Spears noted that on college campuses, alcohol is the crucial enabler of sexual assault. She said that, at Dartmouth, “people don’t have to use force, because what is used, whether intentionally or unintentionally, is alcohol. You can’t consent if you’re intoxicated – you just can’t.”
so you are going to have to go a long way to support your assertion that porn increases sexual violence before I take it seriously.
Report profiles 'charming' rapists
By Rachel Carbonell
Wed Dec 8, 2010
First-hand interviews with victims of sexual assault have revealed they generally describe their attackers as charming, engaging and talkative.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies has interviewed more than 30 victims of sexual assault.
The report also finds perpetrators often attempt to reframe and normalise the assault, for example by text messaging the victim after the event.
The Institute's general manager of research, Darrell Higgins, says the evidence shows most of the women were assaulted by men they knew and trusted.
"We tend to see them as being maybe social misfits or in some way deviant," he said.
"I suppose the overwhelming issue for me in the findings is really around the everdayness around the contexts, and therefore the perpetrators."
The report makes harrowing reading, detailing assaults by business owners, husbands, co-workers, religious leaders, police and even an academic working in the field of prevention of violence against women.
Dr Higgins says most of what is known about male sex offenders is based on the evidence of the minority who have been detected.
He says this report will create a more comprehensive picture of how perpetrators of sexual assault behave.
"What we don't know a lot about is from women who've been sexually assaulted, what they have to say about the modus operandi, if you like, about the ways in which perpetrators were able to gain access to their trust and to facilitate the sexual assaults occurring," he said.
The women interviewed in the study variously described their perpetrators as professionally employed men who seemed nice, normal and charming.
Dr Higgins says the findings show the need to consider the strategies used by perpetrators.
"The women that were interviewed were talking about a whole range of processes and contexts that enabled the perpetrator to firstly identify a target, to isolate them, to be able to control the situation, sometimes through the use of drugs and alcohol, and then to impose their own desires on the victim, including afterwards being able to reframe and reinterpret the event," he said.
One victim told the report authors: "He's Mr Nice Guy. Everyone thought he was like sweet and kind."
"So it seemed very unbelievable that he would do anything, even aggressive, it just wasn't kind of the persona that he had. He's the sort of person who appears as charming and thoughtful."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/08/3087611.htm
Rape myth beliefs: implications for sexual assault policing
December 8, 2010
New South Wales Police force training and procedures for investigating sexual assault have changed substantially and are supported by Charles Sturt University (CSU) research that examined the influence of rape myths, victim dress and victim intoxication on the responses of police officers in a simulated sexual assault case.
The study, ‘The Influence of Victim Intoxication and Victim Attire on Police Responses to Sexual Assault’, is by Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty, a researcher at the CSU Australian Graduate School of Policing in Manly, and the School of Psychology in Bathurst, and her research associate, Ms Kelly Graham.
Professor Goodman-Delahunty said that reporting to police is the first, and potentially, most important step in the legal processing of sexual assault cases, and common reasons given by victims of sexual assault for why they fail to report these crimes include fear of lack of support or disbelief by police.
“Police investigators have extensive discretionary power about whether to take the case forward, so it is important to study factors that influence police decision making,” Professor Goodman-Delahunty said. “If police officers’ evaluation of sexual assault cases is affected by belief in rape myths and victim characteristics, this could have serious implications for the processing of these cases.
“Rape myths are commonly held beliefs and attitudes about sexual assault cases that are generally false, such as the belief that rape is most likely to be perpetrated by a stranger. These myths can affect one’s view of a sexual assault victim and a perpetrator, as can contextual factors such as victim attire and victim intoxication, which may increase the perception that the complainant was responsible for the assault, or the perception that the complainant is not credible.”
The participants in this study were 125 detectives from the NSW Police Force who read detailed written witness statements from both the victim and perpetrator pertaining to an investigation of a report of date rape. The officers were then asked to fill out a questionnaire evaluating their perceptions of the alleged rape and their views of the complainant.
The researchers found no differences between male and female officers on any measures of their responses to the sexual assault claim, and no difference between officers who had completed the training in investigation and management of adult sexual assault cases and officers who had not.
Contrary to previous study findings, this study found the investigators’ perceptions of the intoxication of the victim had no impact on their evaluations of and responses to the sexual assault claim.
However, those officers who endorsed more rape myths perceived the complainant as less credible, attributed her greater responsibility for the incident and were less likely to believe that she communicated non-consent. They were also less likely to regard the alleged perpetrator as guilty of sexual assault, and were less likely to recommend that the alleged offender be charged.
When the complainant was perceived to be more sexually ‘provocative’, she was attributed significantly more responsibility for the alleged sexual assault. However, her clothing was not associated with diminished responsibility of the perpetrator, nor did it reduce the determination that sexual assault occurred. No associations were found between the complainant’s attire and lower ratings of her credibility or a lower likelihood of charging the alleged perpetrator.
“Training in rape myth awareness may increase understanding of sexual assault and subsequently reduce the impact of rape myths and improve investigative practice in these cases,” Professor Goodman-Delahunty said. “Ultimately, this may reduce the rate of attrition at the charge stage and encourage more reporting.”
http://www.healthcanal.com/public-health-safety/13005-Rape-myth-beliefs-implications-for-sexual-assault-policing.html
You are already immersed in a sexually aggressive lifestyle, so obviously you view sexual aggression as "normal", which prevents you from being able to consider these topics, including rape, with any degree of objectivity.
You are simply afraid that all of this threatens your preferred lifestyle--your involvement with BDSM and your enjoyment of pornography, probably including violent porn. So, any indications that these things have negative consequences for the general population, is simply rejected by you because you fear that you might have them taken away. You are like the smoker who denies that his second hand smoke has destructive effects on others.
You are already immersed in a sexually aggressive lifestyle, so obviously you view sexual aggression as "normal", which prevents you from being able to consider these topics, including rape, with any degree of objectivity.
Letting you determine the rape or pornography laws is like letting thieves determine the property laws.
You know Firefly in my opinion this go far beyond banning any kind of porn in that if you would had the power to do so you would lock up Hawkeye in a prison cell and his wife in a mental institution along with all others members of the BDSM community.
Court denies bail for Blue Lake rape suspect
Donna Tam
The Times-Standard
12/11/2010
A Humboldt Superior Court judge on Friday denied a bail request for the Dunsmuir man charged with raping a woman while she was unconscious in the back of his van.
Benjamin Roland Baszler, 25, pleaded not guilty earlier this week to two rape charges and was being held on $250,000 bail. Judge Bruce Watson denied Baszler's request to be released on his own recognizance.
Deputy District Attorney Kelly Neel said she told the court that Baszler should not be released because he has several prior convictions.
Baszler, a registered sex offender, was convicted in 2005 of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 in Nevada County. Neel said he also has a felony drug conviction and a conviction for failure to appear in court.
Baszler was arrested Dec. 4 after Humboldt County Sheriff's Office deputies found him in his blue Chevrolet Astro Van parked along Highway 299 with an unconscious woman in the back of his van.
He is charged with having intercourse with a person who is unconscious or incapable of resisting and is prevented from resisting because of an intoxicating substance or controlled substance. Neel said she is also seeking a special allegation in which Baszler could face a doubled penalty if he is convicted.
Based on evidence found in Baszler's van, the Sheriff's Office announced Baszler's arrest on Dec. 6, asking members of the public to step forward if there were other victims.
Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Brenda Godsey said a rash of rapes in Arcata prompted the Sheriff's Office to alert the public. In the last six months, there have been three reports of rape in the area.
”There was other evidence in the van that indicated that there had been other sexual activity,” Godsey said. “Whether or not there were other victims we don't know. There was just enough evidence to raise some concern that there could be other victims.”
The van's back row of seats were removed and deputies found other “forensic evidence” inside the van, but did not elaborate.
Deputies arrested Baszler shortly after 11 p.m. on Dec. 4, after conducting a vehicle investigation on his car, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Baszler reportedly told officers he had just finished having sex with a woman in the back of the van, who he said was sleeping when officers initially questioned him.
Through the van windows, officers reported seeing a woman lying motionless and she did not respond when the officers tapped on the windows. Deputies asked Baszler to open the sliding door, and he agreed.
Deputies then attempted to wake the woman, who remained unconscious. When deputies were able to wake the woman, she was disoriented, and said that she did not know Baszler or how she got into the van, according to the Sheriff's Office.
A press release stated Baszler had scratches on his face and told officers that he had been drinking alcohol in Arcata with the woman and another man, when the couple started fighting. Baszler said the man left and the woman was intoxicated, so he helped her walk to his van and then drove to Blue Lake and parked.
According to the Sheriff's Office, Baszler said the two had consensual sex, but later admitted that the woman was asleep.
Arcata Police Chief Tom Chapman said he could not comment on whether Baszler is a suspect in the other rape cases.
”Certainly when you see someone that is arrested for sexual assault we closely scrutinize the suspect for any connection,” he said.
He said there hasn't been an increase in sexual assault crimes in the area overall, but these last few cases have occurred in quicker succession than usual.
The latest case in Arcata occurred on Nov. 21. The woman was walking home alone when she was attacked, beaten and sexually assaulted.
The attacker is described as an adult male in his mid- to late-30s with a heavy build, about 5 feet 11 inches tall with olive skin, and a thick eastern European accent.
Chapman said the department has identified a person of interest related to the Nov. 21 incident.
”This crime remains our highest priority and we're not going to stop investigation it until we are able to determine who is responsible,” he said.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_16833665
Another rapist who had sex with an unconscious/sleeping woman. First he told police it was consensual, then he admitted she was asleep, meaning there was no consent and that she could not resist. That is rape.
Settlement nearing for man falsely imprisoned for rape
Friday, November 20, 2009
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A man who spent 19 years in prison for a rape he did not commit appears to be nearing a settlement in his federal lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh.
Thomas Doswell, convicted in 1986, filed the lawsuit in 2007 two years after DNA evidence exonerated him.
According to court documents, U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose has asked city attorney Michael Kennedy to notify her of a settlement approval. A status conference via telephone is scheduled for Dec. 8.
The trial in Mr. Doswell's lawsuit was scheduled to begin Dec. 1.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014958-53.stm#ixzz17rLTi4ik
I assume they are unhappy because the little girl was not kill/rape/torture by the mother boyfriend but found alive
6 ordered to stand trial in alleged homecoming gang rape
Published December 21, 2010
Associated Press
MARTINEZ, Calif. – A judge ordered six defendants Tuesday to stand trial on felony charges in the gang-rape of a teenage girl outside a Northern California high school homecoming dance.
Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Gregory Caskey dismissed charges against a seventh and youngest defendant, a 16-year-old San Pablo boy, saying there was insufficient evidence.
The Contra Costa Times reports the judge reduced charges against Elvis Torrentes, 23, who now faces up to eight years in prison if convicted.
Prosecutor Dara Cashman said the other five defendants face possible life sentences. They are: Manuel Ortega, 20, of Richmond; John Crane, 44, of Richmond; Ari Abdallah Morales, 17, of San Pablo; Marcelles James Peter, 18, of Pinole; and Jose Carlos Montano, 19, of Richmond.
The defendants all have pleaded not guilty.
The judge issued the decisions after hearing evidence over 20 days about each defendant's involvement in the Oct. 24, 2009, attack on the Richmond High School campus during a homecoming dance.
The 16-year-old victim was heavily intoxicated when she was sexually assaulted, robbed and beaten over two hours while spectators watched, authorities said.
East Bay News
Preliminary hearing ends for Richmond rape case
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
A Contra Costa County judge today ordered six of the seven defendants in the October 2009 beating and gang rape of a 16-year-old girl at Richmond High School to stand trial.
The seventh and youngest defendant, 16-year-old Cody Smith, was not held to answer on any charges and was ordered released from juvenile hall tonight.
Charges were reduced for three of the defendants, but five of the six are still facing charges that make them eligible for life sentences if they are convicted, prosecutor Dara Cashman said.
The sixth defendant is facing a maximum of eight years in prison, Cashman said.
The ruling today wraps up the preliminary hearing in the case, which began Nov. 15 in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez and included testimony from 20 witnesses.
Cashman said that the case was made particularly difficult by the fact that none of the witnesses wanted to cooperate with police and nobody was able to provide investigators with a coherent or consistent picture of what happened the night of Oct. 24, 2009.
The case was further complicated by the fact that the victim didn't remember the attack.
Although the time frame of the actual assault is still vague, the victim said she had gone to the school's homecoming dance that night, but got bored and left at about 9:30 p.m.
She was about to call her father to pick her up when Smith invited her to come drink with him and his friends, according to a sexual assault nurse who testified at the hearing.
The victim told the nurse that she drank brandy, got dizzy and passed out. The next thing she remembers is waking up the next day in the hospital with a tube down her throat, according to the nurse.
Police officers testified that they found the victim shortly before midnight in a dark courtyard area on the north side of campus. She was unconscious and bent over a metal bar underneath a picnic table with her dress pulled up to expose the lower part of her body, which was bare.
The victim, whose blood alcohol level was .355 percent, was unconscious for part of the attack, but at other times witnesses said she was crying, whimpering, screaming for help and kicking her assailants, detectives said.
During the attack, Richmond resident Manuel Ortega, 20, allegedly tried to force the victim to give him oral sex. When she didn't, he allegedly began punching and kicking her in the head, according to detectives.
Ortega also allegedly stepped on the victim's head while a second defendant, Jose Montano, 19, allegedly raped her, witnesses allegedly told detectives.
Ortega was arrested as he was leaving the area.
Judge Gregory Caskey found sufficient evidence to bring Ortega to trial on charges of forcible rape while acting in concert; forcible oral copulation while acting in concert; penetration with a foreign object for allegedly trying to ram a skateboard into the victim's vagina; robbery and assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. The assault charge also included an enhancement for allegedly causing great bodily injury to the victim.
San Pablo resident Ari Morales, 17, was arrested two days after the attack.
During the hearing a detective testified that Morales confessed to inserting the antenna of a walkie-talkie into the victim's vagina, urinating on her and taking her ring.
Caskey found that there was sufficient evidence to hold him on charges of rape by a foreign object while acting in concert. Charges that Morales robbed the victim, however, were dismissed.
After his arrest, Pinole resident Marcelles Peter, 18, allegedly admitted to police that he put his finger in the victim's vagina. His DNA was also found on a used condom, according to a DNA expert who testified.
Caskey ordered Peter held to answer on a charge of penetration with a foreign object while acting in concert.
Several witnesses said that Jose Montano, a 19-year-old Richmond resident, was the first person to rape the victim, although his attorney argued that another witness said he just pretended to rape her, then jumped up and said he was just kidding.
Montano was held to answer on a charge of forcible rape while acting in concert. Caskey said he had no doubt Montano had raped the victim.
Richmond resident Elvis Torrentes, 22, was allegedly flirting with the victim before the attack began. She was extremely drunk and, when she sat on his lap, he allegedly put his finger in her vagina, according to witness statements.
Caskey said he found sufficient evidence to bring Torrentes to trial on a charge of penetration of an intoxicated person. He did not, however, find sufficient evidence to support a charge of rape with a foreign object while acting in concert.
None of the witnesses said anything about seeing the sixth defendant, 44-year-old Richmond resident John Crane Jr., at the school that night, but his semen was found all over the victim and on evidence found at the scene, according to a DNA expert.
Crane was arrested two months after the alleged attack on a cold-hit DNA match, police said.
He was held to answer today on a charge of forcible rape while acting in concert, despite an argument made by his attorney that the victim might have had sex with him sometime earlier that day.
According to Cashman, the charges that the defendants acted in concert combined with the charge that a co-defendant, in this case Ortega, allegedly caused great bodily injury to the victim makes them all eligible for life sentences.
Torrentes is the only defendant of the six who is not charged with acting in concert. He is facing a maximum of eight years in prison.
Smith had originally been charged with rape by a foreign object while acting in concert, but Caskey said there was insufficient evidence to hold him, despite his opinion that "His (Smith's) conduct that evening can only be described as horrible," Caskey said.
Smith's attorney David Headley said Smith had turned 15 three weeks before the rape and described him as "A rotten little kid, perhaps, but still a kid."
Smith's father, Mark Smith, said outside the courtroom that Smith had "a good ass-whipping" coming to him, but that they planned to take him out to dinner first.
Smith's cousin, Desirae Smith, who has raised him for the past nine years, said Smith had not been the victim's friend since seventh grade, but that she was sorry for what happened to her.
The six other defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 10 on the amended charges.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7857805
The manner in which she was assaulted was just appalling. I can't believe that people could treat a female in this manner. And I can't believe that others could just stand and watch. For her sake, I am glad she cannot remember what happened to her.
Who Will Rape Me?
Posted on December 21, 2010
by andrea grimes
What makes me most angry about the reprehensible, privilege-denying behavior of Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann and their allies in the whole Julian Assange-can’t-be-a-rapist-because-he’s-a-freedom-fighter ordeal, addressed beautifully by Sady Doyle and a number of brilliant feminists in the form of the #MooreAndMe Twitter hashtag? The fact that, in the likely event I am ever a victim of completed or attempted sexual assault, powerful men (and women!) of liberal privilege may not–indeed, very likely may not–take me seriously.
At 27 years old, I have not yet been a victim of sexual assault. But let’s be real: that fact is likely to change. Because one in six women will, in their lifetimes, be the victim of a rape or attempted rape. And I mean, we’re estimating there–sixty ******* percent of rapes are never reported to the police. I’m more likely to be raped than I am to get breast cancer.
But you don’t have to be a stat-wielding, card-carrying feminist to feel the threat of rape in your life. Really, all you have to be is female. All you have to have is some kinda voice in the back of your mind that says, watch what you wear, who you talk to, where you walk, what you say. The question you’re always kind of asking yourself is, Who will rape me?
I jogged to the gym earlier today–I’m still sweaty, actually, because I wanted to sit down and write this before I lost my nerve–in my walkable, historic Dallas neighborhood, and because it gets dark early now, I thought, Better watch out. Not many people around of a Monday. Could get sketchy. I didn’t carry my wallet with me just in case, but I can’t exactly leave my vagina at home. And I thought, ye gods, if I am going to be raped, let it be this way.
Let me be a white, middle-class woman in a long-term heterosexual relationship who is jogging to the gym at 6:30 on a week night, stone-cold sober, in a lovely little historic neighborhood, who is hit over the head in some back alley by some drugged-out crazy **** with a criminal history who drags me behind a dumpster and beats me senseless before he rapes me. Because then I will not have to apologize for getting myself raped and no one will wonder if I made it up because I was mad, because I was drunk, because I dressed like a skank, because I was a sex worker, because I was in the wrong neighborhood, because I was ashamed, because well, that is just what women do, the silly things what can’t tell the difference between sex and rape.
I was on that beastly stair-stepper-elliptical-machine-thing, and to the beat of my workout, I kept hearing in my head, Who will rape me? I thought of all the different women I knew of who’d been raped, women I knew and women I’d only read about–inspired probably by this Sady Doyle post–and I wondered, fuckinghell, when does this happen to me?
Who will rape me?
Will it be someone I know? Probably. Two-thirds of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. Like, knows knows. A roommate, a buddy, a classmate, a co-worker, a friend-of-a-friend. If you want to expand it out a little bit, at the very least, I’ll probably be raped by someone I at least recognize–73 percent of rapes are committed by a non-stranger. Will it be someone I’m intimate with? Good chance–30 percent chance–I will be raped by my boyfriend or husband. Hell, it could even be a family member. Seven percent of rapes are committed by a relative. And you know what? The person who rapes me probably won’t even think I’m all that special since he’ll probably have raped seven to nine women, depending on what stats you rely on, before he’s ever put in jail. And Chripes, that’s only if I’m a woman–it’s worth saying here, if only because I think some people really don’t believe it, that men get raped. One in thirty-three in their lifetimes.
So, who will rape me?
It might be a prominent professional athlete. When that happens, my motivation, personal life and all former sexual exploits will be analyzed by people who think I should just count myself lucky to have been on the receiving end of famous dick. I might be raped by someone I’m dating. When that happens, I might try to rationalize the whole thing and continue seeing him because I might believe that women in relationships can’t revoke consent. I might be raped by my husband. I mean ****, in a lot of places and up till way more recently than I’m comfortable with in the United States, it wasn’t even possible to rape your wife. I might be raped by someone I meet at a party where I’ve gone to have fun with my girlfriends. If that happens, I might be told by the authorities that I can’t report my rape because I can’t remember it clearly enough. I might be raped by an abuser who sabotages my birth control or refuses to wear a condom in order to control my reproductive capabilities. If that happens, I might hear from many people that it is only vicious, money-grubbing women who do this and that I can’t be trusted. I might be raped by a famous artist. If that happens, people might say that the quality of his art is too good for him to be a real rapist, and that I probably am blowing things out of proportion. I might be raped by ten or fifteen people outside my school dance while others look on. If that happens, many people will go to great pains to point out that well, I had been drinking. I might be raped by a beloved liberal activist. If that happens, people might post my name and address on the internet so that I can be hunted down if need be, because people might be incapable of believing someone with a great political idea might also not think he had to take “no” for an answer in the bedroom.
http://hayladies.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/who-will-rape-me/
DECEMBER 22, 2010
NYPD accepts advice on handling sex offenses
Associated Press
NEW YORK — A committee has made six recommendations to the NYPD aimed at reducing the number of misclassified rape and sexual assault complaints.
The Sex Crimes Working Group committee was convened after sex-crime advocacy groups said their anecdotal evidence indicated many rape and sexual assault complaints were classified as lesser crimes.
The Wall Street Journal says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has accepted all the recommendations. The newspaper says the NYPD will expand training and assign extra detectives specially trained in sex-crime investigations to the Special Victims Division in the coming weeks.
The committee also recommended increasing cooperation with prosecutors.
http://online.wsj.com/article/APc3d54443d9a24a5eb8b7f5629995ce07.html
In 2009, rape complaints in the city dipped to a modern-day low of 1,206. This year the city is on target for a 16% increase, to about 1,400 reported rapes. It would be the first increase in rapes since Mr. Kelly became police commissioner, for the second time, in 2002.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703581204576033873467370478.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
