Recently there has been a lot of discussion about sexual harassment and sexual assault. In fact, according to USA Today, more than 100 men have been publicly accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault since the allegations against film director Harvey Weinstein arose on October 5th, 2017. The numerous allegations made have launched a discussion into what exactly constitutes sexual harassment/assault. The definitions of SH/SA have expanded in recent years, an idea known as concept creep. Introduced by psychologist Nick Haslam, concept creep occurs when a concept, such as assault, bullying, trauma; etc., broadens its definition by including new factors. Concept creep can occur two ways: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal concept …show more content…
The definition of sexual assault was recently brought into question after a story was released in which a woman, anonymously, accused actor and comedian Aziz Ansari of sexual assault. The woman, dubbed “Grace,” accused Ansari of ignoring her “non-verbal cues.” There are two big issues with this story. The first being that “non-verbal cues” is quite ambiguous and, in many states, is not a clear rejection of sexual intercourse. To be charged with sexual abuse in New York, where the incident occurred, state law requires that the victim did not “expressly or impliedly acquiesce in the actor’s conduct” meaning the accuser must either clearly state or imply they do not want to participate. Based on this definition, Ansari could, arguably, be guilty of sexual abuse in the third degree. One could also argue, however, that by not saying no Grace implied “acquiesce.” He could not, however, be guilty of rape, which requires the victim to clearly state lack of consent. This is the second issue. Grace willingly engaged in sexual activity. While many people chalk this up to a “bad date” others believe it to be sexual assault. This story is an example of vertical concept creep. The differing degrees of sexual assault make it difficult to distinguish exactly what Grace is accusing Ansari
The vast amount of research has provided several explanations to account for the behavior of the offenders and the low rate in which sexual assault cases initiate criminal proceedings through a variety of theoretical perspectives. These include the classical approaches that focus on the individual who has committed sexual assault and the positivist approaches that aim to explain the social factors that influence the prosecution rates th...
Initially, the mens rea of rape prior to the case of DPP v Morgan a defendant cannot be found liable for rape if he had the reasonable belief that consent was formed between them and the victim. Which leads to an unfairness to those victims that have been violated, and also that any person accused of rape could say they had belief in consent. Although, it was shown not to matter how unreasonable that belief may have been, in concerning the knowledge or lack of knowledge of consent. Needless to say, the current law has attempted to improve and develop upon this concept, though it may not be completely satisfactory. The 21st century initiated a new state of trying to improve the current laws and precedents on the definition of rape, the prior precedent simply not suitable for the 21st century. Various cases after Morgan , prior to the act that redrew and reformed the Mens rea of rape, came to court and illustrated how the principle of Morgan operates. In Kimber the defendant (D) was charged with sexually assaulting a mentally disordered woman. It had to be determined whether his interference was in fact an assault, even with the D’s claim of consent to his actions, though she claimed otherwise. The court came to find that the mens rea for assault is intentionally touching a Victim (V), unlawfully, i.e. without consent. However, due to the fact that the D believed the consent was there, however unreasonably, he therefore lacked the mens rea of the assault and therefore not guilty.
...(Yarrowplace 2). According to many feminists, their theory is said to focus on a expansive picture for women who live in a society which is prominently prevailed by men. Rape and sexual assault is viewed as one of the ways men in which achieve dominance over other men, women, and children, through potent actions. This evidently dismisses the concept that rape results from sexual attraction or the behavior and or fashion of the victim/survivor (Yarrowplace 2).
Victims of rape are almost always asked if they were flirting, drinking, or dressing in a manner that may have been interpreted as giving consent, despite whether they did actually give consent or not.
The three articles above that discussed sexual consent through the lens of sexual coercion, internal and external consent and benevolent sexism have demonstrated that there is a variety of forms that sexual consent is needed in order for sexual assault to be prevented from occurring. Also it demonstrated that sexual consent already being ambiguous does not help in establishing prevention of sexual assault, when the no is not clear, since it needs to be expressed both externally through verbal an nonverbal cues but also be internal consent from the person understanding that they are giving their affirmative consent. This is similar to the article about the films, where in Dr Brod’s lecture explained that not only the person giving consent needed to be aware of how they were giving but the one’s accepting it had to know how they got it. There is a need to understand that unless people start to gain knowledge about sexual consent, the situations will be misunderstood and sexual assault can
According to CBS “Ex foster kids say abuse routine in home of teens found dismembered”. The kids faced physical and sexual abuse.Jeannette Walls tells of a time when, as a child, she was sexually assaulted by a neighbor while in her bed. Her father went around town looking for the man -- "pervert hunting" -- trying to show his daughter that he cared what had happened to her.This is relevant because according to Rainn.org “Every 98 seconds a person is sexually assaulted”. It is also relevant because it's important for people to be heard.Another time, Uncle Stanley begins groping Jeannette while they are watching television. She complains to her mother, but her mother says that "sexual assault is a crime of perception" page .184. It is relevant to the world because people tend to try to tell someone and they are pushed away.It is relevant because both Jeannette and her brother both experienced sexual abuse while growing up when they were younger. Most people are afraid to speak up when things like that occurs and when they read about they tend to want to speak up like Jeannette and her brother did. Sometimes when people try to speak up they are ignored and that drives them to harm themselves. Rape is forced, unwanted sexual intercourse, and is sometimes also called sexual assault. Rape can happen to both men and
Most argue that if people can joke about cancer, dead babies and racism, rape should not be an exception. However, the concern is that rape jokes mock rape victims and normalize sexual assault. Renowned stand up comedian Daniel Tosh received backlash for jokingly saying, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by, like, five guys right now? Like right now?” The girl in this case referred to a member of the audience who had informed him that rape jokes are never funny. The public outrage that followed caused Tosh to tweet that his point on making rape jokes was that “there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them”. While what he said is most definitely true, how he framed his joke was certainly not funny, especially since it publicly humiliated a woman. Rape is never funny and joking about it validates rapists, undermining the seriousness of
In this research paper, we will evaluate how sexual assault is handled on a college campus. What system is used and how does it
The concept of sexual harassment and rape are centuries old; for years and years, both women and men have been subjects to unwanted advances on their person. If one were to take a look back into American history, then we would find countless of stories featured in the local papers and the local gossippers mouths about victims of rape. The victims were mostly slave women and domestic servants who would be raped by their masters and then end up in The Abolitionist press(Reva B. Siegel, 2003). Men have never mentioned in those reports, and for the United States, it took the government 85 years to create a definition for rape in which men can be classified as victims. From 1927 to 2012 the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program would defined rape as "the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will."(SOURCE). This was despite the fact that of all sexual assaults per year in countries such as the UK and the USA male rape victims make up 5 to 10% of all cases(SOURCE). Now in the U.S rape is defined as "The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim."(SOURCE).
For a legal perspective on the subject of sexual assault and consent I will be discussing the issue of the “grey area” of consent within our justice system. On January 6, 2012, the United States Department of Justice announced a newly revised definition of rape. The new and most recent definition is now, “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” (US Department of Justice). The key to this definition lies with the word consent. The definition also states, “the ability of the victim to give consent must be determined in accordance with individual state statutes.” (US Department of Justice, 2012). The United States Department of Justice gives the determination of the victim’s ability to give consent to individual state governments who can choose to view the definition of consent in numerous ways.
Rape can be seen anywhere in our culture. Not only in media, such as television or social networks, but in everyday conversation. The phrase, “That test raped me” gets thrown around at the drop of a hat (4a). Countless internet memes are made at the expense of women s...
Eliza G.C. Collins and Timothy B. Blodgett. "Sexual Harassment…Some See It…Some Won’t" Harvard Business Review, March 1981. Web. 6 June 2015.
Victims often find that they have to deal with a lot of harassment even after being shamed. For example, some men will come onto girls who have a reputation of being ‘sluts’ because they think the girls are going to be ‘easy’ and ‘into it”; thus, slut shaming can ruin how people, especially men, perceive and treat a women. Slut shaming can also increase rape culture by discrediting a women’s allegation of rape due to her sexual history. In so many cases where rape is reported, officers and lawyers attack the victims by questioning how they were dressed prior to being rape, how they acted, were they being ‘promiscuous’, or were they flirting with their rapist; if any of the above questions were answered “yes” they would claim the victim was “asking for it”. In the Steubenville rape case, a 16 year old girl was recorded being raped by two football players at a party. The footage was later sent to other classmates and quickly spread throughout the whole school; as a result of the “stigma surrounding sexual assault, she [the victim] was labeled as a slut and viciously tormented by her classmates,” (Nelson, 3). In cases like these, girls are slut-shamed for being victims of sexual
Assigning blame has become an increasingly difficult and complex concept to understand, especially in our legal court system. I associate blame with being held responsible for the consequences of one’s intentional actions. In regards to sexual assault cases, I think the blame should not be placed on the victims, but rather on the perpetrators. Victim blaming justifies the perpetrator’s actions, discourages sexual assault reportings, and can have psychological effects on the victim.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is a huge problem in recent history. It can happen to anyone and it can happen everywhere. It can affect all types of races, gender and age. Statistics today shows that more and more sexual harassment has become an issue due to the large number of cases presented. Mainstream media becomes consume covering sexual harassment because of the high profile cases. Sexual harassment becomes a topic on various TV shows, and on some major morning radio talk shows mostly everyday. Sexual harassment laws must be strengthened in order to fix what has become a serious problem today in the workplace.