sexual violence

Defense Attorney Calls Rape Victims “Whores,” and Worse

by Cara August 27, 2009

Trigger Warning Every single time I argue that a rape apologist defense attorney has hit a new low, I speak too soon. This time, the evidence that there was still further to sink just came at a particularly rapid speed, and with a particularly hard impact. Outside Charleston, West Virginia, a defense attorney defended a [...]

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Defense Attorneys Want Victim to Act Out Alleged Rape in Court

by Cara August 24, 2009

I’ve written about more disgusting instances of defense attorneys pulling all kinds of bizarre, misogynistic and unethical stunts during rape trials than I could even begin to count, let alone want to. But just when I think it’d be close to impossible for an attorney to sink even lower, such an instance arrives in my [...]

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Bill in the Bahamas Attempts to Outlaw Spousal Rape

by Cara August 22, 2009

Until the 1970s, spousal rape (or marital rape) was legal in most of the United States. It wasn’t until 1993 that the last U.S. state (North Carolina) made spousal rape a crime, and there are still numerous states that treat spousal rape as a lesser crime than rape committed by anyone else. Given this history [...]

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Anti-Sex Worker Bigotry Makes Its Way Into Rape Trial

by Cara August 17, 2009

Rape shield laws exist in the United States to prevent a defense attorney from questioning an alleged rape victim about her (or his) previous sexual history. And they exist for a damn good reason — because a sexual assault victim’s sexual history has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not she was actually raped. [...]

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Despite Improvements, Rape Kit Billing Problems Persist

by Cara August 10, 2009

The issue of rape victims being charged for their own rape kits — which are a form of crime scene evidence — received a fair amount of attention during the 2008 presidential race, due to the revelation that while Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, rape victims were billed the $1,200 fee that should have [...]

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Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Oklahoma

by Cara July 3, 2009

Trigger Warning There are some extremely horrifying allegations coming to of Oklahoma regarding the treatment of female inmates by male jailers.  The allegations include sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and more: Four former Delaware County jail female inmates have filed a civil lawsuit in Tulsa federal court accusing the sheriff of covering up such crimes [...]

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Man Allegedly Rapes Girlfriend Live on Webcam

by Cara June 4, 2009

Trigger Warning It seems that as soon as I think I’ve been doing this long enough that nothing can shock me anymore, the people of this world get even more repulsive. Case in point: a man in Arizona was just arrested for raping his girlfriend while she was unconscious, and streaming the rape live via [...]

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Serial Rapist Convicted of Raping His Daughter

by Cara May 26, 2009

Strong Trigger Warning Sometimes these stories are just too horrible to convey in words.  The rapist in the story below (h/t Lauredhel) had a long history of sexual abuse towards his vulnerable female family members: At the time of the offences, the man had been out of jail for a year after serving 10 years [...]

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Cis Supremacy, Feminism and Women’s Shelters

by Cara May 2, 2009

I’m a few weeks behind on this, but I really just couldn’t let it pass without comment. It deserves comment, and it needs comment. Recently, Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, a group that provides rape crisis relief, counseling and shelter to battered women and their children, won a court case declaring the right for [...]

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Defense Attorney Argues That No Doesn’t Always Mean No

by Cara April 22, 2009

Via the Hand Mirror (h/t Lauredhel), I came across a story this morning about a line of questioning used by a New Zealand defense attorney in cross-examining a woman who alleged that a taxi driver attempted to rape her: After a long cross-examination, the taxi driver’s lawyer, Letizea Ord, put it to the complainant [that [...]

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