Ah, it's Sunday. The links are kinda depressing this week. Well, I guess they're always depressing. *sigh*

Disclaimers!

1. Trigger Warning! Links deal with rape; click with care.

2. I don't always agree with everything contained in the links.

3. Sometimes the linked posts will have comments. Read them if you have a chance.



WikiLeaks:

Salon's WikiLeaks rape case: Bad news for women - 8/2010

"It certainly appears that the case was handled poorly, but there is a whole lot we still don't know. Here's what I do know: Regardless of the validity of the specific claims against Assange, high-profile prosecutorial reversals and fumbles like this are a disservice to victims of sexual assault. They help perpetuate a distorted sense of the frequency of false accusations and contribute to the view of rape claims as a tool used to manipulate and destroy men. Ultimately, cases like this discourage victims from coming forward and only make it harder for women with legitimate claims of sexual assault to be taken seriously by police, prosecutors and the general public."

Congo:

MSNBC's Some 200 women gang-raped near Congo UN base - 8/2010

"Rwandan and Congolese rebels gang-raped nearly 200 women and some baby boys over four days within miles of a U.N. peacekeepers' base in an eastern Congo mining district, an American aid worker and a Congolese doctor said. "

South Africa:

Digital Journal's Gang rape: A youth cult in South African townships - 1/2009

"And researchers K. Wood and R. Jewkes also reported in their studies carried out among pregnant adolescents in Cape Town, that there is 'widespread male coercion and violence within these sexual relationships. The pregnant teens reported 'assault as a regular feature of their relationships.'

"In South Africa, power relations between men and women are commonly manifested as and imposed through sexual violence and assault. Men use physical assault to force sexual contact, beating their female partners if they refuse to have sex, or if they are found to be using contraceptives.'

Women often experience abuse such as gang rape - yet health officials in SA 'refuse to acknowledge sexual encounters such as these as rape'. "

The legal system:

Pickled Politics' Would anonymity for defendants benefit rape victims too? - 5/2010

"Obviously, this change is better for the men accused of rape (which is good, as they are innocent until proven guilty), but could it be better for women too? Perhaps. We know from studies that some people are willing to blame the rape victim (or at least partially blame her), for the rape. This, combined with a perception that some rape victims are lying and desperate for attention, is likely to have a negative impact on some jurors, thus making them less likely to convict. Anonymity would eliminate the notion that a woman is seeking publicity, making some on the jury more sympathetic to their claims."

Cruella-blog's Chilling News - 5/2010

"The evidence suggests that false rape claims represent around 2-8% of cases (much lower than the false claim level for crimes relating to car insurance claims). And the notion that guys who are not convicted of rape are stigmatised is simply not true (consider the dozens of acquitted footballers still pursuing grossly overpaid professional careers) and when they are it's usually because the evidence against them was so overwhelming (like the "I might have raped her in my sleep" guy)."

STLtoday's Girl who accused her father is put on hold for years - 8/2005

"In an interview, Mokwa denied that officers used memos - paper records that were not centrally filed or counted in crime statistics - for cases that police believed were really crimes. Afterward, Mokwa ordered sex crimes investigators to review the memos in its files.

Between Nov. 24 and Jan. 7, more than 100 memos concerning reports of sex crimes were converted to official police reports.

One of those was Victoria's complaint. "

Campus rape:

NPR's Failed Justice Leaves Rape Victim Nowhere To Turn & College Justice Falls Short For Rape Victim - 2/2010

"Margaux's parents asked local police to prosecute. They said no.

So Margaux, like most other women, was forced to rely on the campus justice system, which is not a court of law. The campus discipline system doesn't enforce criminal laws. It considers offenses of college conduct codes.

Unlike criminal courts, college discipline systems often lack the ability to collect evidence, interview suspects and call witnesses. "

"NPR's investigation found that most men found responsible for campus sexual assault get only mild punishment. Reporters at the Center for Public Integrity obtained a database of about 130 colleges and universities that got federal grants because they wanted to do a better job dealing with sexual assault. Even when men at those schools were found responsible for sexual assault, only 10 to 25 percent were expelled.

Margaux expected the man she accused to be expelled.

"Of course the sentence was weak and horrible," she says. "But the fact that I had to sit there and listen to this guy tell me that he was feeling bad for the guy who just raped me, not only raped me but was completely unapologetic. And he what, he breaks down, and cries and this guy is telling me how bad, he's telling me how bad he feels for the guy who just raped me. I mean it's just, that's really just broke me down the most. It just made me feel really defeated, which I was already feeling defeated." "

NPR's Myths That Make It Hard To Stop Campus Rape - 3/2010

"He found them by, over a 20-year period, asking some 2,000 men in college questions like this: "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they did not want to, because they were too intoxicated [on alcohol or drugs] to resist your sexual advances?"

Or: "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with an adult when they didn't want to because you used physical force [twisting their arm, holding them down, etc.] if they didn't cooperate?"

About 1 in 16 men answered "yes" to these or similar questions."

The Media:

Washington City Paper's Date Rape Anthem: Kiely Williams' "Spectacular" - 1/2010

"And another thing! How many pieces of popular music have to be written about how pushing booze on women until they vomit all over themselves and ultimately juuuust barely consent to having sex with you is sexy? Because these songs actually glamorize the behavior of rapists. And even if you're the elusive chick who happens to be into that, presenting this situation as "spectacular" is both a) not particularly interesting, as far as pop music is concerned, and b) harmful to all the women who wake up in that same situation and have a much different descriptor for the sex: "rape.""

Rape culture:

TriCities' Blame the victim: Religious leaflet claims 'ungodly' dressed women provoke rape - 2/2010

"Rasnake said she confronts similar ideas, although not generally printed and distributed in mass, from the women she talks with daily. Victim blaming, she said, is the most prominent reason rapes are so rarely reported and even more rarely taken to trial. Sexual assaults, she said, come in second for the country's worst conviction rates.

Victims blaming themselves often comes from a religious place, but not always, Rasnake said. It's become a societal defense mechanism for dealing with issues of sexual assault.

"Blaming victims is the way we who have not been victimized feel safer," Rasnake said. "If it's their fault then I'm safer because I wouldn't do that. If someone steals your purse, can you imagine someone asking why you had a purse? If you are sexually assaulted, it is not because you come with breasts." "

The Curvature's CIA Station Chief Accused of Raping Algerian Women - Relevant Source - 1/2009

"No, wait, what? Can we not keep the focus on women when talking about an issue that directly impacts women for a single second? This is about the two (or more) women who were raped. This is about the abuse of governmental authority in violent and misogynistic ways, and the implications it has for both women's sense of safety and their actual safety. Why is it too much to ask that we actually make it about them when it is about them?"

Shakesville's Rape is not a compliment. - 12/2006

"Fetishizing rape, regarding it as primarily about sexual attraction, recasts rapists as sexually frustrated men, or oversexed men, or men who simply can't control themselves when they see an attractive woman. Rapists are not merely men with heightened libidos; they are men who seek to possess and control, and sex is the weapon they wield—not the ends, but the means. To think that rapists all rape for one universal reason is to think that murderers all murder for a single reason, and to think that rapists all rape because of sexual attraction is to think that murderers who use guns all murder because they like the smell of gun powder. People who like the smell of gun powder go to shooting ranges; murderers who like the smell of gun powder use guns instead of knives. The point isn't the weapon; the point is someone's getting dead, and no one really bothers to contemplate the "compliment" of Moe Murderer having used his favorite weapon to do the deed."

The military:

Femiste's New Statistics on Military Rape and Reporting - 3/2009

"While I have no doubt whatsoever that rape does indeed compromise military effectiveness, I am also highly unimpressed, not to mention lacking real hope for change, when that's what it takes for anyone in a position of power to sit up and take notice. And when it's the first thing to pop out of an official's mouth when asked about it, rather than the far more appropriate answer: "Rape is a horrific crime and the U.S. military should not ever tolerate having rapists in its ranks. So regardless of the numbers we have, one rapist is by definition too much.""

The Problem:

"Come on no criminal charges that says it all all she is after is money from the civil court. Isn't that plain to see? " - (link)

"I do not feel Ben did what he's accused of. He is from a nice farming community in Ohio where I was also born. I have found Ohioans to be some of the nicest and friendliest people in this country. The woman sounds like a flake, she needs to mind her own busimness instead of going after one of our American pro-atheltes for money. He almost died in a motorcylce accident and was back in the game the next season, which shows his dedication and love for his sport. Nutzoids need to get a life and stop trying to dirty the name of the wholesome athlets we have, considersing some are not. THe need to stop this crap andleave the athletes alone. I am behind you all the way Big Ben." - (link)

"Not to condone what Polanski did over 30 years ago, but this is an inflammatory topic, made even more so by this column. It characterizes the event as violent, which according to both parties, it was not. At the time, the victim was a precocious teen. I have a friend whose young teen daughters appear well over the age of consent. Yes,Polanski did wrong, even if she did appear older.
But this was not a violent crime. And it happened in another era. Presently there is a witch hunt mentality against anyone who even possesses seemingly prurient photos of underage children." - (link)