Rape - It's Unfair to Protect Only the Most Privileged

WASHINGTON - Jan. 4, 2015 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, DC, January 5, 2015 - In many states, a man can be punished for date rape - even if the coed got tipsy by her own hand, and/or never once said "no" - if it can be shown by a mere preponderance of the evidence that she did not (or says she did not) provide clear "affirmative consent" to each and every step in the lovemaking process or was intoxicated at the time, and she will also be provided with free counseling, assistance in dealing with the police and other legal matters, and other valuable support.

    However, in sharp contrast, if the woman is not a coed, in most states it's not rape even if she said "no" many times and/or was too drunk to walk, and she must show that he used force or the threat of force; something difficult to prove - especially beyond a reasonable doubt - in a typical "he said, she said" date rape situation.  In either event, she is unlikely to get any counseling or help in dealing with the authorities, even though she is also likely to have fewer resources, such as high income  parents, to help cope with the trauma.

    To add insult to injury, women that age who don’t attend college are 30% more likely to be victims of sexual violence than their counterparts attending college.  Those at highest risk are also the most vulnerable: single women with children at home are 2.3 times more likely to be sexually victimized than comparable women without children at home, and women without a high school diploma are sexually victimized at a rate more than 400% higher than those with a bachelor’s degree or more.

    This huge dichotomy in terms of legal protection and resources seems to be grossly unfair - like providing less legal protection and fewer resources to students without any disabilities, or greater protection from injuries and disabilities for office workers than for fire fighters - and also illogical.

    Why should the legal protection provided to a woman depend on whether she dates a college student, a very recent college graduate, or a plumber with a high school education, asks public interest law professor John Banzhaf, a recognized expert on college rape and techniques for preventing it.

    College women have gotten themselves far more protection - in some cases maybe more than is necessary, and often at the sacrifice of Due Process procedural protections for the males who are accused.

    This has occurred not because they are at greater risk, or are of greater need for it.  Just the opposite.

    Even women in college who are themselves victims recognize the unfairness.  As one recently put it: "The women in the housing projects and on the farms and in the factories do not have the megaphones and access to the elite press corps that are available to the privileged people, like me, who have been raped."

    Perhaps the time has come to rethink this illogical unfairness, and level out the playing field, by providing more and equal legal protection from rape to those most in need of it, and possibly trimming back some of the procedures which may be both excessive and unnecessary and which - as some 2 dozen judges have already ruled - were unfair to the male students who were accessed of date rape.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ @profbanzhaf