Voices
JAY STERLING
SILVER
HUFFINGTON
09.09.12
Todd
Akin’s
Remarks:
The
Broader
Meaning
REPUBLICAN SENATE CANDIDATE
Todd Akin’s vile remarks about
“legitimate rape” and women’s
natural resistance to pregnancy
from forcible intercourse disturbingly parallel the views of many
in law enforcement and recall the
sorry history of the crime of rape in
American jurisprudence.
The notion of “legitimate rape”—
or “real rape,” as police often refer
to it—is bandied about by police
officers and even some prosecutors
to distinguish four loosely defined
classifications of rape accusations.
In descending order of “legitimacy,”
they are: “real” rapes in which de-
ILLUSTRATION BY LINCOLN AGNEW
praved perpetrators spring from
bushes or climb through bedroom
windows to victimize wives and
sisters; “date rape” in which the
alleged victim assumed the risk by
consenting to the date; “deserved”
rape, as in “she-got-what-wascoming-to-her,” for dressing provocatively, traversing a dangerous
street or being flirtatious; and utterly false accusations of rape conjured up for personal reasons.
While police departments have
improved in handling rape accusations over the last few decades, the
tendency to blame the victims or
Jay Sterling
Silver is a law
professor at
St. Thomas
University
School of
Law in Miami
Gardens, Fla.