Voices
turn a blind eye to violence against
women persists within these bastions of machismo and, as Akin’s
remarks attest, within our society.
While the bizarre myth of a biological defense against pregnancy
from rape has not entered the
discussion of the crime of rape,
similarly outrageous claims have
masqueraded as medical fact in the
evolution of the elements of the offense in American jurisprudence.
Marching in lockstep with the
proponents of Freud who posited
a tendency of women to fantasize
rape, predominantly male legislatures have adopted the requirement that a rape victim’s testimony be independently corroborated
by other evidence. That requirement, nearly nonexistent outside
of a crime usually committed by
men against women, ensures that
a man cannot be convicted of a
crime as serious as rape solely on
the testimony of a victim. A corroboration requirement for any
other heinous offense, be it kidnapping or arson or armed robbery, would be an unthinkable affront to the victims.
Akin’s sponsorship, along with
that of Paul Ryan, of a bill to limit
the definition of rape—intrinsically a
crime of force and violence—to in-
JAY STRELING
SILVER
HUFFINGTON
09.09.12
stances of “forcible rape” is reminiscent of another unfortunate chapter
in the evolution of the offense. The
requirement that the victim of a
rape, despite the attendant dangers,
must have “resisted to the utmost”
discounted the credibility of women. If the victim didn’t fight back,
the act wasn’t sufficiently forcible
in the eyes of the law. The “promptoutcry” requirement—the rule that
the victim of rape
must report the crime
within a relatively
Akin is
brief period of time—
not the real
was yet another indigproblem, so
nity aimed at women.
his exit from
As with the medithe national
eval belief that divine
intervention would as- scene is not
the solution.”
sure justice in trial by
battle and ordeal, Akin
and his ilk proclaim a
natural defense against pregnancy
from rape that assures an absolute
ban on abortion is just.
Akin, however, is not the real
problem, so his seemingly inevitable exit from the national scene
is not the solution. Indeed, his
“misspoken” remarks are another
sore reminder of the distance we
have yet to travel in confronting
insens