The article I read was called “Weekends in Jail for Rape? Why people get sentenced to ‘weekend jail’ by Corey Johnson” This article starts off with Molly Shattuck who raped a 15-year old boy in Georgetown, Delaware. The former Baltimore Ravens cheerleader walked out of the courtroom last week even after raping a 15-year old. She was only sentenced to “48 alterning weekends at the SussexVilation of Probation Center.”
At the beginning of the book, in the author’s notes, Krakauer states, “Rape is a much more common crime than most people realize, and women of college age are most frequently the victims.” Most college students are already on edge, especially because of the new environment and people, and introducing them to the possibility of being raped adds a new level of terror for many. Rape can scare anyone and tends to intrude on someone’s piece of mind. [5] Sadly, there is a higher probability that a rape will occur by someone an individual knows; for example, significant others, siblings, friends, and even parents than a complete stranger. Krakauer shows his readers what happens to a person when they are raped; he tells of the emotional and physical damage that can come from the rumors spread, the court cases, and the dirty feelings, and he stands to support victims of rape and stop people from falling victim to this
Davis specifies that the lack of accountability for inappropriate behavior is caused by faulty administrative action as she explains, “Grievance or investigatory procedures, where they exist, are often ineffectual...” (78). Since women’s prisons were established, sexual abuse has been used as a form of punishment, although this is not formally acknowledged by prison officials, it is undeniable that women’s prison staff more than oftentimes engage in sexual
The Rape Shield Law was enacted to protect the rights of rape victims and to encourage rape victims to come forward that might not otherwise do so for fear of their past sexual history coming to light. Some of these rape victims are afraid that their private sexual history or previous sexual encounters will be brought up in court or become public knowledge. Many times the fear of exposure and shame could prevent victims of rape from coming forward and making a complaint to the police against an assailant. With the introduction of the rape shield law a reluctant victim might be more willing to come forward and file a complaint.
(Cohen, 60) Honestly, I would think that if this is how they would remedy rape cases today, the victims would have the constant feelings of fear, shame, anger, and guilt along with the feeling of no control. They wouldn’t feel safe in their own marriage with their significant other that is supposed to care, love them, and make them feel whole. I don’t agree with the way that rape cases were handled in this manner during this century in
Turchik’s article Myths About Male Rape: A Literature Review explores the ways in which mainstream media has satirized male rape and inadvertently created several myths concerning the topic that are widely regarded to be true today. The article further examines how the media promotes heavily stereotyped views of male rape with male rape exclusive to certain people and occurring only in certain areas. Further discussed is the idea that male rape is often depicted as a humorous topic in mainstream media which further promotes male rape ideologies and encouraging the belief that male rape is a humorous topic and something that can and should be taken lightly. Furthermore, Turchik discusses how awareness towards male rape in the media has increased, however, coverage largely portrays stereotypical views of male rape, male rape as consensual rather than forceful, male rape as an exclusive issue towards homosexuals and alleged male victims as liars. The hypothesis as well as the findings provide a solid foundation to my literature review as they provide proof that the acceptance of male rape myths is a very common trend among the general public, media and law
In 1826, the first mention of prison rape in the history of the republic, Rev. Louis Dwight wrote that “Boys are Prostituted to the Lust of old Convicts” throughout the institutions he surveyed from Massachusetts to Georgia. Dwight, the founder of the Prison Discipline Society of Boston, a prison reform group, wrote that “Nature and humanity cry aloud for redemption from this dreadful degradation.” It was not until the 21st century that the nation saw its first anti-prison-rape legislation. Last year, congress passed the Prison Rape Reduction Act, which allocates $60 million to support rape-prevention programs run by federal, state, and local corrections staff and to aid investigations and punishment of perpetrators. The bill, which enjoyed
This study examines the sex offenders while being incarcerated. Imprisoned sex offenders face ridicule because of their offense and they are the most victimized group of prisoners. This study tries to understand how these offenders try to be a part of the general prison population and how their conviction become known among the prison population. 59 interviews of formerly incarcerated men give their stories of how the sex offender passes themselves off as non-sex offenders in the prison environment.
In society and college campuses, sexual assault occurs quite frequently. According to an estimation one third of women experience a forced sexual experience at least once in their life and most of the time it occurs in colleges. Men have also been reported to be victim of sexual assaults mostly by other men. Most of the time the sexual assault is planned and perpetrated by a third person, who is known to the victim of incident. Drug and alcohol use play role in this issue and contribute to the problem as most of the time the victim and perpetrators are under the effect of alcohol or any other drug during the incident.
George, I certainly agree with your statement in that, “We live in a day and age where the top stories are the ones that keep peoples attentions”. Too often the victims of sexual assaults in prisons go either unnoticed or are seen as having “deserved what they got” for what they did. This is outrageous. Individuals are sentenced to do their time, not to be victims themselves. I wonder if it ever occurred to people that sexual assaults can cause a world of trauma to an inmate.
Does it make sense to lock up 2.4 million people on any given day, giving the U.S the highest incarceration rate in the world. More people are going to jail, this implies that people are taken to prison everyday for many facilities and many go for no reason. People go to jail and get treated the worst way as possible. This is a reason why the prison system needs to be changed. Inmates need to be treated better.
“Although concerning sexual practices between adults and children have existed throughout history and across cultures, whether such behavior was conceived of and defined as ‘abuse’ has been dependent on the societal values of the particular period” (Denov, 2004). In today’s society, sex offending has become an increasingly, concerning phenomenon that individuals must become more aware of. Although generally regarded as a male phenomenon, over time, female perpetrators have become equally important as male perpetrators. Due to the lack of public awareness, female sexual predators go unreported. As a result, society must become more aware of female sexual perpetrators, as many incidents of females assaulting both young men and women have gone unreported for some time.
All policies have a specific population they are trying to help benefit from. Conjugal Visits is set to benefit not only the prisoner but as well as to the spouse, children and even siblings of the detainee. Many of the individuals who oppose the extended visitation only see one thing coming out from the visitation and that is sexual satisfaction for the prisoner. But have they stopped and thought that these types of visitations don’t only benefit the prisoner but it can benefit the family members more than the detainee. In most cases parents whose spouse is incarcerated will withhold information from the child about the incarcerated parent to prevent traumatization.
Sexual violence is an extensive problem that is occurring throughout the world. Rape victim suffer the experience of their assault and many suffer a secondary victimization due to negative reactions from individuals around them. Society has come to the point where sexual violence is normalized and excused in the media, this is referred to as rape culture. Rape culture normalizes sexual violence and victim blaming. The way the media portrays this issue not only affects the victims but it also affects the criminal justice system.
Rape, and the death penalty have a very connected history in the United States. The feminist criticism of the death penalty as a sentence for rape starts with the epidemic of lynchings— foremost in the South and primarily of African American men—in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is evaluated that there were 4,743 deaths by lynching between 1882 and 1968, with the overwhelming majority happening between 1889 and
