This? THIS disgust beyond words!

[sparkindarkness]

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5htQjSre-hYFZBuou5srqd2HJxgVA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7556958.stm

NO this woman did NOT contribute towards her own rape - no matter if she had been sucking up an entire brewery's contents. I don't care if she was PARALYTIC in the gutter. SHE DID NOT CONTRIBUTE TO HER OWN RAPE

She was sexually assaulted. She was raped. Someone forced sex on her that she did not want. This man assaulted her - and NOTHING she did can change that. NOTHING she did, NO state she was in in any way encourages, influences or otherwise causes a man to sexually assault a woman. That's ENTIRELY in his court, his responsibility, his doing. She never asked to be raped. She never causes her rape. She never encourages her rapist to rape. She never brings rape upon herself. No matter how VULNERABLE she is to rape it is never ever her fault or her responsibility because she was targetted.

A WOMAN CAN NEVER BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HER OWN RAPE. Even implying that she can be even in part be responsible for it is utterly without merit and revoltingly inexcusable.

Comments

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That's pretty sick. Ugh.

(Though I DO personally differentiate between "I was so drunk I said yes and I didn't actually mean yes" and "raped while under the influence." And I really dislike it when somebody calls the first one rape. That's accusing a guy who thought he was having consentual sex with a crime he probably would never dream of committing.)

[snuck.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally I was chatting to my sister in law last night - she is an educator with the sexual assault referral centre.

Apparently these days they are trying to teach the kids the differences between "ready", "willing" and "able" - in explaining consent rules.

I like the way they distinguish the three parts of consent ...

[mrmeval.livejournal.com]

The last prediction I've read in science fiction has come true.

[gwailowrite.livejournal.com]

This shit infuriates me, but does not surprise me in the least. I watched a trial where a grown man was testifying about how when he was 12, he had been sexually assaulted by a 40 year old. The lawyers use the ploy with him as well but in the "Well, you didn't say no, so you really, really wanted it, didn't you."

I'm sorry, but rape cannot (and should not) ever be qualified. And the whole prosecution of the victim still goes on and on and on.

Argh!

[thisdaydreamer.livejournal.com]

That is horrifying. So, if a woman goes to a bar and has a couple of pints, she's worth less than a teetotaler? Or are they saying that no sorta, kinda means yes if the woman has had a glass of wine?

What the hell?

On the other hand, the government pays victims of crime there? Really? Here, a rape victim may get counseling and a lock change. Oh, and I don't think there is a charge for the investigation. A lot of the medical treatment would come with a charge, but insurance would pay that, if the victim has it. Or, maybe, if the guy is ever caught, she could sue for damages. She would have to remember that her personal and sexual history can be used as evidence in civil court.

Why, no, we don't have a great track record for rape being reported, and we have a worse record for rape prosecution in this country. How did you guess?

[suryaofvulcan.livejournal.com]

No-one, man or woman, is ever responsible for their own rape (just to be clear, because men are raped too, and the reporting rate for that is even lower than that for male on female rape).

However, alcohol can be a huge factor in a man believing he has consent when in fact he hasn't, or as someone said above, a woman actually giving consent and then regretting it once she (or maybe both of them) sobers up.

The reports I heard on the radio said this was a 'stranger rape' but didn't give more detail for fear of identifying the woman, so we don't know whether this was someone who attacked her in the street (as most commenters seem to have assumed) or someone she met that night in a bar, felt up in the taxi on the way home, and who perhaps believed he had consent.

Alcohol impairs good judgement - for both parties. Where sex is involved it lowers inhibitions, and that can have devastating results - for both parties. Therefore GETTING DRUNK IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA.

[ladyhelen.livejournal.com]

This makes me so fucking angry. Yes, getting that drunk is never a good idea - but nobody is *ever* responsible in any measure for their own rape. Ever.

[fasangel.livejournal.com]

She gets her drink spiked, and then is in trouble for having been drinking? That isn't a case of diminished capacity due to alcohol, that is diminished capacity due to being drugged so that she would be easier to control. But no, it is all her fault for having been in a situation with the evil of alcohol anywhere near her. Remind me, is alcohol legal where she lives? Or is it only allowed for the big brave menfolk?

Have to stop thinking about this before I start breaking furniture. I need my furniture.

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

Amen. Just ... yeah. Amen.