From: rpetsche@mrg.tmc.edu (Rolfe G. Petschek)
Subject: Re: Clarifications on Rape in any form ...
Reply-To: rpetsche@mrg.CWRU.EDU (Rolfe G. Petschek)
Organization: CWRU Physics Department
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 18:22:43 GMT

In article <1992Jul25.211049.22713@a.cs.okstate.edu> boggs@a.cs.okstate.edu (BOGGS RICHARD GRAN) writes:

>Gotta disagree with you here, DC.  There is a certain measure of justice in 
>having different penalties for different severities of the same crime, but 
>there is also merit in having the maximum penalty for the crime regardless of
>the severity.
>
>I speed (when the wind is behind my ol' Subaru and I'm going downhill) occation-
>ally, knowing that if I'm caught I will have to pay a $76 or so fine.  However,
>I would choose not to speed if the penalty for it was death.  The little time
>I'd save speeding would never be worth risking my life for.  Extreme example, 
>but I think it makes the point.
>
>I think that if there was just one penalty for rape, regardless of severity,
>the frequency of lesser classes of rape would drop off sharply.  When a guy 
>hears a woman say no, he would have to realize that if he proceeds, he stands
>chance to suffer from the worst possibly penalty for rape (whatever that may
>be in our fantasy world).

Hmm.

Well a "friend of a friend" was (laws of the state of Ohio) "sexually
battered" vis she went to a frat party, got drunk and was taken upstairs
to a "brother's" room and had non-consensual sex with him, her
resistance having been appreciably decreased by her intoxication.  While
I never spoke with her I do not believe that the force (if any) used was likely
enough to support a charge of rape and it was even unclear to me that
her intoxication was adequate to support a charge of sexual battery.  She
had very appreciable negative effects of this experience [lowered grades,
promiscuity, various aspects of rape trauma syndrome etc.].  She refused to 
report it to the authorities, though she did obtain some help from 
various college offices and the health service.  Her reason for
failing to report it?  She thought herself to be partly responsible (this
is common and a fallacy) and thought (I think very naively) that he
would be unduly punished if she reported him and successfully
prosecuted.

Well I tried to explain to the friend that

a) that was probably not rape but sexual battery (3rd degree felony
maximum punishment 5 years imprisonment)

b) that what he did was really bad, look what it did to her

c) that too many people thought as she did so that if she successfully
persuaded a prosecutor to bring the case to court give that the
potential offender was young and unlikely to have a record the
punishment (if he were convicted) was not likely to be too excessive
and, indeed not too much more than a slap on the wrist.

d) that no irresponsibility, however gross, justifies a felony.

I didn't even manage to convey all of this to the friend.  Gave up part
way through, thinking that it was unlikely that I would be adequately
persuasive, particularly at one remove, in the matter and that the most
likely consequence of an attempted prosecution in one of these cases was
humilitation for the victim and acquittal for the potential offender.

Anyhow given that this woman did not report her victimization even given
these facts I would be glad to have explained to me again how the death
penalty for any rapist (or, say 20years/rape, the, in my view mild
current maximum penalty in Ohio for rape not involving both force *and*
a victim under the age of 13) will increase the likely punishment of "mild"
rapists.  I remark that sentiments of the form "?mild? date rapists
don't really merit the severe punishment they would get" have also
appeared as a female sentiment on usenet in the past year (I know, I
posted to the contrary).

In this regard I remark that it is common for males to be harder on (male?)
rapists than females and that it is reasonably common for female rape victims 
to find the violent responses of males close to them to reports of their
victimization.  This is particularly true if these potential responses
might include illegal acts such as murder or aggravated assault
potentially leading to the victim being deprived of the companionship of these
responders.  Thus excessive reaction, even to vile crimes, can in this 
context be harmful.
--
Rolfe G. Petschek			Petschek@cwru.bitnet
Associate Professor of Physics		rgp@po.cwru.edu
Case Western Reserve University		(216)368-4035 
Cleveland Oh 44106-7079