Hey, Can A Woman "Ask To Get Raped"?

you failed miserably

Put spotlight on state's progressive rape law
Express-News Editorial Board -
Web Posted: 11/21/2010 12:00 AM CST

The crime of rape is a violation of dignity, one that makes the victim feel powerless. In seeking medical help, the victim should not also be made to feel vulnerable.
That was the motivation behind legislation sponsored by state Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, that lawmakers passed last session. Their measure, which is now state law, allows adult sexual assault victims to seek medical care and obtain a medical forensic exam without making a police report.

For the casual observer, it might seem rational that rape victims would automatically want to file a police report and that caregivers would require that patients who request a medical forensic exam file a report. But few things about violent crimes such as sexual assault are rational.

Victims, having been violated, worry about a stigma. Their assailants are often acquaintances or even relatives. Concerns about retribution and the consequences for employment or family relationships weigh on the decision of whether to involve the criminal justice system. When that involvement is automatic, some victims won't seek the medical attention they need.

In the traumatic aftermath of a sexual assault, that's where the emphasis needs to be — on ensuring that victims obtain medical care. The new Texas law allows forensic evidence to be collected and then stored by the Department of Public Safety for a minimum of two years. That removes a disincentive for proper treatment and gives victims an opportunity to make a more reasonable assessment of whether to file a police report.

Express-News staff writer Richard A. Marini reported that since the law went into effect last year, 125 victims statewide have sought treatment but initially chose not to report sexual assaults. Twenty-five of those eventually decided to press charges. The problem now is that too many victims — and some caregivers — are unaware of the law.

Locally, a number of organizations exist to provide support and counseling for sexual assault victims. The first step, however, is to seek medical care. Giving victims the ability to obtain a medical forensic exam without having to involve police removes a significant obstacle to that step.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/put_spotlight_on_states_progressive_rape_law_109288484.html

NCAA needs to address violence – against women
Silent epidemic plagues college athletic departments
November 18, 2010|
By David Haugh

Inside NCAA President Mark Emmert's office in downtown Indianapolis on Wednesday, a meeting of the minds addressed one of college sports' biggest problems that has nothing to do with a football playoff or Cam Newton.

Pay attention anyway.

To his credit, Emmert opened his door to the idea of the NCAA adopting a gender-violence policy that would urge member institutions to take tougher action against student-athletes accused of sexual assault — or to take any action at all.


It's a silent epidemic plaguing college athletic departments near and far.

"This is a very important issue and I'm sure university presidents will be interested in looking at this because it's worthy of debate,'' Emmert said in a phone interview after the meeting.

Wednesday's proposal in front of the new NCAA president came from Katherine Redmond, founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, and Wendy Murphy, a nationally recognized legal expert in sexual violence. Armed with data showing an increase in crimes against women by athletes, Redmond and Murphy advocated NCAA sanctions against schools that fail to meet an acceptable level of response to sexual-assault and domestic-violence allegations.

"It was encouraging,'' Redmond said.

The women came and went quietly. But the loud statement their presence made likely echoed in the office walls of college athletic directors everywhere.

"If it happens one time, it's too many,'' said Emmert, selected in April to replace the late Myles Brand. "I know that every university president takes this issue seriously. I suspect they'll want to work with us to curtail incidents of relationship violence and sexual assault in any way we can if we have the tools to do so.''

It was Emmert who called Redmond to arrange the meeting, suggesting a sense of urgency to include this as part of the 2011 agenda at January's NCAA Convention. Redmond founded NCAVA in 1997 after settling a Title IX lawsuit against the University of Nebraska stemming from allegations that former Cornhuskers player Christian Peter sexually assaulted her in 1991.

If you think that makes this pursuit personal for Redmond, you're right. Former Nebraska coach Tom Osborne recently invited Redmond to speak to the Cornhuskers football team to, according to Redmond, "talk to the players about what it was like to be a rape victim of a Nebraska football player."
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-18/sports/ct-spt-1118-haugh-ncaa--20101117_1_ncava-sexual-assault-emmert

A rape survivor, Katherine Redmond, is a leader in drawing attention to the problem of sexual assaults againt women by college athletes.

to take tougher action against student-athletes accused of sexual assault — or to take any action at all.

Last year, a friend of mine sent a shipment of green rubber flooring, at great impractical expense, to a villa in the south of France because she was worried that over the summer holiday her toddler would fall on the stone floor. Generations of French children may have made their way safely to adulthood, walking and falling and playing and dreaming on these very same stone floors, but that did not deter her in her determination to be safe. This was, I think, an extreme articulation of our generation's common fantasy: that we can control and perfect our children's environment. And lurking somewhere behind this strange and hopeless desire to create a perfect environment lies the even stranger and more hopeless idea of creating the perfect child.

Hawkeye you did take note that the end results would be pressure the colleges to punish any athlete that is charge with a sexual crime correct?

I am all for progress on both empowering victims and getting more real assaults reported.

Dallas' Caruth Foundation gives $2 million to help sex assault victims
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
By TANYA EISERER /
The Dallas Morning News

The Dallas-based W.W. Caruth Jr. Foundation will announce today that it is providing $2 million to improve services for sexual assault victims in Dallas County.

The money will allow the Dallas Area Rape Crisis Center and Texas Health Presbyterian of Dallas to create a comprehensive sexual assault treatment program, including a new facility at the hospital for the treatment of victims.

"There will be better, stronger, more accessible resources for victims of sexual assault," said Brent Christopher, president and chief executive of the Dallas-based Communities Foundation of Texas, which oversees the Caruth fund.

A news conference announcing the award is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the hospital.

Backers hope the program, by offering a safe harbor with better services and facilities for victims, will significantly increase the reporting of rapes to police, as well as make it easier to prosecute rapists. Statistics show that one in four women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime but less than a fifth report the attacks to police.

With much of its $1.5 million gift, the hospital is constructing a 2,900-square-foot facility where sexual assault victims will receive care. The facility, to open in April next to the hospital's emergency department, will be the first of its kind in the county. It will have private rooms and baths for sexual assault victims, as well as a training facility for nurses who are learning how to collect sexual assault evidence.

"It's going to serve a community need that is truly unmet," said Cole Edmonson, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer for the hospital. "It is also going to help people in our communities who need this service feel more comfortable seeking it and the citizens of North Texas feel safer knowing this nurse-led service will help increase convictions in sexual assault cases."

The money will also help fund the hospital's newly created Sexual Assault Examiner program for training nurses on how to conduct sexual assault forensic exams. Studies have shown that cases in which a certified nurse collected the evidence have a far greater likelihood of successful prosecution.

"It's all really been designed around what will help the police catch the perpetrator and what will help the DA's office prosecute them," said Courtney Underwood, president of the rape crisis center.

The remaining $500,000 will fund the fledgling rape crisis center's efforts to provide counseling to victims, friends and family. The center opened its doors in September 2009 and is the first independent rape crisis center in the county. The center also established the first 24-hour sexual assault hotline in Dallas.

Texas Health Presbyterian began conducting forensic examinations on rape victims in March. Previously, Parkland Hospital was the only place in Dallas County where sexual assault victims could go for such evidence collection.

"It's very important for the survivors in our community to have another hospital where they can go to get the sexual assault exam done," said Dallas police Sgt. Patrick Welsh, supervisor of the sexual assault unit.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/healthscience/stories/111810dnmetpresbygrant.3ba79c8.html

To rape victims, no place feels safe
Only 42 percent of the area's more than 1,700 sex assaults resulted in arrests last year
By YANG WANG
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Nov. 22, 2010

More than 400 sexual assaults took place last year on streets or sidewalks and in fields, wooded areas and parking lots in the greater Houston region. Most victims were alone when attacked. Dark, sparsely populated areas like this one should be avoided.

At least four women are sexually assaulted in the greater Houston region every day — attacked in their homes and in their beds, in parking lots and on public streets, their assailants armed with pistols, knives, drugs and fast-flying fists.

But of the more than 1,700 cases reported in 2009 alone, only 42 percent resulted in arrests — a rate lower than for murders and other assaults, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis based on FBI reports from police agencies across the eight area counties.

Harris County alone claimed 1,265 sexual assault cases last year.

And though most sexual assaults involve victims who either know or at least recognize their attacker, police estimate about 25 percent are simply random.

One such attack happened to a 19-year-old Houston woman snatched from her southwest Houston apartment complex two days before her high school graduation this year.

Before dinner with a friend at her apartment, she says she walked to a neighborhood store to buy ketchup. When she returned - and as she was opening her security gate - a man approached and put a pointed object in her back.

She thought it was a gun. He forced her into his car, drove 30 minutes away to an apartment complex and raped her. The man threatened to kill her if she tried to get away.

"Every time he stopped at a red light, I wanted to get out of the car, but I didn't. I don't know why," she told the Chronicle.

"It changed the way I looked at men. I can't trust men at all."

In that case, a suspect has been charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault.

Harris County had more sexual assaults than any area county, but Galveston County came in second with 151 last year. Per capita, Galveston County topped them all in 2009 with 50 rape victims per 100,000 people, higher than Harris County's 31.

Galveston City Police, whose officers reported nearly half of those assaults, could not say precisely why: "The demographic features of the town could lead to it," said Capt. Jeff Heyse. "We are a tourist town; people come here for hotels, for spring breaks."

The Chronicle review shows 75 percent of rapes occurred inside houses or apartment complexes.

One woman told police last year that she was raped in her apartment by a "friend who may have doped her drink." Another was assaulted by a former boyfriend who brandished a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, records show. And yet another was raped by a stranger who got into her home through an unlocked door, records show.

More than 400 sexual assaults were committed on streets, sidewalks, fields, woods and parking lots, places where attacks more likely come from strangers, according to the Chronicle's review.

"We do see stranger-on-stranger cases; they don't happen as often," said Lt. Mike Waterwall of the Houston Police Department's Special Crime division. "You just kind of have to use common sense and your own judgment."

The Houston Chronicle also reviewed sex crime data from 2007 through 2009 for the eight area counties and found no significant increases or decreases over the three-year period.

In 2007, a woman was raped at a gas station near Cullen Boulevard. She got lost while driving and stopped to pump gas. A stranger approached, threatened her with a semi-automatic handgun and assaulted her. No one has been arrested so far.

Since 2008, two women have been assaulted in a wooded area on Clover in southeast Houston. One happened around 10 p.m., when an unknown man grabbed the victim, forced her into a car at gunpoint and raped her several times.

Two years later, another woman was sexually assaulted by a stranger at 5 a.m. The police have not determined whether the cases are connected, nor have they made any arrests.

In the city of Houston, rapes on streets and parking lots most often occurred around midnight and between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., according to the Chronicle analysis. Most of the time, the women were alone.

In one area near downtown, 31 women reported being raped over a three-year period. An area in southwest Houston between Gessner and Wilcrest accounted for another 16, according to the Chronicle analysis.

Crime reports show the rapists usually threatened their victims with knives or guns. Police also say both areas are frequented by prostitutes and homeless women, who are often preyed upon.

Crime reports show the rapists usually threatened their victims with knives or guns. Police also say both areas are frequented by prostitutes and homeless women, who are often preyed upon.

"They get into cars with strangers, and you have individuals that take advantage of them," HPD's Waterwall said.

The Houston area's 42 percent rape clearance rate is only slightly lower than the national average for cities with populations of more than 1 million.

Making arrests often is made difficult, police say, when victims later refuse to cooperate with police out of fear or embarrassment.

"They will make the initial report, but when we do the follow up, they don't want to come forward any more," said Waterwall.

Crime lab backlogs across the region have been another factor in the clearance rate. The HPD lab currently has a backlog of 4,000 untested rape kits. Smaller agencies like the Galveston police, which rely on the state crime lab, have experienced a longer waiting time.

The problem of making an arrest also is exacerbated when the victim doesn't know her attacker and can't later make an identification.

And sometimes, they simply don't want to: Experts say many times victims try to put the traumatic episode behind them and don't want to talk about it - or report it at all.

"They bear it psychologically and try to move on," said Rebecca White, the president and CEO of the Houston Area Women's Center.

In 2009, according to the center's annual report, 6,532 new clients and 7,215 continuing clients attended group or individual counseling sessions for both domestic violence and sexual assault. And between September 2009 and Aug. 31 of this year, 1,599 individuals, including some men and children, participated in sex assault sessions.

"If they are ready to talk, that's great. If they are not ready to talk, we will be here when they are," said White.
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TIPS ON STAYING SAFE

At home

If a stranger comes to your door, don't open it. If they are seeking assistance, offer to make calls for them without letting them enter your home.

Develop different escape routes from your home.

Know your neighbors.

Do not leave your doors unlocked or accessible windows open.

In your vehicle

Lock your doors after entering or exiting your vehicle.

Have your keys in your hand and ready to unlock your door before reaching your vehicle. When digging in your bag by your vehicle, you are vulnerable.

In parking lots, park as close to the entrance as possible in well-lit areas.

Remain aware of your surroundings when approaching your vehicle and while driving.

Do not wait in or do work in your vehicle. You may become unaware of your surroundings.

If you believe someone is following your vehicle, do not go home. Drive instead to the nearest police or fire station, or head for a well-populated public area.

When a sex assault occurs in a relationship

Let supportive and safe friends and family know about the incident.

Consult with legal resources to familiarize yourself with your rights.

Know your local crisis center telephone numbers.

Keep a journal of all violent incidents, noting dates, events and threats made.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7305346.html

Women are in fact safer in 2010 then they been since 1980 from being attack something you would never guess from reading no place is safe nonsense of the article Firefly had posted.

But of the more than 1,700 cases reported in 2009 alone, only 42 percent resulted in arrests — a rate lower than for murders and other assaults, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis based on FBI reports from police agencies across the eight area counties.

UK rape awareness survey uncovers shocking attitudes of young men
November 17, 2010

SHOCKING new statistics reveal nearly half of young men still think sex with women too drunk to know what is going on is not rape, Sky News reports.
And 46 percent of men aged 18 to 25 also do not consider it rape if the woman changes her mind during sex.

The survey comes as a new video to raise awareness about rape was posted on YouTube by a group of specialist support centers called The Havens.

"It's not consensual sex unless both parties agree," explained former Miss Great Britain finalist and rape victim Victoria Buglioni.

In May last year, Ms Buglioni's life changed suddenly after she was followed into the restrooms at a London nightclub.

"The man grabbed me by the hair and smashed my head against the toilet cubical wall," said the 25-year-old.

"I fought back as best as I could but I was knocked out for 27 minutes during which he continued to rape me and get what he wanted from me."

Despite CCTV evidence, no one was convicted of her rape.

Astonishingly, even if a woman says "no" from the start, 23 percent of young men still believe sex after that point does not constitute rape.

But police urge women who believe they have been raped to come forward even if they didn't say "no".

"If victims don't recall saying 'no', they often feel there is no point coming forward fearing there will be no case to answer," explained Mark Yexley of the Metropolitan Police.

"But in fact they are right to come forward and if it's not to the police, they can go to centers like The Havans."

The Havens are 24-hour referral centers that offer victims forensic examinations, medical checks and counseling, even if they are unsure whether to involve the police.

But Ms Buglioni, who despite her ordeal has yet again made the Miss Great Britain final in December, urges women to come forward if they can.

"The kind of men who do these horrible things need to be brought to justice, so as hard as it might be, come forward, even if you ask organisations like The Havens to help you."
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/uk-rape-awareness-survey-uncovers-shocking-attitudes-of-young-men/story-e6frfku0-1225955104674

Why are we still blaming women for rape?
Nov 20 2010
Mona Eltahawy
Special to the Star
NEW YORK

The statistics were bad enough: nearly half of London men aged 18–25 think sex with women too drunk to know what is going on is not rape.

A quarter of those young men don’t believe it is rape if a woman says no to sex and the man continues anyway, and one in five men polled expect to have sex after kissing.

Just some of the ugly findings of a new survey to gauge attitudes towards rape among young people in the U.K. But it was the attitude of an older woman — Minette Marrin, a columnist with the Sunday Times of London — that nearly did me in.

Victim bashing. Slut shaming. Tone-deaf judgmentalism. Where to begin?

Speaking on a panel for the BBC Newshour radio show along with Sandi Schultz, an actress and rape survivor from South Africa, and myself, Marrin explained her theory of “degrees of rape.”

“If a woman allows herself to be drunk and behaves in a very uninhibited way, she is more responsible for what happens to her than if she had been sober,” she said. “Rape is always a crime but it is less of a crime in certain circumstances than in others.”

Marrin’s myopic spectrum of morality was rendered all the more crass by Schultz’s dignity and resolve to break the silence surrounding rape — a task made all the more heroic in the face of the rush to judge by another woman.

“When I was raped it was the middle of the night, I was in my bed wearing my baby-blue pajamas so it was very clear that I wasn’t at fault. But the problem for me is, even if I were walking down the street naked or dancing on a bar, it still doesn’t mean it’s okay to rape me,” Schultz said.

Surely, in the year 2010, in the U.K. and other parts of the so-called developed world, we can all agree on that?

Not Marrin, who went for an even uglier jugular:

“Not long ago I was in a city centre where I saw girls walking around almost naked, vomiting on the pavement; young girls in their teens and 20s who weren’t in charge of themselves at all,” she said. “I thought they were lining themselves up for something terrible to happen. I’m not saying the person who attacked them, if they were raped, was in any way excusable for what he did — it (would be) an inexcusable crime — nonetheless they bear some responsibility for that.”

Last I checked, there was no crime on the books in the U.K. called “provoking a penis.”

At that point I realized Marrin reminded me of one of those conservative Muslim clerics who give me lots to write about, who are equally obsessed with the woman-as-temptress/man-as-helpless scenario. Take the then-mufti of Australia who, in 2006, compared women who didn’t wear the hijab to uncovered meat left out for wild cats.

In Marrin’s world, drunkenness and being “almost naked” mean a “lesser” rape. In the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where alcohol isn’t so much of an issue and the women are a lot more dressed, the legal system and its judges find other “circumstances” that shove the blame onto women who dare to take rapists to court.

In 2007, a Saudi woman who reported being gang-raped was sentenced to 200 lashes and imprisonment for being alone with a man. After an international outcry, the Saudi king pardoned her.

In June, a court in Abu Dhabi sentenced an 18-year-old Emirati woman to a year in prison for illicit sex after she reported that six men had gang-raped her. The court said that by agreeing to go for a drive with a male friend, a 19-year-old military police officer, she had consented to having sex with him.

It is the height of injustice to jail a rape survivor, and it is likewise the height of nonsense for a woman like Marrin — who no doubt believes she is above the foibles of mere mortals — to pontificate about “degrees of rape.” Ultimately, such boorishness springs from a belief that rape always happens to “other” women, never to women like her.

The laws that punish rape in the U.K. and the U.A.E. are quite different, obviously. Nevertheless, too many women in both countries will not report rape because that blame-game silences them with shame and makes them question whether they could have prevented it by not having that extra drink, by not wearing those “f--- me” pumps (notice that name given to high-heeled shoes) and not getting into that car with the male friend.

In the face of such misogyny, the courage of Sandi Schultz and other rape survivors is magnified. Inversely, surely, such mindless woman-blaming diminishes the decency of men who are not rapists waiting to happen?
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/892822--why-are-we-still-blaming-women-for-rape

The statistics were bad enough: nearly half of London men aged 18–25 think sex with women too drunk to know what is going on is not rape.

A quarter of those young men don’t believe it is rape if a woman says no to sex and the man continues anyway, and one in five men polled expect to have sex after kissing.

Just some of the ugly findings of a new survey to gauge attitudes towards rape among young people in the U.K. But it was the attitude of an older woman — Minette Marrin, a columnist with the Sunday Times of London — that nearly did me in.

Victim bashing. Slut shaming. Tone-deaf judgmentalism. Where to begin?

A lot of young men need to familiarize themselves with the rape laws...and learn what consensual sex means.

UK rape awareness survey uncovers shocking attitudes of young men

A lot of young men need to familiarize themselves with the rape laws...and learn what consensual sex means.

Said if there was such a thing as consent black/white....there are many levels of consent, some verbal some non -verbal, some attached to a specific act and some attached to the relationship in total. Consent is mostly grey, which is a big part of why the law is the wrong tool for this job.

To rape victims, no place feels safe