Rape And Sexual Assault : The Legal Paradigm

Twenty-eight states fall under the category of “true non-consent states”, where the prosecution is not required to show that the offender used “force or threats of force against the victim”, and the defendant can be convicted of a sex offense by showing that the victim did not consent (Decker, 2011). While the majority fall under the first category, nine states can be identified as “contradictory non-consent states”, where the prosecution must prove either “the use of forcible compulsion or a victim’s incapacity to consent”; according to Decker, “requiring force or a lack of capacity to consent” completely counteracts the point of having a non-consent provision (Decker, 2011). The third category, “force states”, includes states that do not have non-consent sex offenses. Although the initial impression is that the majority of states have adopted non-consent standards, it is misleading because the number of states that are true to that definition shrinks as the statutes are examined more concisely (Decker, 2011). With that being said, in addition to defining consent and force, the concept of “rape” has also been clarified and developed.

There were groups that were assaulted in 2012 from multiple located in California New Orleans, Chicago, and New Delhi which Solnit utilizes to depict the severity of gang rape and how terrible the violence of these assaults. Solnit has provided us a very well document and compelling argument that sexual violence against women is all too common. Additionally, Solnit provides options on how to review these incidents as she states, “If you’d rather talk about bus rapes than gang rapes” (Solnit 523).

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

Sexual assault policy in the United States as it stands is clearly inadequate for protecting the physical wellbeing of men and women from sexual assault. Layering of policy serves a s a Band-Aid on a social wound much too large to be contained and the rise of sexual assault as a public problem reiterates the need for greater legislation and policy to protect everyone from becoming prey to the crime of sexual assault. While eyes focus on the (disproven) rise of violence in the United States, and turn to gun control, other violent crimes are forgotten. Sexual Assault has seen several cases of policy failure that actors have tried to salvage through the act of policy layering and have not significantly resolved the problem.

Sexual assault has been huge problem on college campus. College female students have been targets of sexual assault acts, According to Robin Gray “Between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career.” Sexual assault is when is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat. There are laws that protect women in all types of setting from being victims of sexual assault. The government had made some changes to the laws of sexual assault over the past decade to protect the girls and women so justice can be served. The president Obama has been enforcing a law for the young women in colleges.

Following natural disasters sexual assault increases in affected areas. Some victims of these storms are sent to shelters with little security and are put with untrustworthy people. At some of these shelters women and men are not separated from each other. Even young girls are forced to set up their beds next to strange men. Many people, male and female, are raped or molested in these unsupervised areas. Most incidents go unreported due to the busy law enforcement (Blanch). Women are even more vulnerable to rape if they are the caretaker of the family. If these women in particular go out to get supplies alone, they might just become a victim of sexual assault. The recent influx of natural disasters across the world has brought unimaginable devastation. Many have lost their homes, cars, and valuables due to these monster events. With little help from the

Throughout the United States there are several instances where college students are victims of sexual assault. Many big name schools like Florida State University, University of Southern California, Harvard, and Stanford have been noted in many popular sources as being not only great in academics, but also for the amount of sexual assault cases that happen on and off campus between students. Many of these universities attempt to cover up these acts for many different reasons; although, there is an Act passed by Congress that would revoke the school’s participation in federal financial aid programs by them not disclosing any criminal acts between students. This is a problem because it can cause a lot of emotional and physical damage to the

Freda Adler once said, “Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused.” Women should not have to go thru so much pain and agony, and our voices should be heard and expressed throughout the countries. After watching India’s Daughter, a young college student that just wanted to live her dream to become something great, her life span was short lived due to 6 men raping her, by pulling her intestines out, and thrown off a moving bus.

Emma Sulkowicz, a senior at Columbia University, carried her mattress around her campus, from class to class, all of last year as form of protest against her rapist who was not expelled from school. This story made news all across the country, leaving many wondering how this could possibly happen, and why it continues to happen. This is just one of the highly publicized cases of rape on college campuses, which also illuminates how often time administrators fail to bring justice to the victim. It seems as if of lately that rape and sexual assault on college campuses has become far too normal in our society, meaning that we have almost become numb to them because they happen so frequently. When we hear about a rape on a campus, it is often neither surprising nor shocking to us, which is a definite social, and criminal, problem. The question that must be addressed then is, why do these types of crimes continue to occur, and what factors contribute to this ongoing issue? It may be easy to point a finger at society as a whole, and say that parents have wrongfully raised their sons to behave in such a way, but there may be even more factors that work together to create a rapist or someone who is likely to commit sexual assault. Nonetheless, this is a huge, relevant, terrifying problem in our society which often leaves young women feeling as if they are not ever safe, not even at the college campus of which they are supposed to be able to call home.

The first evidence of legislature related to the overall topic of marital rape excused it in the 17th century. As declared by Lord Matthew Hale and adopted by the United States, “‘the husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract’” (“To Have and to Hold” 1255-1256). As the most government action toward the justice of marital rape victims occurred in the late 1900s, this continued to be the situation until then.

Two of the most serious public health and social issues faced in the world today are sexual assault

According to (WHO, 2002) & (Obote-Odora, 2005, p135), sexual violence is not limited rape, but a person conducting a sexual act on another person via coercion. Sexual violence can relate to violence psychologically and physically and this is aimed at the sexuality of a person and this could include forced acts such as sexual slavery and prostitution. Sexual violence is prevalent in peace and armed conflict scenarios. This is regarded as traumatic, pervasive a common violation that people suffer from. This is a grave health and human rights issue that affects the individual mentally and physically in the short term as well as the long term. Though women and girls suffer disproportionately from sexual violence, it can happen to anyone from any age. This can be caused and the

All Sexual assault cases are a violent and unexpected crime most of the cases become life-threatening. Sexual assault is known to be an unwanted sex act that puts a toll on a person life. Some bounce back quickly while others need time to process what has happened to them. And what can be done to stop sexual assault from happening to the next person in their neighborhood?

As reported by, feminist criminologists, their perspective of rape and sexual assault differ between liberal and radical feminists. Liberal feminists’ viewpoint in regards of rape as a gender-neutral assault on a persons’ autonomy and mainly focusing on the harm that rape can do to an individual. In contrast, radical feminists describe rape as a subject to be recognised and understood as a major pillar of patriarchy; a social system in which men claim the positions of dominance and control of the central norms and values that are linked with masculinity (Johnson, 2005: p. 4-15). The radical feminists believe that rape is a patriarchal structure within male power, thus displaying the harms that rape can do to an individual and as a group of women. Furthermore, the radical feminists approach view rape as male have the control and authority over the use of women’s bodies, which involves the sexual and reproductive. Hence, this is the core element of patriarchy, Radical feminist believe that rape is one of many forms that connects men’s sexual exploitation and violence, as well as, reinforcing women’s oppression (Whisnant, 2013).

Every two minutes someone is affected by sexual assault and are left, physically and mentally scarred. Sexual abuse can come in many different forms, such as; sexual harassment, stranger assault and a more under reported crime, such as date rape (Types of Sexual Assault). Date rape drugs are used in sexual assault; which is any type of sexual activity that a person does not agree upon (Date Rape Drug: Get the Facts on the Different Kinds). Anyone can be a victim of sexual assault regardless of their race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, or age (Types of Sexual Assault). Rape and sexual assault are ongoing occurrences throughout the Nation. At JPD we recognize these ongoing issues. Our company will design a product to help reduce and prevent the amount of date rapes that occur. We aim to prevent the amount of individuals that are being drugged throughout the world, to protect and make sure that men and women can sip safely again. We plan to do what it takes to accomplish and succeed at this task.