From: rsrodger@wam.umd.edu (Yamanari)
Subject: Re: Sexual Harassment
Keywords: obnoxious behavior
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 01:25:16 GMT

In article <osickey.722283947@dryer.ecn.purdue.edu> osickey@dryer.ecn.purdue.edu (Matt J. Osickey) writes:
>>Discussion of sex is not evil if it is done in the context of a
>>neutral power balance. Discussion of sex *is* evil if you are a
>>6'5" 250-pound linebacker holding down a 5'2" 100-pound wisp of a
>>woman and asking her if she wants rear entry while she tries to
>>squirm out from under you and is yelling and screaming for help.



	To which I respond:  Only a dumbass woman would
	get herself in such a position.  The exception to this
	is the out-of-the-bushes type of rape, which is 
	one of the least common forms.  Call it "blaming
	the victim," but when someone does something that leads
	directly to--or does nothing to prevent an obviously
	approaching--bad situation, that's stupidity and I have
	no moral qualms about pointing out what a fool that
	person was.

	This does not excuse or lessen the crime (IMHO, such
	animals, like murderers, child molesters and so on
	---deserve to be killed.  Let's get rid of them and
	have it done with.  There's mistakes, and there's 
	permanently damaging a human being.  The latter can
	NEVER be excused as a "mistake"..)--but it MUST
	be considered.  To pretend that it isn't an issue
	is dishonest.



>>"No" means NO.


	That's very clever.  Unfortunately, it is _not_ always
	true.  Human beings learn from experience, not from catch
	slogans, and experience will tell most males that "no"
	does _n_o_t_ always mean "no", or at least not "no" as
	in "stop _everything_ right now!"   

	

>    I would like to present a few very depressing statistics:
>    The most over-reported (i.e. falsely) crime in the US is rape.
>    The mos under-reported (silent) crime in the US is rape.
>    The second most over-reported crime in the US is sexual harassment.


	According to police, among crimes rape is has one of the
	highest--it was either number two or three--incidence of 
	false reports.  It was a very few percentage points away
	from number 1 (something like 3%) and 14-20% above the
	next highest [after rape].  Note that this is _false_ 
	reports, not unresolved or dropped claims.  

	The thing I found most interesting about this article 
	(Washington Post--I believe I saved it, but it's in my 
	stack) was that the women who file such claims are
	not punished _at all_.  Not only that, but they are not
	even required to pay the costs the man (innocent!) that
	they accused accrued in his own defense.  Further, the
	damage done to that mans reputation and community standing
	is _never_ repaired.  

	In fact, the one quote I remember came at the end of the
	article.  "We don't send them to jail, we recommend that
	they see a therapist and get help."

	One woman in the article had dragged one man through the
	entire process twice, and three others through once each.

	So you'll excuse me if I laugh at your statistics, or at
	least consider them one sided.


-- 
 Robert Stephen Rodgers  ||  rsrodger@wam.umd.edu  || IRC: Yamanari
 --------NeXTmail-preferred!!--------------------------------------
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