@firefly,
Quote:How come you can't focus on those who have a need to abuse, and sexually assault, rather than those on the receiving end of the assaults and abuse?
I think I focus on those who need to abuse and those who need to be abused equally ( and often they are the same people, though not both at the same time).
Quote:Because individuals have been the victims of sexual assaults, even multiple sexual assaults, does not mean they are complicit in seeking out or eliciting such violations
Considering that they are often not consciously aware of what they are doing I'd say that is true, because complicity requires awareness in my view .
Quote: That's more "blame the victim" crap of the sort you and BillRM wallow in as expressions of your basic hostility toward women.
considering that you claim to not be a feminist it is interesting how you act as though there cant possibly better explanations than they offer, and that you attack anyone who strays from the feminist dogma.
As for the rest, I have not seen enough of onevoice yet to claim to know where she is at. I am damn sure that I know much more about abuse and recovery than you do, not to mention I know me a hell of a lot better than you do, so I will consider your opinion on my advise accordingly.
@hawkeye10,
Quote:I represented a young man who I will call Antoine. l99 Antoine was a
diminutive fifteen-year-old boy who looked more like twelve. He was charged
with breaking into the home of a twenty-year-old woman and raping her at
gunpoint. The crime was ugly, as typical of these crimes. The victim was
traumatized by what happened; the incident was her worst nightmare. Upon
being arrested, Antoine confessed to the crime, expressed regret, and said he
did not know why he had done it. He had never done anything like this before.
Antoine admitted to having smoked a substantial amount of PCP laced
marijuana before he committed the offense.
It turns out that Antoine had himself been sexually abused at a young age,
before he was able to speak. He was abandoned by his mother when he was
two-years-old. His body revealed old and new wounds, including signs of anal
penetration. He was placed in foster care but did not fare well there. He was
sexually abused for months by his foster mother's uncle, who was a frequent
presence in the household. Antoine did not tell anyone out of fear that he
would be put out of the house. He eventually disclosed the abuse to a teacher.
I first met him at the local juvenile jail. He was visibly frightened. His small
size and air of vulnerability made him an easy target for frequent sexual assault
and humiliation by his peers.
It takes nothing away from Antoine's crime or Antoine's victim to say that I
felt for him. It does not deny the viciousness of the crime or the lifelong harm
to the victim to say that Antoine has suffered, too. Antoine was a young man, a boy really, who was terribly victimized and never had a chance to recover. He never had a chance, period. He was abused pre-verbal, which is the worst kind of abuse to untangle and rise above.2oo He went from one abusive home to another, never feeling safe as a child. He was right to not feel safe; he was not safe. He turned to drugs to hide from his life and dull his pain. The drugs no doubt facilitated the violent attack, but Antoine's crime also came from his own experience. He did to another what was done to him.201
It should not be so difficult to reconcile feelings for victims and feelings for
perpetrators in view of what we know about the cycle of violence. 202 Why can
feminists, battered women's advocates, sexual assault victims' advocates, and
criminal defense lawyers not feel outrage at the offense but still muster some
compassion for the offender?203 Why is it so hard to feel for both the abused
and the accused?204
V. CONCLUSION
Aileen Wuornos was both victim and perpetrator. She is not unique in this
dual identity: many girls and women-and boys and men-are first victims
and then become perpetrators.z°5 My purpose in writing this paper is to
challenge the belief that there is a great divide between people to whom terrible
things are done and people who do terrible things.206 They are often the samepeople. Those who claim to care about victims of child abuse, sexual assault,
and domestic violence and who abandon them when they repeat the behavior
by acting out against others fail to make these critical connections. Further, it
is hypocritical to embrace people when they are "victims" and blindly declare
them to be "predators" and "criminals," when they become "perpetrators." Yet, sadly, this is what many prosecutors do. Even more disappointing is when
thoughtful critics of the current system, including feminists and advocates for
victims-those whose life work is devoted to social reform-do this. They, of
all people, should know better.
http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=facpub
Sadly this is way beyond the level of understanding and compassion that Firefly can muster.
Quote:They wanted to help themselves, and they wanted reliability and accountability from their partners,” Chelsea Clinton wrote. But that help was not coming. The aid groups had ignored requests for T-shirts, flashlights and pay for the security committee, and the U.S. military had apparently passed on the committee’s back-up plan that they provide security themselves. “The settlements’ governing bodies—as they shared with me—are beginning to experience UN/INGO fatigue given how often they articulate their needs, willingness to work—and how little is coming their way.”
That analysis went beyond what some observers have taken years to understand, and many others still haven’t: that disaster survivors are best positioned to take charge of their own recovery, yet often get pushed aside by outside authorities who think, wrongly, that they know better.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/hillary-clinton-email-213110#ixzz3kdpLKH73
We do the same thing with sexual abuse victims, the know it all victim minders rush in to do what they think is best, largely ignoring the needs and wants of the victim. We see this clearly with Firefly, it is her way or the highway, anyone who does not agree with her is an ignorant asshole according to her, someone who should be shunned and reeducated if possible.
Sexual abuse survivors have already been violated, the last thing the feminist state cooperative should be doing is running in to violate them again by telling them what to do and informing victims what they "should" be thinking and feeling, telling them that they have a duty to the collective to follow the instructions on what a "good" victim does.
The feminists constantly claim that the reason victims dont report is that they dont think they will be listened to, which the feminists can be counted on to spin as the victims dont think that the abusers will be hit hard enough....lack of listening is indeed a big problem, but it is the feminists who are the primary cause of this problem, they who are sure that they are right.
@hawkeye10,
hawkeye10 wrote: I am damn sure that I know much more about abuse and recovery than you do
And here we get to the heart of the matter, someone's taking your victimhood statement. You're not a victim you're a pathetic manipulative freak who is incapable of feeling sympathy for anyone else.
All you ever do is cry and bawl about how hard you've had it. It really is pathetic, try acting like a man for once. You are so like Timmy it's beyond a joke.
@izzythepush,
A great drinking game is to sit around watching A2K, and when Izzy makes entire post of off topic personal insults everyone has to do a shot.
Getting hammered fast is always a plus.
@hawkeye10,
Better not take a drink every time you sob about being a victim or we'd all be under the table in a matter of seconds.
Instead of moaning on about how hard it is being a man why don't you try to be a man? Just for once, see what it's like not being a big girl's blouse, you might even like it. It's a lot better than being a snotty little runt believe me.
@firefly,
Love the movement to redefine how and in what format consent must be given and under what very narrow conditions that consent would be valid.
Strange no actions seem ever to be directed at women who did not have "valid" consent from their male partners.
I was too drunk to grant valid consent have never been used , as far as I know, by a man against his female sexual partner or I did not say the word yes for that matter.
@izzythepush,
Only 4 shots in 15 minutes? Dont make a liar out of me now!
@hawkeye10,
hawkeye10 wrote:
Dont make a liar out of me now!
You're doing a bang up job all on your own.
@BillRM,
Quote:I was too drunk to grant valid consent have never been used , as far as I know, by a man against his female sexual partner or I did not say the word yes for that matter.
So you sly and wait for them to get drunk Bill and then go for it, or try to, because in your opinion women can not drink, they are not allowed to, they can't have a good time they don't know how to say no, they forget if they said no or yes.
You seriously need to get on this planet not one of your own. It's the low life men that seek these women who just want to let their hair down for one night and laugh and dance and enjoy themselves (usually with trusted company) that don't stop to think about creeps roaming and waiting and waiting to either rape or kill them.
Just think of how many stories there are out there where creeps hung about in a corner near a night club/bar waiting for any woman to walk out on her own to walk 2 minutes to her car/ or home, ready for the pounce after all hard to fight back when you've had a couple of drinks isn't it.
Or do you not / did not take that into consideration.
They are preying.
She is the victim.
@FOUND SOUL,
That should state " a person sly's and waits for them to get drunk". Not you as an individual.
@firefly,
You cant ask to get raped because its only rape when the other party doesn't have a choice.
@HelpYou,
Quote:You cant ask to get raped because its only rape when the other party doesn't have a choice.
Wrong by firefly and her likes viewpoints as we have the wonderful concept of invalid consent due to for example the woman and it is always the woman having voluntarily placed herself under the influence of drinks or drugs before having sex.
If she then the next day of the next week find that she regret the sexual encounter she can declared it a rape at her whim.
@hawkeye10,
You are an ass. Want to get drunk quicker? Take a drink every time you pontificate.
Backlogged rape kits in Detroit head for further investigation
Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters
DETROIT (Reuters) - Most of the 11,000 rape-evidence kits left languishing in a Detroit warehouse have been analyzed since they turned up several years ago, with DNA matches leading to further investigation in 35 states, Michigan's governor said on Wednesday.
The rape kits, which were found abandoned on a storage shelf in 2009, contain DNA samples from hair and swabs of bodily fluids recovered from victims. Since their discovery, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has lobbied to get the stockpiled kits processed.
Governor Rick Snyder secured supplemental funding in 2013 to pay for laboratory analysis of the evidence from 8,000 kits, after the first 2,000 were initially processed by state police.
The state legislature has approved an additional $7 million to assist the state Attorney General's Office in prosecuting accused offenders identified by the testing.
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/backlogged-rape-kits-detroit-head-further-investigation-205540354.html
How the U.S. Ended Up With 400,000 Untested Rape Kits
Memphis just discovered hundreds of untested rape kits—adding to its backlog of more than 12,000 kits collecting dust on police shelves. And the city is hardly alone.
The history of crime solving can be divided into two periods: Before DNA and After DNA. The introduction of forensic evidence in the mid-1980s completely changed the way we solve crimes. Matching crime scene evidence with potential perpetrators at a 99 percent success rate, DNA testing is regularly used to convict murderers and get the wrongly accused out from behind bars.
And perhaps no crime is better suited to DNA testing than sexual assault, as perpetrators leave behind a host of biological material—skin, hair, bodily fluids—on victims’ bodies. Yet while forensic examinations, during which evidence is collected using a sexual assault evidence collection kit—or rape kit—are available to all rape survivors in the U.S. free of charge, only 3 percent of rapists will ever serve a day in prison.
The recent discovery of 200 untested rape kits in Memphis, Tennessee, adding to the city’s backlog of over 12,000, is indicative of why it’s so rare that rapists get convicted.
Memphis’ backlog makes up only a fraction of the estimated 400,000 untested rape kits collecting dust in police evidence warehouses across the country. As local law enforcement agencies scramble to test the long-ignored boxes of evidence, and lawmakers work to figure out how to prevent future backlogs, one must ask why so many rape kits managed to end up on the shelf in the first place.
Scott Berkowitz, founder and president of the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, or RAINN, says that the national rape kit crisis has several causes. First, the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, the FBI’s criminal forensic database, did not exist until the mid-1990s. The rape kits that date back to the late ’70s and ’80s may not have been tested at the time if the victim could not identify a suspect. And by the time police started regularly matching up forensic evidence from rape kits to the DNA of previously convicted criminals, many police departments already had a massive backlog.
More recently, however, because testing one rape kit costs between $500 and $1,500, police departments don’t test every rape kit that comes their way.
“Some only pursue the ones they have the best chance of solving,” Berkowitz said. “Others only test if the alleged rapist is a stranger.”
The rationale in those cases, he said, is that DNA should be used to identify the assailant. If the victim already knows the attacker, the issue isn’t identity but consent.
“That might make some sense, but the reality these days is you have to have DNA if you’re going to prosecute a case,” Berkowitz said. “DNA can point to inconsistencies or lies in a suspect’s story. Often they’ll say they didn’t have sex at all. DNA can prove that is a lie and the investigation becomes easier.”
A spokesperson for the Memphis police department did not return requests for comment on this story. But the Memphis Flyer, the city’s alt-weekly, reported that, at a City Council meeting last week, Police Department Director Toney Armstrong said, “I want every piece of evidence in our possession to [be] searched and researched to make sure we are doing our due diligence to clear up this rape kit backlog.”
It’s an expensive undertaking, one that’s projected to cost the city $6.5 million. But the benefits are already evident. According to The Guardian, Memphis’ efforts to conquer the backlog have already produced 162 new investigations, 22 indictments, and identified 16 people previously convicted of rape.
Memphis is hardly the only city that has started tackling the backlog. After 11,000 untested rape kits were discovered in a Detroit police storage facility in 2009, 1,600 have been tested and about 100 serial rapists have been identified—with 10 of them already convicted. Meanwhile, Cleveland police have cleared their backlog, sending the last of 3,985 rape kits discovered in 2009 for DNA testing this summer. So far, about 170 men have been indicted thanks to the forensic evidence.
Natasha Alexenko is both a victim of rape and of a rape kit backlog. Sexually assaulted at gunpoint in New York City in 1993, Alexenko resisted the urge to shower and cleanse her body of the horrifying experience, and submitted to a rape kit—which she described as a “very invasive gynecological exam.” She assumed that the police were handling her case and would let her know if they found anything. Unbeknownst to her, however, her rape kit sat in a Manhattan storage facility for 9½ years, never even submitted to the lab for testing.
In 2003, mere months before the 10-year statute of limitations on Alexenko’s case was set to expire, she received a phone call from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, notifying her that her kit had finally been tested along with 17,000 that had been backlogged in New York City. To stop the clock on the statute of limitations, the DA’s office filed what’s known as a “John Doe indictment”—indicting the DNA of Alexenko’s rapist.
“We didn’t know the man, but we were confident that he would be caught because rapists are serial criminals,” Alexenko said. And he was. In 2007, Victor Rondon was arrested in Las Vegas and extradited to New York where he was wanted on various parole violations. There, the NYPD took a swab of Rondon’s cheek—"far less invasive than a rape kit,” Alexenko says—uploaded it to CODIS and matched it to the DNA in Alexenko’s rape kit. Fifteen years after she was raped, Alexenko saw her attacker sentenced to 44 to 107 years in prison on eight counts of violent assault, including sexual abuse, rape, and robbery.
In 2011, Alexenko founded Natasha’s Justice Project, a nonprofit focused on eliminating the national rape kit backlog. Though Alexenko describes her experience with the NYPD as largely positive, she acknowledges that not all survivors of sexual assault can say the same of the police officers who’ve handled their cases. She offers a much starker explanation than Berkowitz for why backlogs like the one in Memphis, and the one that almost let her attacker walk free, exist.
“Part of the reason rape kits aren’t tested is because rape isn’t taken seriously,” Alexenko told The Daily Beast. “There’s not enough of us willing to come forward and say, we were sexually assaulted. It’s time to get rid of the stigma. It’s time to stop acting like this is too sensitive a topic for people because it is a crime. As long as a rapist is free, it’s a public safety issue. The more we talk about it, the more we can ensure that the stigma is removed and then it will become commonplace for law enforcement to test every rape kit.”
@firefly,
Just to expand on your really fine post:
Marks One-Year Since Launch of “It’s On Us” Campaign to End Campus Sexual Assault
FACT SHEET: The “It’s On Us” Campaign Launches new PSA, Marks One-Year Since Launch of “It’s On Us” Campaign to End Campus Sexual Assault
Watch the Latest “It’s On Us” PSA, “The One Thing” HERE.
Today the “It’s On Us” campaign released a new Public Service Announcement (PSA) that includes cameos from “It’s On Us” supporters and artists such as Zoe Saldana, John Cho, and Josh Hutcherson. This PSA, which is titled “The One Thing,” focuses on the importance of consent when engaging in sexual activity. The campaign is also announcing new “It’s On Us” partners including The Ad Council, Kering Foundation, Straight But Not Narrow, and Chegg. Starting today, the Ad Council will distribute the PSA to its network of more than 20,000 media outlets nationwide. The ads will air and run in time and space donated to the “It’s On Us” campaign by media entities around the country, as well as current “It’s On Us” partners, including several of the major college sports conferences. The “It’s On Us” campaign is also working with the PVBLIC foundation to distribute the PSA.
”The One Thing” marks the third PSA released by “It’s On Us” and comes just a few weeks before the one-year anniversary of the launch of “It’s On Us,” created to increase education and awareness around preventing sexual violence on college and university campuses.
On Wednesday, September 2, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, will deliver opening remarks at the National Sexual Assault Conference in Los Angeles, where she will highlight the PSA and progress made by the White House to combat sexual assault.
President Obama and Vice President Biden have made it a national priority to root out sexual violence and domestic violence wherever they exist. Soon after taking office, the President created the White House Council on Women and Girls and named the first-ever White House Advisor on Violence Against Women. Over the last six years, the President and Vice President have led the way in tackling the problem everywhere, from college and university campuses to the military to tribal lands and beyond.
. . . .
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/01/fact-sheet-its-us-campaign-launches-new-psa-marks-one-year-launch
@firefly,
These crime facts themselves constitute a crime against women who were the victims of violent crime and delayed justice.
