard University study found this behavior isn’t just limited to college age men. Young men who commit a rape in college are likely to become serial offenders, and of course many do after all they usually evade punishment through campus policies.

Fourth, attitudes about sexuality develop at a young age. More than half of the men who admitted to violating someone without consent said they were teenagers when they first raped someone. The majority of sexual crimes occurred between ages 15 and 19. The authors claims this finding “reinforces the need for early rape prevention.” Preach. In the US, sex education advocated believe this can occur within comprehensive sex ed. If kids are taught respect and confidence with their own bodies, they are less likely to violate someone else’s consent and speak up when someone violates theirs.

Fifth men are taught they have a right to women’s bodies. I know, reader, you’re shocked. This is a staple of rape culture. It manifests in the "men can’t help themselves" trope or the women’s bodies in exchange for positive behavior essentially a man is owed because he is nice to you (Nice Guys). The UN study showed this attitude was prevalent among the rapists surveyed. More than seventy percent of the men who admitted to rape said they did so because of “sexual entitlement.” *shudder* Another forty percent said they were angry or wanted to punish the woman. *double shudder* Half the men said they didn’t feel guilty. *triple shudder* Someone want to tell me again how rape is about sex? Maybe it is a bit more about privilege, entitlement, and power? Maybe someone wants to deny rape culture?

Sixth In Southeast Asia, rape usually goes unpunished. Only twenty three percent of the men who admitted to rape had been imprisoned for their crimes. This trend was found in all six of the countries included in the study. RAINN estimates that about three percent of US rapists serve jail time, this includes the unreported rapes. Which is funny because of course according to the FBI only two percent of rapes are false allegations of course also according to the FBI eight percent are…guess it just depends on who their talking to. It has been standard policy on college campuses that rapists receive light punishments.

There has been some discussion on the articles that emphasis one in ten men rape, when the reality is thirty to thirty seven percent of men rape. Of course, the later stat reflects partners, and by emphasizing the earlier stat the argument can be made that these articles are down playing partner/marital rape, essentially reinforcing that people can’t sexually abuse their own partners. This is a controversial issue because for a long time wives couldn’t accuse their husbands of sexual assault. The Model Penal Code stated, “A male who has sexual intercourse with a female not his wide is guilty of rape it: (…). It wasn’t until 1993 when all states considered martial rape a crime. Remember Akin (legitimate rape guy) he made references to how men can’t rape their own wives.

The study focused on the male perpetrators rather than the female victims because they hope this will encourage policy change with the focus on men and prevention opposed to women and prevention. I have my doubts. All of these findings aren’t new to anyone even remotely familiar with sexual assault and intimate partner violence. The researchers concluded, “Prevention of rape is essential. Interventions must focus on childhood and adolescences, and address culturally rooted male gender socialization and power relations, abuse in childhood, and poverty.”

Rape culture permeates US society we all, and all of the things listed in the requirements for intervention should be employed here as well. After, we teardown the victims and talk about the wasted potential of the rapists here, because a man’s life is viewed as worth more than a woman’s.