Rape Myths And The Canadian Court System Essay

In his article, “Stopping Campus Rape,” Ross Douthat argues for changes in universities that would allow them to be more suitably trained to deal with these criminal cases. However, while he believes that this could improve the rate of assault, he is pessimistic of its consideration. He feels that because his suggestions are not popular with legislators and university administration, they are unlikely to be implemented. Douthat declares that most assaults happen because the public is afraid to, “upset the underlying legal and status quo,” because the people who have the power to make a change are afraid of possible losses. Despite these issues Douthat continues to argue that if this belief were broken, than sexual assault could improve.

More specifically, in the case of sexual assault, this approach focusses on the changes in the labour force (gender based) and conflicts between genders over the acceptability and criminalization of sexualized violence as the starting point of explanation. One such concept is marxist-feminism, as a form conflict theory. According to this theory, the incidence of sexual assault in Canada is a result of the power imbalance between men and women, in which women are expected to assume a subordinate relationship to men in our capitalist society. Consequently, sexual assault can be seen as a logical extension of the typical interactions between women and men in which women are made dependent on men for economic production. Women's vulnerability to sexual assault is a result of their subordinate relationship to men. The set of beliefs and attitudes that divide people into classes by sex and justify one sex's superiority is called sexism. There are a number of sexist dictates that serve to maintain this subordinate relationship. The first tenet concerns women's status in society: women occupy a relatively powerless position in society and are the recipients of fewer advantages and privileges (economic). Men's benefits are built into a patriarchal system which begin in a basis of economics and branch out to other aspects of social life from there. Secondly, sexual assault is as a means of control over women: assault plays a role in

During her research, these students were asked if they have ever been raped; and the vast majority responded with no. Warshaw then rephrased her question to define all forms of rape, and sexual violence; once these students heard what classifies as sexual abuse, nearly all the women changed their answers. Sexual violence is not exclusive to being forcefully raped, but includes occasions when the victim is psychologically and emotionally coerced into sexual acts, as well as being worn down by someone unwilling to accept “no”. Laura Robinson then goes on to explain her revelation of the biased law system she encountered when writing her novel “Crossing the Line: Violence and Sexual Assault in Canada’s National Sport”. In Canada, Robinson came across many cases in which the justice system held a inclination towards males over the female victims in sexual violence trials involving hockey.

“Rape is unique. No other violent crime is so fraught with controversy, so enmeshed in dispute and in the politics of gender and sexuality… And within the domain of rape, the most highly charged area of debate concerns the issue of false allegations. For centuries, it has been asserted and assumed that women “cry rape,” that a large proportion of rape allegations are maliciously concocted for purposes of revenge or other motives.”

Sexual assault is one of the most challenging issues that must be dealt with within the Canadian legal system. Sexual assault is defined as sexual activity inflicted upon someone without their given consent. In order for a sexual assault to be eligible for that title, a person committing sexual acts must continue to engage without the consent of the other person. Sexual assault is also heavily related to the rape myths that exist within society and these are the decisive factors when resolving a sexual assault case. These rape myths generally target the victim of sexual assault blaming them for the actions that occurred. The first case involving consent and rape myths to ever reach the Supreme Court of Canada to be resolved is the case of

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

Kim Campbell introduced Bill C-49 that stated that when in a rape trial, the witness can not be cross-examined while testifying. This bill was an important implication that protects the victim's past sexual history into the trial. This bill was an important implication that has helped many people in Canada. Without this bill, it would make rape victim’s court cases even harder to win and get the justice they deserve.

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.

His mother, outraged, criticized how the school handled a child with difficulties as her son has changed from this ordeal (Nasser, 2017). While these responses are not a concern with many educational institutions, it is still an issue that should be addressed as students are having to suffer. This carelessness can cause a great deal of harm to students and it is because of this lack of support that there are already instances where people have already been caused distress. There is bias present in the article that supports Stephanie Hale’s case which can be seen by how the information is relayed. It focuses primarily on how Hale was negatively impacted by the events, reaching out to the reader’s sympathy, as well as UBC’s lack of care. There were no quotations taken directly from the university to provide their own explanation, merely information stated mostly by the victim. Hale’s poor health and education was repeated to display the inadequacy of her experience and the article included the possibility of discrimination against her without verifying with the school. While the Globe and Mail contributed in giving the necessary information, it emphasized the need of modifying the sexual assault policy in a

The Steubenville and Glen Ridge rape cases are two very similar cases. The perpetrators were football student athletes with promising futures and the victims were teenage girls whose capability of consenting to the acts done to them were questioned. One of the victims was seventeen-years old and had an intelligence quotient of 64 and the reading comprehension of a second grader. The second victim was sixteen-years old and was publicly assaulted while she was completely intoxicated. This paper will discuss each victim and their perpetrators, as well as the trial sentencing and prosecution. It will explore the different reactions from the community and the debate over the victim’s responsibility leading towards the incident. In both rape

“Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since age 16” (CanadianWomen.org). Most cases of sexual assault are not treated as seriously by the law as they should be. Victims of sexual assault often blame for the incident. Sexual assault can have long term effects on a person. Sexual assault is not considered to be a serious offence in todays society.

Boucek, Brooke W. “Riding the He-Said-She-Said Dichotomy: The Deep Entanglement of Sexual Violence on College Campuses.” American Journal of Trial Advocacy, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 103-129.

Women, girls, men, and boys are vulnerable victims of sexual assaults every day in our country. While females experience much higher rates of sexual assaults than males. The problem that this country faces is the lack of being able to track rapist, in addition to the victims that chose not to report their assault of being raped to the police. Issues of under reporting comes from the victims with multiple reasons that hinders them from reporting these heinous criminal acts. Thus, the sad realization is that the perpetrator is usually some one that you know, that you would of never of thought that they could and would, and do sexually assault you.

Most people would agree that as you grow up you learn by seeing, feeling ,touching , smelling, and hearing . Albert Bandura supports this by a theory he created called the Social Learning Theory (McLeod, 2011). Social Learning Theory is a theory that explains that behavior is learned by your social environment, interactions and observations of others. With this theory I would say it supports opinion in which I would say that rape is not something somebody just decides one day to do. I believe that rape is learned throughout time. There are many social and even media factors that sometimes may come off with the intention that rape is acceptable. In some media factors they may even perceive that being forcibly raped is pleasurable. Movies tend to do it often and sometimes movies don 't realize that what people see on television can sometimes influence people to see these acts as a norm. For instance the fact that a college kid is in a frat and he 's in a party there is a good percentage that he would reenact what television had stereotype frats boys to do. Television would label the frat boys as potential rapist and the human mind would consider that when you take on that role as a frat boy. One of the biggest media factors all the way from television to the internet that for so many years that perceive rape as acceptable is pornography.

College-age adults are known to be high risk for sexual violence and most studies show that one in three women have experiences some type of sexual assault whether it was through physical force or harassment. These statics are known by most women on college campuses to ensure that women know and understand that this could happen to them. The issue is more than ensuring that women are aware of how protect themselves and know how to avoid these situations because it shouldn’t even be happening. When women are taught that they should know how to defend themselves we are saying that this type of behavior is normal and inevitable. We should shift from this dynamic and start teaching both men and women that this behavior is completely unacceptable and that sexually assaulting or harassing someone is NOT normal. This paper will mostly focus on incidents of rape and sexual assault on college campuses and what the outcome and reactions of these incidents were.