Recent comments by Representative Todd Akin from Missouri discussing so-called ‘legitimate’ rape once again highlight the power that the myth of “real” rape has on our society. While many have worked tirelessly to end this nonsensical perspective, it is clearly alive and well. What will it take for people to acknowledge that rape is rape regardless of the victim/offender relationship, regardless of the standing of the offender in the community, and regardless of the responses by the victim to this violence? While some may argue that these discussions are merely semantic, nothing is further from the truth. Labels such as “legitimate” or “real” or “acquaintance” are used for ranking purposes to indicate that some forms of rape are less serious than others. There is no acceptable ranking of “real” rape or “legitimate” rape or “date” rape or “acquaintance” rape. There is only rape – a crime. It requires no adjective to denote the severity of it.
Terms such as “legitimate” rape allow individuals to somehow believe some rape is really rape (mythological rape), while other incidents are not really rape but rather lesser instances of regret or miscommunication or aggressive consensual sex or something equally ridiculous. These rankings and distinctions of types of rape perpetuate this nonsensical notion and prevent society from understanding that rape is rape, and rape is violence, and rape victims experience violence. Period. These false distinctions send messages to men that some behaviors are within the realm of permissibility (e.g., using drugs and alcohol to incapacitate a victim) rather than sending the message that those behaviors constitute rape. And as a result of these ill-conceived notions, rapists are allowed to roam freely in society committing additional rapes and other forms of interpersonal violence against adults and children. As research by Lisak and Miller (2002) clearly demonstrates, these “undetected rapists” commit crimes beyond rape and victimize children and adults alike.
The persistent myth of “real” rape and the tendency to rank order rape into legitimate and illegitimate, or serious and more minor crimes, is destructive and dangerous to all of society. This archaic thinking encourages victims to question whether they should report their assaults if they don’t fit the common and mythical stereotype of violent rape or sexual assault. It allows some police officers to fail to fully investigate what may appear to them as an “illegitimate” rape. It offers grand juries a way to avoid indicting a defendant even when there is corroborative evidence (see, e.g., http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/08/19/4190561/rape-unpunished-in-tarrant-county.html). It offers prosecutors a reason to decline filing charges in a case they don’t feel will be strong enough to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Finally, this destructive notion colors jurors’ ability to see rape as rape. And most importantly, it allows perpetrators to continue victimizing with impunity.
Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists. By David Lisak and Paul M. Miller. Violence and Victims, Volume 17, Number 1, pp. 73-84, 2002.
Great response to the madness that followed comments by Akin. We need more voices of reason to identify that rape is a crime and to push back against forces to minimize it through wordsmithing.
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