Revolt Against Rape

"I'm not sure I understand rape at all. I don't see how a woman can be penetrated if she doesn 't cooperate. You just can't thread a moving needle."

For decades, the majority of lawmakers and jurors have seemed to agree with that viewpoint, expressed by a Manhattan defense attorney. "The victim is really the one on trial," protested one woman after a long court battle against three men who gang-raped her.

Indeed, only 133 out of every 1,000 men tried for rape were convicted in 1972--the lowest rate for any violent crime.

Meanwhile, the incidence of reported rape is increasing at a startling rate.

In 1973 there were 51,000 rapes reported in the U.S., a 10% increase over 1972 and a staggering 60% over 1968. Some of the rise can be attributed to women's greater willingness to report the crime.

Yet many victims are still too embarrassed to do so, or hesitate to expose themselves to the ordeal of a trial. The FBI estimates that the actual number of attacks is at least double that reported.

In California, according to the state police, there is a sexual assault on a woman on the average of once every 20 minutes. Says Massachusetts Representative Jon Rotenberg, who was active in pushing through two rape-reform bills in the state legislature: "The threat of rape affects women of all ages who are afraid to go out at night, to live alone, to ride the subway or wait for a bus."

Rewriting Laws. The fact that more women are living alone, going to work at odd hours and are generally more vulnerable accounts for many attacks. Most rapes occur in the black ghettos. In the most recent national survey, the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence found in 1967 that in 17 cities, 60% of rapes were committed by black men against black women, 30% by white men against white women, 10% by black men against white women and .3% by white men against black women. These figures may be shifting, however; in Philadelphia, the Center for Rape Concern found that in 1972 the incidence of black men raping white women had risen to 16% of the total.

What to do about these attacks of violence? Spurred by police statistics and women's rights groups, some state legislatures are now rewriting their rape laws. To convict a rapist, most states require evidence to support the victim's claim: cuts, bruises or torn clothing, a medical report stating physical penetration and sometimes even an eyewitness who can identify the assailant. Believing that such rules were making it too tough to get convictions, Connecticut and New York recently repealed them.

Women's groups generally applaud the change, but in a new book, The Charge Is Rape, Journalist Gerald Astor warns that repeal of corroboration laws may not help. "The law can say what it pleases the legislators to have it say, but the jury will decide whom to believe."

Some legal experts believe that lightening the sentence for rape will help increase the conviction rate. They say that a jury is much less likely to avoid convictions if the penalty is only a few years than if there is a possible sentence of death or life imprisonment.* Yet in some states the laws have been too soft; women in Indiana have pushed through a bill prohibiting suspended sentences for convicted rapists.

A rape victim with a reputation for promiscuity has often had a difficult tune in court. Iowa and California have recently passed laws barring defense lawyers from making courtroom inquiries into a woman's past sexual conduct, and in Florida such questions must first be screened in the judge's chambers. The principle, insisted upon by the rape task force of the National Organization for Women: a victim's activities with men other than the accused are irrelevant. "Previously," explains Ralph Brown, a lawyer and member of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, "a lawyer could ask a victim how many men she had slept with in the past month, year or five years." By this questioning, he managed to discredit all of her testimony.

Many juries require that a woman prove that she put up a fight against her assailant even though police often advise women to offer no resistance, especially if the attacker is armed. Massachusetts recently passed a pioneering law saying that even if there is only a threat of bodily injury, a woman is justified in submitting to her attacker.

Many big cities are now making special efforts to deter rapists and to help their victims. The Los Angeles police department helped produce a widely distributed film, Lady Beware, that shows where rapists may lurk and teaches that women in danger should scream. In Washington, D.C., the police department has put out pamphlets for rape victims urging them to bring sex offenders to court. In New York City, St. Louis, Albuquerque and Chicago, special police rape squads brief victims on what to expect during medical examinations and how to file charges.

Feminists have had rape counseling groups for more than a year (TIME, April 23, 1973). One of the newest and biggest is Women United Against Rape (WUAR) in Indianapolis. The group, which now numbers 50,000, has urged the police department to place special female officers on rape cases. In addition, WUAR has helped persuade 25 local industries to hold 200 safety classes for women, advising them, for example, to check the back seat of their cars before getting in.

Hospitals, too, are becoming increasingly concerned. Some offer 24-hour counseling to rape victims brought to emergency rooms. Generally a woman is encouraged to talk openly about her experience. Counselors also provide follow-up psychological treatment for women who have persistent fears and nightmares. Says one girl who recently went through the experience: "Rape is a terribly, terribly brutal and degrading thing. You have to talk about it to someone afterward, and you have to keep working on yourself in order to recover."

* At least ten states, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia have death as the maximum rape penalty.

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