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

I would add it undermines the correct procedures for those who do rape. Cry wolf too often and no-one helps.

That is one of the reasons that I question Firefly and her likes real concern about rape victims.

Zimring says it's typical for people to ignore drops in crime. "[T]he recent public reaction to New York's epidemic of public safety is rather complacent," he writes in a summary of his new study. "In one sense, this is understandable—crime statistics only command attention when citizens are worried about crime just as people only think about dentists when their teeth hurt."


Part of the reason is that most people can't measure the crime rate accurately based on their own experience. While you may be twice as safe statistically speaking, the odds of getting assaulted at any given moment have merely gone from very small to extraordinarily small. Perception of crime has less to do with overall trends than those in your immediate vicinity, says Daniel Lewis, a professor of social policy at Northwestern University. The places with the most crime feel crime drops most dramatically. "Most of the bad stuff happens to people in poor neighborhoods," says Lewis. "It doesn't happen on Fifth Avenue or the Gold Coast in Chicago. But if you're living in Harlem today, it's a really different place than it was in 1990."

It also matters who you are. Old people are typically more scared of crime than young people—even though they're the demographic least likely to be victimized. Women are generally more worried about crime than men. Fear of rape in particular has little relationship with the statistical risk, says Lewis.

One possible reason fear of crime remains high is that powerful people have an incentive to ring the alarms anyway. Politicians score points by promising to get "tough on crime," even after those efforts pay off and crime levels hit historic lows. Media play up only the most horrifying deeds. The result is a skewed perception of how dangerous the world is. It's telling, though, that most people believe the danger is not on their doorstep, but beyond it. Fewer people say crime is up when asked about their area than when asked about the whole country.

As the throngs celebrated in Cairo, I couldn’t help wondering about what is happening to democracy here in the United States. I think it’s on the ropes. We’re in serious danger of becoming a democracy in name only.

While millions of ordinary Americans are struggling with unemployment and declining standards of living, the levers of real power have been all but completely commandeered by the financial and corporate elite. It doesn’t really matter what ordinary people want. The wealthy call the tune, and the politicians dance.

CBS correspondent Lara Logan was sexually assaulted and beaten while covering the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the network announced Tuesday. Such incidents are an all-too-common part of the business, according to a survey of 29 female war reporters. More than half said they had been sexually assaulted, and two said they had been raped. Are "sexual assault" and "rape" different things?

In some states, yes. Penal codes throughout the country make use of a wide variety of classification schemes for sex crimes. In some states, like New Jersey, the phrase sexual assault has simply replaced the word rape in the statute books. In others, like Pennsylvania (PDF), rape requires the use or threat of force, whereas sexual assault refers to any act of intercourse without consent. (So the former is an especially serious version of the latter, and carries the potential for twice as much prison time.) In Washington state, among others, sexual assault comprises a broad set of acts that include anything from rape to "crimes with a sexual motivation." In other states, neither the word rape nor the phrase sexual assault appears in the law. South Carolina refers to rape as "criminal sexual conduct," and Florida calls it "sexual battery." But as a general rule, a sexual assault is one that involves some form of unwanted penetration. Mere fondling is also a crime, but it's usually called criminal sexual contact or something similar.


The phrase sexual assault has been in use for more than a century, and 19th-century writers seem to have used it synonymously with rape. But it didn't become a legal term until the 1960s, when a reform movement swept across the country. Under the English common law definition, which dates back to at least 1847, rape was limited to the forcible vaginal penetration of a woman against her will by a man other than her husband. Any other form of sex crime had to be prosecuted as simple assault or battery and was rarely prosecuted at all.


The reformers sought to make several changes. They wanted to broaden the definition of rape to protect male victims as well as women who were victimized by their husbands. They also wanted to ease the exceedingly high standards of evidence required for a conviction. Many feminists wanted to get rid of the word rape altogether, because it carried too much cultural baggage. They felt that Americans viewed rape as a crime of sexual passion rather than one of violence. There was also, in their view, a prevailing feeling that women bore some of the blame for dressing or behaving provocatively. The phrase sexual assault, which was adopted unevenly across the country, had the ring of unprovoked violence about it.

The reform movement also pushed to split the unitary crime of rape into graded categories, so different levels of punishment could be applied. At the time, some states executed rapists, and juries were hesitant to convict for that reason. Today, states recognize several degrees of sexual assault—or whatever they call it—depending on the whether weapons were used, whether lasting injuries resulted, or whether the perpetrator had some sort of authority over the victim.

They felt that Americans viewed rape as a crime of sexual passion rather than one of violence.

Is there any other way to view it ? How is it a crime of violence ?

A Republican state legislator in Georgia doesn't like the term rape "victim." In fact, he has introduced a bill mandating that state criminal codes refer to these people as, simply, "accusers" -- until there's a conviction in the matter.

The legislation introduced by state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-Marietta) would cover a number of crimes including rape, stalking and domestic violence:

Under Franklin's definition, all of these people who didn't report their crimes aren't actually victims -- because there is never a conviction.

a person is violated and often injured, is that not violence?

"60% of rapes/sexual assaults are not reported to the police

Those rapists, of course, never spend a day in prison.

Factoring in unreported rapes, only about 6% of rapists ever serve a day in jail."

Under Franklin's definition, all of these people who didn't report their crimes aren't actually victims -- because there is never a conviction.

I agree real rape can involve enough force to add the charge of violence as well, but motive is very important.

motive has nothing to do with it.

a person can be both passionate and violent at the same time.

you would claim that they are not guilty of rape because they had no desire to violate.

Did I say that or is that your interpretation ?

. You have no idea what went on in that case

It is somewhat rare for people to hold a planning session before doing the nasty, where each person signs off on each variation of the sex act that is to be performed. It should remain rare, as this is how sex is done by people who hate and/or fear sex.