What should rape really mean?

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Running Head: What should rape really mean? article review

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What should rape really mean?

Ms. Magazine. Issue SP 11, p. 26.

Abstract The following is a review of the article If a woman isn’t bruised and bleeding, will her rape be counted?, which was written by Stephanie Hallett. The article includes information concerning rape cases in America and how law enforcement has used an outdated definition to exclude many cases from formally being reported to the Uniform Crime Report of the FBI. Hallett presents many discrepancies that are apart of each rape case and how they have been used to oppress rape victims. Societal flaws are passed the blame of disintegrating respect for women and minorities …show more content…

Also, many rape victims don’t have the mental abilities to say no or they are people who are in fear of revealing the perpetrator (most likely based on the difference in power status between men and women or white men and minorities). Another kind of victim that is often blamed for their own rape is those who are under an influence of any kind. UCRs’ argument is that, technically, they were not forced. In the sense that there was no fight, this may be true, but saying the victim wanted it, or to say it was consensual is excluding factors that could only be known by the perpetrator and the victim (Hallett 2011 p 27).
The solution offered by Hallett is a new universal definition of rape which “would include sex of all kinds without consent.” (Hallett 2011 p 27). However, even if a new definition was implemented, several more steps would need to be taken in order to dramatically decrease the amount of ignored rape cases. First, something would need to be established in order to give victims a comfortable place to report a rape without ridicule from biased police officers or fear of not being believed (Hallett 2011 p 27). Even families may fail to provide a safe environment where the victim could share that they’d been raped. In fact, many rapes are committed by friends, lovers, or acquaintances of the victim (Crawford 2012 p 384).
Another step that must be taken by police officers and government officials is

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