$1.3 Million Not as Easy to Ignore as Rape in Prison

In Denver, a female inmate won a lawsuit for $1.3 million after being sexually assaulted by a Colorado Department of Corrections officer. She filed a lawsuit against the officer after suffering sexual abuse by him for over 5 months. The federal judge on the case, Judge David M. Ebel, awarded the female inmate $354,070 in compensatory damages for her medical costs and emotional suffering and $1 million in punitive damages against her assailant. It is a huge sum in order to make a point.

Judge Ebel wrote in his ruling “he hoped the damages would be a deterrent to other correctional officers” because “he believes the DOC does not effectively enforce a zero-tolerance policy on sexual abuse of inmates.” After pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful sexual contact, the guard only received a sentence of 60 days in jail.

For five months the female inmate was sexually assaulted. The assailant only spends 60 days in jail. The disparity is telling. $1.3 million tries to make up the difference.

Sexual assault is common in both men and women’s prisons across the US. In 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed over one million inmates across the country in state and federal prisons and found that 4.5% had been sexually abused in the previous year alone.

It is not news that the reform system in this country is in need of a serious overhaul, but it is deeply disturbing that human beings, albeit criminals, are being abused by the very people whose duty it is to protect them. Similar to domestic violence in the home, violence in prisons is another reflection of the deeply rooted nature of brutality and rape for power and control.

I’d agree with Judge Ebel: something more needs to be done to protect prisoners from the unchecked abuse of power that leads to rape.

For more information on rape in prisons check out here and here. Also read this interesting NYTimes piece “ReThinking Prison Design".

$1.3 Million Not as Easy to Ignore as Rape in Prison

“Boys will Be Boys?” Frat Culture and Sexual Violence

In the fascinating article, “Bros Before Hos: Fraternities and Sexual Exploitation”, Nicholas L. Syrett explores the link between Greek life on college and university campuses and sexual violence.

From the earliest fraternities in the 1820s to the development of the current frat scene of parties, girls, and booze, Syrett describes how this progression reflects the evolution of cultural attitudes towards sexuality over time. By the 1920’s heterosexuality was the accepted norm for men. After the sexual revolution of the 1960’s, college-aged women became more sexually permissive. As historical sexual attitudes changed, frats did too, eventually developing an atmosphere in which men proved their masculinity and gained social status by sleeping with women. The more women a frat boy slept with, the more respect he gained from his brothers.

This emphasis on sexual conquest creates a predatory attitude towards women and sex in frat houses. Syrett comments that research in the past “has shown that fraternity men are more likely than their non affiliated classmates to rape women, and some studies have estimated that as many as 70 to 90 percent of reported campus gang rapes are committed by members of fraternities.”

To maintain their social status, frats encourage their members to have frequent casual sex and to report on their experiences. This “places pressure on men who are not otherwise having sex to do so in order to save face, and this can lead to sexual assault.” Frat parties, with their steady supply of booze and college women, are “designed to supply intoxicated women who will either consent—or succumb—to sex.”

As a part of frat culture, frat boys encourage each other to dominate women and intentionally create circumstances in which these men can perpetrate sexual violence against their female classmates. In this hyper-masculine frat culture, where the sexual conquests of men are linked to status, rape as a display of power is not far removed.

Find more on fraternity culture and sexual violence, here and here.

“Boys will Be Boys?” Frat Culture and Sexual Violence

"Stockholm: An Exploration of Love"

This wins the award for Most Disturbing Media in 2009. Recently released for sale on Amazon (and then quickly banned), "Stockholm: An Exploration of Love" is an interactive video games which puts the player in position of kidnapper with the goal of physically and mentally torturing a woman in order to get her to fall in love. The game is named after Stockholm Syndrome, a psychological disorder that happens when a victim becomes emotionally attached to his/her captor.

Visit the official website to read letters from the creators about what they call a "masterpiece". Here is an excerpt from the Director of the game,

"By portraying men as weak and docile, [TV shows like Friends] suggest to us that men are supposed to be weak and docile. By portraying love as sacrificing the dominance of spirit that makes a man, and instead opting for extreme domestication, they trick us into thinking that love is supposed to be domestication. I’m not really comfortable letting something like that stand unchallenged, and that was one of the primary reasons I made Stockholm. The point of Stockholm is not that kidnapping is the true path of love. The point is that the sugar coated nonsense that TV and movies are forcing down our throat is not the only true path."

So is he suggesting that the opposite of domestication is rape and torture? Or that a domesticated man is an equivalent victim to a raped woman? I'm not totally sure. But what I am sure about is that this video game is horrifying and I would be seriously afraid of men who play it.

To read more about the relationship between video games and real life crime, read here, here or here.

"Stockholm: An Exploration of Love"

Know Your Rights Thursday

"Even if a woman sells her body for sex (which is illegal), she still has the right to seek legal protection for crimes committed against her, like rape and abuse."

Read more about prostitution and domestic violence on WomensLaw.org.

Know Your Rights Thursday

Abuse of "Rape" Part II

Alternet.org came out with a story called, "'I was Raped' Should Horrify - But Our Culture Has Stripped the Word of Its Power".

This is very similar to the post we did a few weeks ago about people twittering the word "rape". Opp, here's another one my TweetDeck just informed me of - posted by rynedude233, "This week has been going by so fast. At this rate all of my finals will sneak up and gang-rape me sometime soon."

What is it with people equating tough exams with rape? Difficult geometry exam or unwanted sexual acts? I don't see the common thread.

I do like that this issue is getting more attention, however. Thanks Alternet.org for the article.

Abuse of "Rape" Part II

A Few Things About the Word "Rape"

As the white knight of Twitter, WomensLaw was busy this afternoon getting out the word about our services, when we came across the most horrendous uses of the word "rape" in users' tweets. Twitter has this fantastic search function where one can search keywords and all tweets containing those words will appear in the search listings. WomensLaw uses this function to find people in cyberspace who are looking for information about domestic violence, and then tweets them an appropriate link to our website.

I digress. Here are some examples of the way people are carelessly and harmfully throwing around the word "rape":

"If you force sex on a hooker, is it rape or shoplifting?"

"Oh thats it. Im a republican now. I just had to pay even MORE in taxes than the rape i have endured all year!!"

"The test didnt rape me, but i didnt like it."

"One nice thing i've noticed about NIN is they don't rape you on ticket cost, unlike Depeche Mode who want $90 a ticket."

Okay, so you get the idea. These were also the tamest of the ways which the word "rape" is misused. I am incredibly disturbed by this. Rape is a serious and terrible assault on someone's human rights; the severity of which is undermined when people use the word as common slang. If someone can say "That test raped me" then it takes real power away from someone else saying "That man raped me". See?

Adding to further despair, I happened to see Observe and Report with Anna Faris this weekend, which portrays a very real date rape scene, which the media is in a frenzied debate over at the moment. Some say its humorous, and others say offensive.

What do you all think? Have you heard the word "rape" misused, or seen other instances where sexual assault is devalued?

A Few Things About the Word "Rape"

Take Back the Night

A recent article in the Troy Record tells the story of a woman who survived such extensive abuse from her husband for so many years, she fell into a coma months after leaving him due to a brain aneurism. Her chances for survival were very slim, but she recovered and was at the Troy Take Back the Night to share her story.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Take Back the Night, it is a community rally against domestic violence and sexual assault, generally held by local colleges or universities. Survivors share their stories, people unite to protest rape and sexual assault, and then everyone marches off "into the night". Below is a video of a group of people walking for Take Back the Night.

Take Back the Night

Thank you Joe Biden!

Senator Joe Biden, a proven ally for women's rights, has done it again. Last week the senate passed The Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act of 2008, based on a law written by Joe Biden, which was set to expire this year. The goal of the legislation is "designed to help eliminate the nationwide backlog of rape evidence kits and bolster DNA testing of criminals and crime scene evidence."

Here is a sample from the Press Release:

"It is estimated that 40 percent of the unsolved rape cases could be solved by taking the DNA sample collected after a sexual assault and comparing it to the existing DNA databases of convicted felons and rapists. The U.S. Department of Justice has estimated that there are at least 221,000 rape kits currently on the shelves in evidence lockers, untested and gathering dust. The Debbie Smith Grant Program has helped alleviate some of the backlog and has expanded testing to solve more crimes, but much more needs to be done.

"If there's a rape kit left sitting on a shelf, there's a victim without justice. This program must be kept alive until the backlog numbers total zero," said Senator Biden. "It is unconscionable that we have the ability to solve these crimes and hold the perpetrators responsible, but because of red tape and lack of funding, the criminals are free and their victims continue live in fear. In the past five years, we've made headway in the backlog, but we still have a long road to go before it is eliminated."

Thank you Joe Biden!! And thank you to Feministing.com for the heads up.

Thank you Joe Biden!

WA State Allows Victims to Testify Against Sex Offenders and Rapists After the Statute of Limitations Has Passed

A new law in Washington State now allows victims of sex offenders to testify in court even if the statute of limitations for the crime has passed. In a case against Roger Scherner, 79, the state allowed prior victims who had not previously come forth with information about abuse to testify in court. One woman, now 49, testified about her abuse by Scherner that happened 33 years ago while she was on a family vacation. She did not tell anyone about the abuse and the statute of limitations has expired.

Previously the law had only allowed prosecutors to bring the alleged sex offender's past history into court under very strict guidelines. Advocates of the new law, passed in June, hope that allowing previous victims to testify will help convict sex offenders by establishing a pattern of abuse and showing that the alleged person is capable of committing such a crime, and has done so in the past, even if they have not be charged until now.

To to read more, please visit the article in The Seattle Times "Rape trial lets family share decades of pain, secrets".

WA State Allows Victims to Testify Against Sex Offenders and Rapists After the Statute of Limitations Has Passed