[CTRL] Rape Mythology

[Yardbird]

> Rape Mythology
>
> By Gavan Tredoux
>
> Rape has become a centrepiece for feminism - not just as a
> physical act, but as a metaphor for evil on a monstrous scale.
> Feminists have become all but fascinated with rape, discovering
> previously unknown epidemics of female victimization, in the
> oddest places. A fresh look reveals that feminism's lore of rape
> does not stand up to scrutiny: the facts are suspect, the theory
> is incoherent, and the practical consequences are far-reaching.
>
> Much of the published literature on rape, and it's relationship
> with feminism, is of American origin. Here fresh material from the
> South African experience adds an international flavour, and
> provides some insight into the global reach of feminist ideology.
>
> Defining Rape
>
> By the common law definition, rape is sex without consent. Rape is
> thus sexual robbery, sexual burglary being unknown, and this sort
> of definition has been employed in all major legal systems. Yet
> popular, and now legal, culture has recently taken up the cry that
> rape is a crime of violence, or a crime of power - rather than a
> crime of sex, or a crime of desire. The chief inspiration behind
> this has been modern feminism, which has applied itself
> assiduously to influencing popular and legal definitions of rape.
> This is usually stated upfront by the feminists themselves, who
> are remarkably candid about their intentions. For example,
> feminists Maconachie and van Zyl, declare that:
>
> "The contribution by feminist researchers to the field of
> criminology … have included broadening the definitions of
> what constitutes the particular crimes of rape, battering and
> child abuse, and changing about who is likely to commit these
> crimes." [Maconachie and van Zyl 1994, p. 3]
>
> Surprisingly, the revised feminist definition of rape - as a crime
> of violence - has rarely been challenged, despite its emasculation
> of the crime. If rape is simply a crime of violence, then it must
> be akin to common assault, the severity of which varies with the
> physical damage inflicted, and the intent. This has the unintended
> consequence, for feminism, of trivializing the crime - rape has
> always attracted harsher sentences than common assault. To make
> things worse, rape is not necessarily violent - although it often
> is in practice, particularly in traditional scenarios where the
> victim resists the sexual robber. There are cases in which no
> violence is employed, and no physical damage inflicted, yet rape
> has still occurred, and attracts a severe legal penalty - suppose,
> for instance, a hospital orderly has intercourse with a comatose
> patient. It must be the sexual act itself, without consent, that
> constitutes the crime of rape. While this definition presupposes
> force, coercion or intimidation of some sort, it does not require
> violence.
>
> The intent behind the revised definition is to divorce rape from
> sexual desire, so that sexual arousal cannot serve as a defense or
> explanation of rape. It is hard to find examples of "rape caused
> by desire" seriously used as a defense, let alone accepted - after
> all, theft is invariably caused by desire, but this is no defense,
> since a causal explanation is not in itself a moral defense.
> Leaving this aside, there is strong evidence that desire does play
> an important role in rape, a point that will be dealt with later.
>
> Rape might appear to be an exhausted market, since it is well
> covered by common and statutory law. Nevertheless, feminists have
> taken up rape with undisguised zeal, forging new markets in
> unpromising conditions, so much so that they appear to have
> swelled rape numbers, not by discovering previously undiscovered
> rape, but by altering the scope of the term.
>
> One of feminism's early successes was the campaign for recognition
> of marital rape, which succeeded in many countries, including the
> United States, the United Kingdom and South Africa. Yet marital
> rape is a peculiar idea, particularly since the institution of
> marriage had endured several thousand years before the law
> suddenly discovered, in the late 20th century, that it harboured
> rape. Naturally, marital partners have an established consensual
> sexual history, and it is hard to imagine how invariably jaded
> spouses can be persuaded to copulate with any degree of passion,
> let alone rape each other. Still, many feminists believe that
> marital rape is rampant [Russell 1994], despite empirical evidence
> that it is actually extremely rare. Irene Frieze notes that:
>
> "Studies of rape victims typically find that few of the rape cases
> involve marital rape. Similarly, in a study of women at a family
> planning center, David Finkelhor and Kersti Yllo found that 0.5
> percent of the married women had been forced to have sexual
> relations with their husbands or some other regular sexual
> partner, and nearly 10 percent of the separated and divorced women
> reported such experiences."
> [Frieze 1983, p534]
>
> Perhaps plausible cases can be found where marriages have
> disintegrated into separation, and rape has been used as an act of
> vengeance, but that is not a requirement in any of the revised
> legal systems, and would in any case tend to be extra-marital
> rape. The principal difficulty, however, lies in the burden of
> proof, since it must be well-nigh impossible to establish marital
> rape on grounds beyond the word of the would-be victim, outside of
> imaginary scenarios in which independent evidence exists. What is
> more, rape allegations can serve as a potent weapon in divorce and
> custody cases, and marital rape innovations appear to have removed
> many of the safeguards against false conviction.
>
> Once the marital rape market had been exhausted, the imagination
> turned to "date rape", which exploded in the public consciousness
> with a shower of shocking statistics in the early 1980s.
> University campuses were caught up in frenzied soul-searching and
> hand-wringing, having suddenly discovered that "one in four" women
> at college are date-raped; it became "common knowledge" that date
> rape vastly overshadows traditional rape. Yet rape is by all
> level-headed accounts extremely rare on American college campuses,
> and as we shall see, the one-in-four figure is mythical, despite
> its popular currency.
>
> Date rape is conceivable, though (like marital rape) difficult to
> prove, since a date is by its very nature some kind of sexual
> encounter, voluntarily entered into. Consent becomes harder to
> disprove, and the nature of sexual experience that does result
> from the encounter can be subject to reinterpretation, after the
> event. Regret can translate into retrospective rape, and become an
> easy cover for sexual mistakes. Responsibility for the outcome of
> dates is hard to apportion, since miscues and the influence of
> alcohol intermingle with anxious youth, and sexual politics. The
> thrust of the feminist argument has been to apportion blame to the
> male component, arguing for instance that sex under the influence
> of alcohol constitutes rape, even if consent is present, and this
> has become law in several American states.
>
> In more radical quarters, rape has become nearly universal, as
> "yes" becomes "no" and normal sex in the patriarchal society
> becomes impossible, as in the world policed by Catherine McKinnon
> and Andrea Dworkin. Consider the following claim, made by a South
> African feminist:
>
> "…truly consensual sexual activity requires independent,
> equal parties and a context in which neither can coerce the other.
> Given the economic dependence of many women on men … and
> men's stronger social, organization [sic] and physical power, the
> sexes rarely meet on a footing of complete equality."
> [Hall 1987, p24 cited by Reddi 1994, p171]
>
> The nonsensically of these ideas is matched only by their
> influence, as McKinnon's long shadow stretches over the American
> media and the law schools. Though this has yet to bear practical
> legal fruit, the line of attack does serve to radicalize the
> debate, making other rape innovations seem level-headed by
> comparison.
>
> Legal Reform
>
> The creation of new rape categories has not exhausted the
> innovative capacity of feminism; the movement has devoted
> considerable energy to the reform of established legal and
> administrative procedures for dealing with general rape.
>
> Most far-reaching has been the relaxation of the rules of evidence
> surrounding rape cases. Common law has long recognized, in many
> countries, that evidence in rape cases ought to be treated with
> particular care. False allegations of rape have long been
> recognized as a significant problem, a point that will be returned
> to later, and the law has treated rape testimony with particular
> caution as a result. Lord Hale's famous dictum instructed English
> juries that:
>
> Rape is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved and
> harder to be defended by the party accused, tho' never so
> innocent.
>
> Those who find this caution admirable will discover to their
> chagrin that, according to leading feminist Marilyn French:
>
> "Sir Matthew Hale (1609-1676) a famous British jurist, is quoted
> by every legal writer on rape. Only as a result of feminist
> efforts did judges in California stop routinely reading his
> instruction to juries before they deliberate."
> [French 1992, pp195-6]
>
> Rules of evidence in rape cases have now been relaxed in many
> countries, after sustained pressure by the feminist lobby.
> Evidence about the past sexual history of the complainant is now
> often inadmissible in normal circumstances, and the identity of
> the complainant is protected under "rape shield" measures, though
> not that of the accused. Note that no such protection is given in
> other serious crimes, where minors are not involved.
>
> There are now international moves to shift the burden of
> proof-of-consent, to the accused - rather than require proof of
> lack of consent from the accuser. Given the high levels of
> consensual sexual activity in modern society, this places every
> male copulator under unusual duress, since independent
> corroboration is usually absent, leaving only the testimony of the
> copulators. Indeed, there have been cases under American law where
> convictions have been obtained by the word of the accused alone
> [Farrell 1993, pp. 231-2].
>
> Another strategy has been to remove the requirement that rape
> include intercourse, and hence vaginal penetration, broadening the
> scope to cover any unwilling sexual activity, but this has met
> with less legal success. The effect of broadening the term in this
> manner is simply to introduce varieties of rape, to recapture the
> distinctions that the old definition captured, for forcible
> vaginal penetration is plainly a different sort of activity to
> kissing or staring with intent, with different legal consequences.
>
> Finally, it is noteworthy that feminism, usually liberal about
> social matters, often advocates draconian punishment of sexual
> criminals, in particular rapists. Castration, the death penalty,
> interminable prison sentences, and ostracism are favoured
> punishments, while we have already seen the tendency to favour the
> accuser, hence the state, contrary to the liberal inclination to
> favour the accused over the state. In this jurisprudence, rape is
> the most serious crime of all, contrary to established
> international legal practice and social custom, which reserves
> special attention for murder and other crimes.
>
> Explaining Rape
>
> Much feminist effort has been expended on explaining why rape
> exists, in addition to discovering more of it. This has produced
> an influential feminist sociology-cum-etiology of rape. In
> constructing this etiology, the feminists are candid about their
> ideological predispositions, considering them an essential asset
> rather than a potential source of bias. Ironically, they point to
> "patriarchal" constructions everywhere, but their own work
> suggests organized ideological influence more strongly than the
> objects they attack - which demonstrate the accretions of
> tradition more readily than conspiratorial politics. Thus Vogelman
> proudly proclaims, referring to his "study" of South African
> rapists:
>
> " … feminism, and more specifically (on occasion) socialist
> feminism, has been used to help build a framework of analysis.
> While socialist feminism is a political position, it also provides
> valuable insights into the functioning of society and the
> individuals who inhabit it. Briefly, socialist feminism stresses
> the interconnection between economic structures and women's
> oppression and the political nature of sexuality."
> [Vogelman 1990, p7]
>
> On the feminist account, men rape. Not certain people who happen
> to be men, but rather men as a sex. Rape is not a consequence of
> individual pathology, but rather a consequence of male social and
> political domination. At the extremes, all men are rapists - a la
> Marilyn French [French 1992, p. 189], who claims rape is part of a
> deliberate and vicious war waged against women by men - but in
> more moderate circles rape is a method of social control by
> patriarchal (but not feminist) men. For example, Vogelman claims
> that:
>
> "Rape limits the life opportunities of women. In this way, it
> serves as a control mechanism, schooling women to confine their
> actions and attitudes to within the parameters of acceptable
> gender role behaviour."
> [Vogelman 1990, p23]
>
> Rape-as-male-power is not an idea confined to shrill
> advocacy-scholarship, it has now taken up residence in the
> corridors of power. South African Human Rights Commissioner R.
> Kadalie claims that
>
> "… rape as a crime of sex and violence constitutes political
> terrorism against women in order to keep them in a perpetual state
> of fear"
> [Kadalie 1997]
>
> The same message is propagated in the popular media. Here is a not
> unusual example, from the South African daily The Cape Argus
>
> "Bronwyn Pithey, legal adviser of Rape Crisis … explained
> that rape was used as a weapon of war during the apartheid era. It
> was used in the townships and in detention camps as an extremely
> effective way of controlling and dominating women. Rape was about
> power, not sex … ."
> [Botha 1997]
>
> It is not clear how male-sanctioned rape can be reconciled with
> the universal legal prohibition of rape, and the particularly
> severe penalties associated with it. In South Africa, for example,
> rape used to carry the death penalty, and in the Middle East all
> sexual offences are dealt with severely [Herrnstein and Wilson,
> 1985]. Vogelman argues that (what he describes as) the patriarchy
> proscribes rape only to protect the property of men; that is,
> their wives [Vogelman 1990]. This leaves proscription of the rape
> of single women unexplained, not to mention minors, but in any
> event Vogelman has not explained why men would let their property
> be raped by others for the sake of social control, unless they do
> so out of a sense of patriarchal altruism.
>
> Pursuing this quarry further, while remaining in good humour, we
> may ask how rape achieves "social control?" After all, it is not
> obvious that women who are raped are out of control, or that the
> means achieve the stated end. Sometimes it is convenient to refer
> to "society" as if it is an entity, but serious claims about
> social phenomena require a causal explanation and identifiable
> beneficiaries. Here, a cabal of patriarchs is required, together
> with a link between rape of women and some gain on their part,
> with an effective chain of command to the rapists. Otherwise we
> have unexplained patriarchal altruism through rape (and consequent
> self-sacrifice to the law of property) on a grand scale. One might
> also ask why the patriarchy did not choose more direct and
> effective methods of punishing the out-of-control - say by public
> flogging or imprisonment?
>
> At the very least, one would expect some kind of link between the
> particular behaviour of women and their chance of being raped, so
> that out of control women tend to get raped - otherwise rape would
> not act as a corrective measure. Now, much energy has been
> expended by feminists in arguing that we should not link rape to
> the individual behaviour of the victim, for instance provocative
> dressing, but here we require precisely this. Nevertheless,
> Vogelman claims to have found evidence of this in interviews he
> conducted with convicted rapists, some of whom explained their
> rapes in terms of "I taught her a lesson" scenarios [Vogelman
> 1990]. It is enough to point out here that (leaving aside
> Vogelman's non-random sample, size 20 odd) a predisposition to
> interpret data according to the received wisdom of socialist
> feminism could blind the interviewer to rationalization that might
> otherwise be obvious.
>
> Turning from feminist theory to empirical fact, it is striking how
> predictably reported rapes are distributed throughout the
> population. Warren Farrell reports that US Justice Department
> statistics show that rape correlates strongly with the age of
> sexual attractiveness:
>
> "When a woman is between the ages of 16 and 19, her chances of
> being raped are 84 in 20,000, when she is between 50 and 64 her
> chances are less than one in 20,000."
> [Farrell 1993, p. 225]
>
> If control were the object, one would expect businesswomen and
> feminists to dominate the distribution, rather than teenagers. Of
> course, this also sheds light on a previous point - the definition
> of rape as a crime of violence. Sexuality must play a very strong
> role in rape attacks. Things get even more interesting when the
> racial distribution of rape is considered, since this would seem
> to have nothing to do with patriarchal power or social control -
> by men at least.
>
> In the United States, rape is strongly associated with race, with
> victims and offenders being disproportionately, even
> overwhelmingly, black. Farrell reports that Department of Justice
> statistics show that the black rapists proportionately outnumber
> white rapists three to one [Farrell 1993, p. 225]. South African
> data show similar trends, with almost all rape being intra-racial,
> and overwhelmingly black on black.
>
> Racial profile of reported rapes in South Africa
> Source: SAIRR Race Relations Surveys 1977-9
> Year White on
> White White on
> Black Black on
> White Black on
> Black
> July 1 1976 - June 30 1977 371 189 151 14242
> July 1 1977 - June 30 1978 396 189 198 14219
> July 1 1978 - June 30, 1979 423 249 199 14245
>
> Demographically, rape does not follow the patterns one would
> expect if it was a mechanism for patriarchal control of women, but
> there are far more serious problems with the feminist account of
> rape than this implausible etiology alone.
>
> Data Rape
>
> As feminists expanded their markets, they generated a wealth of
> alarming rape statistics. These "factoids" have been transplanted
> globally, where they form part of new, even bigger scares. The
> South African case is especially sobering.
>
> Christina Hoff Sommers has written extensively on the use of
> dubious rape (and "abuse") statistics by American feminists,
> uncovering a chain of incestuous cross-citation that leads
> inexorably to misinterpreted, or plainly false, primary data
> [Sommers 1994]. One seminal study by Mary Koss, which is now
> universally cited, even by the mainstream media and "experts,"
> found that rape is rampant in the United States, even though
> official figures are low. The following worldwide comparison is
> presented by Sommers [Sommers 1994, citing Japanese Institute for
> Social and Economic Affairs]:
>
> Forcible Rape (Rates of rape per 100,000 inhabitants, 1992)
> United States 38.1
> UK (England and Wales only) 12.1
> (West) Germany 8.0
> France 7.8
> Japan 1.3
>
> Low official figures have given rise to speculation that
> underreporting of rape is very high, so that rape is a far more
> serious problem than it might appear. One way of getting at the
> "dark figure" of underreported crime is by conducting a
> victimization survey, where a controlled sample of people are
> asked whether they have been victims of crime, with these figures
> then being compared to official police figures to gauge the
> underreporting ratio. Naturally, this can be a methodological
> minefield, and careful control over sample selection, question
> formulation and interpretation is critical.
>
> Mary Koss surveyed several thousand women, and as Sommers
> describes it:
>
> "… a total of 27.5 percent of the respondents were determined
> to have been victims of rape or attempted rape because they gave
> answers that fit Koss' criteria for rape (penetration by penis,
> finger, or other object under coercive influence such as physical
> force, alcohol, or threats). However, that is not how the
> so-called rape victims saw it. Only about a quarter of the women
> Koss calls rape victims labeled what happened to them as rape."
> [Sommers 1994, ch 10]
>
> Sommers discovered that Koss had used an extremely vague and
> ambiguous definition of rape, hence the conflict between the
> self-perception of victims and the research findings - some 40% of
> these "victims" had further intercourse with their "rapists" at
> later dates. Yet Koss' research gave rise to the "one-in-four
> raped" figure, which as Sommers documents, has spread throughout
> the feminist world and beyond, literally becoming a chant at
> feminist rallies; other studies claimed figures of one in eight,
> but also wilted under close scrutiny. Where controlled
> victimization studies have been done, the figures they have
> produced are quite low, for example estimated underreporting rates
> of one in two [Hood and Sparks 1970, pp. 23-32]. According to
> Sommers, Margaret Gordon conducted a study in 1981 that produced a
> low rape to population estimate of one in fifty, and later
> commented:
>
> "There was some pressure-at least I felt pressure-to have rape be
> as prevalent as possible . . .. I'm a pretty strong feminist, but
> one of the things I was fighting was that the really avid
> feminists were trying to get me to say that things were worse than
> they really are."
> [Sommers 1994, ch 10]
>
> Another problem faced by would-be criminologists is over-reporting
> of rape, which makes simple extrapolation from reported figures to
> real figures, using an under-reporting ratio, hazardous. False
> allegations of rape are particularly hard to quantify - though
> feminists have often claimed that they are scarce (e.g.
> [Brownmiller 1975, p. 435]; [Sutherland, 1994, p. 41]). Known
> cases of false reports are plentiful [Farrell 1993, pp. 235-241].
> One bizarre and sordid case, reported by Heterodoxy magazine,
> played out in a Nordstrom department store in 1993, and bears
> retelling:
>
> '… a 49 year old woman … emerged naked above the waist
> from a dressing room at a Nordstrom department store, and began
> screaming that she had just been sexually assaulted by a man who
> put a hunting knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if
> she didn't cooperate. The woman said that the man removed her gold
> wedding band, Seiko watch and gold chain, and took $133 from her
> purse. Then, using pieces of duct tape, he bound her hands,
> sexually molested her with a tire iron and forced her to perform
> oral copulation. Police spent the next 12 days investigating the
> highly publicized rape after putting together a composite portrait
> of the alleged rapist that Union-Tribune writer Sharon Jones says
> "resembled President Bill Clinton." Then, as Southern California
> feminists were charging that no institution in society was free of
> rape, the supposed victim failed a lie detector test. DNA tests of
> stains on the sweater she was wearing--she claimed that she had
> spit out the rapist's ejaculate-showed the semen to be her
> husband's. Confronted by San Diego police investigators with this
> fact, the woman said that she always carried her husband's semen
> in her purse because it was useful as a facial cream to prevent
> wrinkles and was indeed carrying a vial of it on the night of the
> attack and that the rapist found it and spilled it onto her
> sweater … After further interrogation, the "victim" admitted
> that she had staged the entire event, including molesting herself
> with the tire iron and using some of her husband's semen to
> substantiate the hoax. … Sherry Arndt, identified by the
> Union Tribune as "coordinator of California's foremost sexual
> assault response program" … said: "That woman is a victim of
> something. She's crying out. She probably was molested as a
> child." ' [Horowitz and Collier 1994, p. 239]
>
> Children have been reported to lie about rape too. Consider the
> following newspaper report from South Africa:
>
> 'The nine-year-old Fontainbleau girl who alleged she had been
> raped near a golf course in Randburg at the weekend had lied about
> the incident, police said. It was reported that the girl was raped
> at the golf course in Randpark Ridge by a teenager while two
> accomplices, a boy and girl, held her down." After a thorough
> investigation, the girl admitted lying," a police spokesman said.
> "It can now be revealed that she was seen on Saturday afternoon at
> a shebeen near the golf course." He said it was believed that she
> had consumed alcohol.'
> [Cape Times 28/11/96]
>
> Similarly, an off-duty policewoman in France, "Sandrine X" claimed
> to have been gang-raped by black teenagers in a subway train
> carriage, but it later transpired that she had a history of false
> rape allegations, suffered from mental instability, and has
> probably invented the story. [Star 2/4/97].
>
> Aside from these and many other incidents, some solid research has
> been conducted by Purdue sociologist Eugene Kanin [Kanin 1994],
> and by the US Air Force [McDowell 1985], and both turn up very
> sizable false-reporting rates, 41% and 27% respectively. Kanin
> summarizes his ground-breaking research as follows:
>
> "With the cooperation of the police agency of a small metropolitan
> community, 45 consecutive, disposed, false rape allegations
> covering a 9 year period were studied. These false rape
> allegations constitute 41% the total forcible rape cases (n= 109)
> reported during this period. These false allegations appear to
> serve three major functions for the complainants: providing an
> alibi, seeking revenge, and obtaining sympathy and attention.
> False rape allegations are not the consequence of a gender-linked
> aberration, as frequently claimed, but reflect impulsive and
> desperate efforts to cope with personal and social stress
> situations." [Kanin 1994, p. 81]
>
> It is notable that, prior to this research, Kanin had complained
> to Time magazine that feminist-style rape research is "highly
> convoluted activism rather than social science" ([Time May 4,
> 1992, p. 15], cited in [Sommers 1994, ch 10]). Kanin and
> McDowell's findings, and the incidents listed above, indicate that
> over-reporting of rape may be substantial, and that
> under-reporting estimates would have to be adjusted to reflect
> this. There is, in short, no evidence for a rape epidemic in the
> United States at least, nor in the other Western industrialized
> nations - which have much lower reported rape rates, as listed
> above.
>
> In South Africa, there has been a similar spate of rape scares,
> with gargantuan under-reporting rates widely bandied around - not
> only by feminists, but also by the popular media and even official
> government bodies. It is often claimed that South Africa has the
> highest rape rate in the world. and that the rate is rising
> sharply. The following table of "crimes against the person"
> statistics places reported rape in South Africa in context:
>
> Crimes to the person in South Africa: 1974-95
> Source: SAIRR Fast Facts October 1996, SAIRR Annual Surveys
> 1975-96 Year Assault Murder Rape Robbery Total Population
> (rounded and questionable)
> 1974/75 138 586 8 662 14 815 37 896 25 471 000
> 1975/76 135 705 6 000 15 394 38 981 26 129 000
> 1976/77 135 397 7 560 15 109 44 141 26 946 000
> 1977/78 127 735 5 959 15 175 43 884 27 651 000
> 1978/79 127 659 6 913 15 263 42 686 -
> 1979/80 134 682 8 356 16 149 45 442 30 647 000
> 1980/81 123 310 7 434 15 318 39 816 -
> 1981/82 119 898 8 084 15 535 38 626 -
> 1982/83 121 716 8 573 15 342 38 229 31 112 000
> 1983/84 125 002 9 462 15 785 37 755 32 643 000
> 1984/85 123 100 8 959 16 085 39 302 33 622 000
> 1986 109 755 9 913 15 816 48 533 34 221 000
> 1987 120 779 9 800 18 145 46 288 35 207 000
> 1988 125 571 10 631 19 368 45 847 35 978 000
> 1989 128 887 11 750 20 458 50 636 36 631 000
> 1990 124 030 15 109 20 321 61 132 37 533 000
> 1991 129 626 14 693 22 761 68 936 38 445 000
> 1992 136 322 16 067 24 360 78 644 39 381 000
> 1993 144 504 19 583 27 037 87 102 40 716 000
> 1994 157 315 18 312 32 107 95 763 41 856 000
> 1995 171 656 18 983 36 888 102 809 43 028 000
>
> Graph of crime
>
> The above table and graph make it clear that, while rape figures
> have grown, so have overall crime figures, not to mention the
> population - though all crime has still risen in real terms. What
> is more, the figures are high but within bounds, and certainly not
> suggestive of a sudden epidemic. Note that the inclusion of former
> "homelands" in recent statistics has swelled numbers and
> complicated comparison with previous figures. Nevertheless, it has
> been widely reported that the real rape figures are astronomical -
> they just aren't being reported to the police.
>
> The South African government made the following submission to the
> 1995 Beijing Conference on Women, claiming that nearly a million
> women are raped in South Africa each year, a statistic that has
> been repeated often in the media as established fact:
>
> "It is generally accepted that violence against women occurs
> across all socio-economic and racial groups, and it is both
> widespread and on the increase in South Africa. The police
> estimate that only 2.8% of rapes are reported. Based on this
> figure, the total number of rapes in 1993 would be approximately
> 966 000." [Govender 1995, p. 44]
>
> There are actually several under-reporting rates doing the rounds
> in the South African press, with "1 in 20" and "1 in 35" the most
> popular. The following table summarizes a collection of reports:
>
> Purported rape under-reporting ratios in South Africa
> 1:20 1:35 1:36 1:20 - 1:30
> Agenda 16, 1993 Business Day 15/01/97
> Cites police Mail & Guardian 26/02/97
> Cites police Argus 20/2/97
> No citation
> Agenda 20, 1994
> Cites "Women's National Coalition" Cape Times, 20/01/97
> MASA/Rape Crisis approx. 1980
> Cites NICRO SA Govt. Beijing Report
> Cites police (2.8%)
> Vogelman 1990
> Cites The Star 5/01/83 and MASA above Financial Mail 31/01/97
> No citation
> The Sunday Star, 15/01/1989
> Cites NICRO Human Rights Commission
> Argus 7/3/1997 op ed.
> Cites "Human Rights Watch"
> Cape Times, 16/01/97
> Cites NICRO Steenkamp, 1996
> Cites Rape Crisis
> The Citizen, 12/05/93
>
> Obviously, it is possible to pick any one of a number of figures,
> and the same publications are not consistent in this regard,
> indicating poor journalism rather than a difference of opinion.
> The National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of
> Offenders (NICRO) is often cited as a source, but staff at NICRO
> are mystified by these attributions, and cannot sustantiate the
> citations [Munting 1997]. Other reports cite police figures, but
> the South African police only have data on reported rapes, not
> conjectured under-reporting rates. It is likely, and some have
> suggested ([O'Malley 1994], [Munting 1997]), that the source of
> some of these figures is the volunteer organization Rape Crisis,
> who based the figures on surveys of their clientele, but this has
> not been possible to confirm - though it is obvious that sampling
> the population in this manner is methodologically unsound.
>
> It is important to note that the two primary sources often cited
> in support of these figures are steeped in feminist ideology. Rape
> Crisis was founded by feminist activists in 1977, returning
> delegates from the "International Tribunal of Crimes Against
> Women" held in 1976 in Belgium [Maconachie and van Zyl 1994, p.
> 2], and continues to be run by them. NICRO had more neutral roots,
> but has lately become dominated by avowedly feminist
> "researchers". For example, the authors of a widely-cited recent
> NICRO publication openly proclaim:
>
> "Our interest in the issue of personal safety for women arises
> from an involvement in the feminist movement …"
> [Maconachie and van Zyl 1994, p. 2]
>
> The authors then proceed to a detailed discussion of feminist
> positions on knowledge, science and violence against women.
> Naturally this doesn't in itself invalidate their arguments, but
> it does call for careful examination and appropriate caution when
> using and citing their research, since the authors have declared a
> political agenda from the outset.
>
> Rape Crisis had been cited by Malinda Steenkamp in the South
> African Medical Research Council's publication Trauma Review as
> the origin of the 1:35 underreporting ratio [Steenkamp 1996].
> After the methodological basis of this figure was queried by the
> current author, the following reply was received, after some
> verification:
>
> "I have contacted Rape Crisis and the SAPS [South African Police
> Services]. Neither of them have any methodology on which they base
> the 1:35 figure."
> [Steenkamp 1997]
>
> Sometimes the media blithely presents contrary evidence in the
> same report, without comment. Consider the following:
>
> "Rape Crisis reports that during 1995, only 59% of women who were
> raped reported the matter to the police and 53% knew their
> assailants. It is often said that only one out of 35 rapes is
> reported to the police, although this figure is not verifiable."
> [Cape Times, 20/01/1997]
>
> If 59% are reporting rapes in the Rape Crisis case, what does this
> tell us about the 1:35 figure? The reporter ignores or simply
> misses this anomaly, but all the above figures are insupportable,
> not to mention unlikely - they would place South Africa several
> orders of magnitude beyond under-reporting ratios internationally.
> Extrapolation from reported rape figures using estimated
> under-reporting ratios not only runs the danger of ignoring
> over-reporting, as explained above, but also faces the problem in
> the South African case posed by the inclusion of reported
> attempted rapes in police figures - none of the sources listed
> here takes any notice of this.
>
> Contrary evidence from controlled victimization surveys is readily
> available, but not part of the public (or government) imagination.
> The gap between the popular (feminist) account of rape and sober
> research is striking. Under-reporting for the more general crime
> of sexual assault was recently placed by University of South
> Africa criminologist Prof. Beatty Naude at 27%, i.e. between 1:3
> and 1:4 [Cooper et al 1994, p. 296], after a survey of some 1000
> people in Johannesburg. A standard South African sociology
> textbook cites a victimization survey, conducted by University of
> South Africa criminologists Strijdom and Schurink in the mid 1970s
> in Soweto, which yielded under-reporting of 1:2 [Lever 1978, p.
> 239]. Another standard text reports the following about Human
> Sciences Research Council (HSRC) research:
>
> "Victimization surveys conducted by the HSRC reveal … that
> only 27% of certain serious offences were reported to the police
> by victims in Soweto … and that about 40% of victimization
> cases in the Coloured community of Eersterust were reported …
> Only about half of the rape cases in these studies reported the
> crime." [Marais 1988, p112]
>
> Hence less passionate research yields ratios within the range of
> international variation, yet the notion that South Africa is
> currently overrun by a rape epidemic (inspired by power-crazed
> patriarchs) has permeated the media and has even become official
> government position. Leaving aside rape itself, this is a
> disturbing example of public misinformation on a large scale -
> what would a thorough pursuit of the other "facts", commonly taken
> for granted in the media, reveal?
>
> If the stated objective of recent feminists has been to revise the
> law, and the public perception of rape, their use of exaggerated,
> fantastical data to bolster their case is damaging, raising
> questions about the honesty of their enterprise and the
> credibility of the voluminous theory they have been generating.
> They have been highly influential, from esoteric activist circles,
> through the public imagination, to the level of government itself;
> not just in the United States, but globally; their misinformation
> is widespread and damaging, tending to promote a climate of
> unfounded hysteria and a consequent relaxation of the strict and
> prudent legal measures most societies have evolved to deal with
> the intractable problems posed by rape.
>
> Rape Realism
>
> There have been several critical accounts of the data and
> methodology of modern feminism, but few have struck right at the
> heart of the matter: the link between rape, sex and sexual
> behaviour. The link between sexual attractiveness and rape has
> been dealt with above, and if sex is after all linked to rape, it
> is worth asking whether the current fascination with date rape has
> dealt honestly enough with the sexuality inherent in dating
> encounters, for instance - or even in marital relations.
>
> Due to the strict taboos surrounding rape, there has been little
> public discussion of the sexual dimension of date-rape. Warren
> Farrell [Farrell 1993] and Camille Paglia [Paglia 1992] have been
> most outspoken and daring here: Farrell points to the danger of
> sexual miscuing, for both parties, in a dating encounter, while
> Paglia provoked a storm of protest over her sexually-liberated
> discussion of the risks she believes are inherent in dating
> liaisons. Paglia's jibe that modern feminists hark back to the
> cloistered pre-sixties, combined with a lack of responsibility on
> the part of women for their sexual adventures, hit a feminist
> nerve.
>
> There is a chasm between traditional rape scenarios - in which
> unsuspecting victims are dragged into an alleyway at knife-point
> and sexually violated - and the scenarios which modern feminism
> has thrust to the fore - in which dating or marital partners
> progress to copulation. Shifting the burden of proof onto
> defendants, and relaxing legal safeguards, invites disaster in
> gray areas like these. Above all, confusing the public with a
> barrage of false statistics and bogus research does not further
> understanding or the ends of justice.
>
> Bibliography
>
> Agenda 1994 vol 20,
> Agenda 1993 vol 16,
> Ackerman, Manie (ed.) 1980 Rape: the Whole Story (Medical
> Association of South Africa, approximate date given)
> Botha, Andrea 1997 "The struggle goes on for SA's women" (Argus,
> Cape Town, 20/02/97)
> Brownmiller, Susan 1975 Against Our Will (Simon and Schuster)
> Cape Times 28/11/96 "Abused girl lied about rape - police"
> (Independent Newspapers, Cape Town)
> Cape Times 20/01/97 "Interpol finds shameful SA world record"
> (Independent Newspapers, Cape Town,)
> Cooper, Carole et al (eds.) 1975-96 South African Institute of
> Race Relations Annual Surveys 1975-96 (SAIRR, Johannesburg)
> Curzon, Carrie 1989 "Over 800 Raped Every Day" The Sunday Star
> 15/01/89
> Esser, Carolyn 1997 "SA Tops list of 'reported' rapes" Business
> Day 15/01/97
> Farrell, Warren 1993 The Myth of Male Power (Simon and Schuster)
> Financial Mail 31/01/97 "Justice system failure" (Times Media,
> Johannesburg)
> French, Marilyn 1992 The War Against Women (Penguin)
> Govender, Pregs ed. 1995 Beijing Conference Report: 1994 Country
> Report on the Status of South African Women (SA Govt. Printers)
> Herrnstein, RJ and
> Wilson, JQ 1985 Crime and Human Nature (Simon and Schuster)
> Frieze, Irene Hanson 1983 "Investigating the causes and
> consequences of marital rape" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture
> and Society 1983, vol 8, no. 3, pp. 532-553.
> Hall, Colleen 1987 Rape: the Politics of Definition Master of Laws
> Dissertation, University of Cape Town
> Sommers, Christina Hoff 1994 Who Stole Feminism (Simon and
> Schuster) Hood, Roger and
> Sparks, Richard 1970 Key Issues in Criminology (Weidenfeld &
> Nicolson) Horowitz, David and
> Collier, Peter 1994 The Heterodoxy Handbook (Regnery)
> Jagwanth, Saras; Schwikkard, Pamela-Jane and
> Grant, Brenda (eds.) 1994 Women and the Law (Human Sciences
> Research Council, Pretoria)
> Kadalie, Rhoda 1997 "Men must take a stand" (Cape Times, 11/03/97)
> Kanin, Eugene J. 1994 "False Rape Allegations" Archives of Sexual
> Behaviour. Vol 23, No. 1, 1994, pp. 81-90.
> Lever, Henry 1978 South African Society (Jonathan Ball,
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> van Zyl, Mikki 1994 Promoting Personal Safety for Women (Human
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> McDowell, Charles P 1985 "False Allegations." Forensic Science
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> 11, No. 4 (December 1985), p. 64.
> Morris, Allan 1997 "SA tops the rapist charts" Mail and Guardian,
> 26/02/1997
> Munting, Lukas 1997 Telephonic interview by the author, NICRO,
> March 1997
> Nations, Hugh 1994 "Some Facts About Rape and False Accusation of
> Rape" Transitions: Journal of Men's Perspectives
> (November/December 1994)
> O'Malley, Kierin 1994 The Screwing of the Sexual: South African
> Feminism (Unpublished manuscript)
> Paglia, Camille 1992 Sex, Art and American Culture (Penguin)
> Reddi, Managay 1994 "A feminist perspective of the substantive law
> of rape" in Jagwanth et al,
> Russell, Diana 1994 "Wife rape and battery as torture" in Jagwanth
> et al
> Roiphe, Katie 1992 The Morning After: Sex, Fear and Feminism
> (Hamish Hamilton)
> Singh, Priscilla 1997 "Special courts to deal with rape cases
> mooted" The Star 20/01/97
> South African Institute of Race Relations 1996 "The Crime Scourge"
> Fast Facts, October 1996 (SAIRR, Johannesburg)
> Star 2/4/1997 "Policewoman's tale of gang rape was not all it
> seemed" (Independent Newspapers, Johannesburg)
> Steenkamp, Malinda 1996 "Rape in South Africa" Trauma Review
> August 1996 (Medical Research Council, South Africa)
> Steenkamp, Malinda 1997 Personal email communication with the
> author, Tue, 22 Apr 1997 14:39:43 GMT-0200
> Sutherland, Carla 1994 "Prevention is better than cure: some
> comments on the law and sexual harassment in South Africa" in
> [Jagwanth, Schwikkard and Grant], pp. 36-54.
> Vogelman, Lloyd 1990 The Sexual Face of Violence: Rapists on Rape
> (Ravan Johannesburg)
> _________________________________________________________________