A man, aware of rape myth thinking, is much more likely, when encountering a sexual assault victim, to believe them.
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A graphic on the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network web site reflects the estimate that of 100 rapes, 32 will get reported to the police, 7 will lead to arrests, 3 will be referred to prosecutors, 2 will lead to felony convictions, 2 will lead to the rapist serving any jail time. These estimates are all based on US Department of Justice and FBI published sources. If sexual contact is an important part of your sense of “homeland”, chances are not much is going to get done to punish the evil doers if you have a security breech.
One reason for this sad state of affairs is that district attorneys know that sexual assault cases are difficult to win, because too many potential jurists believe in rape myths. Losing sexual assault cases tend to not help DA’s get re-elected or otherwise promote their careers. I believe that it is every man’s patriotic duty to be rape myth savvy in order to be prepared to be a good juror, if ever selected for a sexual assault case. While the chances of ever being in that position are very low, such preparation will have other benefits. Being rape myth wise will help you decrease the chances that you will be a rapist, be a rapist cheerleader or apologist, be a man who thinks that sexual assault, while no doubt a more serious crime than shop lifting, just isn’t worthy of much attention.
If you ask any man if they ever obtained a good or service that they should have paid for, but didn’t, you will most likely get an affirmative head nod. If you ask those who are innocent, if they ever felt tempted to, the number will grow. This is not to say that there are not saints that walk amongst us, it is only to set up the point that most men don’t identify with having urges to touch someone for sexual gratification who doesn’t want to be touched. With changes in sexual mores in the United States, there are more and more people who will want you to touch them that way, if you ask nicely.
Many men whose main association to the problem of sexual assault is, “Gee, its good to be a good man when it comes to that problem. Keeping my hands off of unwilling sex partners is easy for me. Oh, how virtuous I am,” can have a different reaction if asked if they care about anyone who has to spend some mental energy remaining vigilant to the potential of their being sexually assaulted. Some men have women in their life and/or men who have been sexually assaulted, who fit this bill. Very, very, very few men don’t. Very few men spend much time thinking about this. Few men consider that men who engage in sexual assault make men who don’t, look better. “My partner puts up with all sorts of crap, but they will never have to worry about me sexually assaulting them”, is a thought usually left to the subconscious.
Fear of sexual assault that others have, might even help you get a job. Some qualified applicants for certain jobs won’t apply because they worry about sexual assault risks. Many men love being in nature alone. Thank goodness that fear of being raped keeps the crowd down in wilderness areas.
I found an interesting source of education on being a good sexual assault juror. It is Article 120 of the US Uniform Military Code of Justice. It includes some clear definitions of 1) Sexual Act, 2) Sexual Contact, 3) Bodily Harm 4) Grievous Bodily Harm, 5) Force, 6) Unlawful force, 7) Threatening or placing that other person in fear. 8) Consent. This is a great justification for sexual assault bullshit detector, whether it be from sexual assault perpetrators, defense attorneys, sexual assault perpetrators, their apologists and your own sense of right and wrong.
Let’s take a look at the definition for consent in the Code: “The term ‘consent’ means a freely given agreement to the conduct at issue by a competent person. An expression of lack of consent through words or conduct means there is no consent. Lack of verbal or physical resistance or submission resulting from the use of force, threat of force or placing another person in fear does not constitute consent. A current or previous dating or social or sexual relationship by itself or the manner of dress of the person involved with the accused in the conduct at issue shall not constitute consent.”
What part of that don’t you understand soldier, juror, man? I think it would be a great source of male pride to consent to having tattooed onto an inner thigh “Semper Umquam any touching, or causing another person to touch either directly or through the clothing, any body part of any other person, if done with an intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, without a freely given agreement to the conduct at issue by a competent person” and a greater honor to always act in accordance with that credo. (The Latin translates to “always never.” the other two phrases are from the Uniform Code of Military Justice connected by the word “without.”)
Defense attorneys less able to bamboozle a jury into believing that there is not sufficient evidence to find a defendant guilty by way of focusing on rape myth fodder, will try to let rape myth thinking in the back door of the court room, as part of their duty to try and discredit the veracity of the victim’s report, as to what went down.
The victim will be made out as being possibly incompetent to tell the story about what actually happened that night, (or days and nights sometimes for years and years), because they were intoxicated, emotionally immature, mentally incapable, confused as to what happened due to their conflicted emotions, as to what they wanted to have happen or most commonly they might be lying to create a fictional story as to what happened to match their newly found understanding of what they should have wanted to have happen.
Many jurors love a good story. Ambiguity and conflicted emotions make for a good story. The victim didn’t communicate that sexual contact was okay with them and they got it anyway, is a very boring tale. The truth can be quite dull.
It is horrible when a person is convicted of a sexual assault when they didn’t do it. It is horrible when an innocent person goes to prison for murder. It hardly ever happens in either case. It is so much less likely to happen when the charge is rape because it is difficult to convict anybody of rape. Those who murder usually are arrested, usually are prosecuted, usually are convicted, usually do time, even with “dream team” very expensive attorneys. Rapists, well that’s a very different story, because rape is no big deal compared to murder. This could have something to do with it usually being men who get murdered and it is usually women who get sexually assaulted.
A man, aware of rape myth thinking, is much more likely, when encountering a sexual assault victim, to believe them. There can be at least some small measure of justice in that. Being just, is a big part of being a good citizen. To be a good citizen be prepared to be a good sexual assault case juror.
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Photo: Getty Images
This could have something to do with it usually being men who get murdered and it is usually women who get sexually assaulted. If that’s the case then why is it that sexual assault against men is often silenced? If the logic is that men care about crimes that happen to them then wouldn’t they care about, well, crimes that happen to them? (Also bear in mind that even women silence male sex crime victims.) Truthfully this article sounds like you are trying to replace one set of myths with another. Rather than assume a sex crime against a woman… Read more »
Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit
Wait wait wait… “Fear of sexual assault that others have, might even help you get a job. Some qualified applicants for certain jobs won’t apply because they worry about sexual assault risks. Many men love being in nature alone. Thank goodness that fear of being raped keeps the crowd down in wilderness areas.” Sweet Saint Darwin… This really IS a rant about the military being full of rapists, isn’t it? Now, the incidence of rape in the military, that is a troubling statistic. Unfortunately, thanks to recent changes in military code of conduct, it’s getting increasing difficult to get accurate… Read more »
Whoops! Forgot to mention that the stats that you are quoting is from the 1 in 5 myth. Sorry about that.
Ok, a moment please. so good guys are now bad guys because we won’t take rape seriously enough to study court procedure with a sort of re-education camp mentality? Good is the new bad? Couple of points here: It’s not false convictions that is the problem with men, it is being tried in the press, guilt before innocence, just as with the abuse of restraining orders. It is with the college campus witch hunts that no one wants to talk about. Second, rape is on the downswing against women, and the upswing against men (or men are just starting to… Read more »