Steubenville rape case
 

So recently a verdict was reached in a fairly well-covered rape case in the United States involving some high school football players and a victim at a party. The courts gave fairly tame sentences of a year each with deferred judgement on whether or not to put them into the sexual offender data base.

Most of the defense focused on casting doubt on the victim, whether she had either given consent or her level of intoxication possibly being a factor in the rape. I was surprised honestly that this was even a consideration and seemed to have been attempting to shift blame from the attackers to the victim. Then there was this mind boggling thing on a CNN broadcast

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../17/rs.01.html

Oh boy I really feel bad for them. Unfortunately that completely contradicts with what was found out about them.

The media stories mention the role of "social media", including an Anonymous outfit's role, but not much more than that. Among other things collected here by the Anon crew were things that were hardly secret, but simply being ignored or covered up. It displays attempts by the police to ignore some of the facts as well as the high school football team trying to twist the story in a weird attempt to salvage the team's reputation. The police were motivated later to try and launch a site to counter the claims from the anon cell that accused them of corruption.

Among other things here from the information gathered shows that those involved in this case, not just the two charged with rape, had a history of prowling for students to harass and rape, and ensuring that the victims' cases would never be followed up upon through intimidation.

You can read more of that here, it's a sad display of some people's idiotic actions.

LocalLeaks - Steubenville Files

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

Building on this, an interesting spin from CNN. Featuring the very line you quoted good Mercz.


From this news cast I really feel as if CNN doesnt agree with the outcome of the trial. They focus on how the 'promising' lives of the two guys have been ruined...

Who gives a shit? They raped someone. They deserve what they get because they committed a CRIME. What did they expect the judge to do, let them off on community service?!

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

College Basketball Star Heroically Overcomes Tragic Rape He Committed | Video | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Everyone knows that if you're smart or athletic, you can do whatever you want and treat plebs however you please.

It's absolutely sickening. ;r

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

It is rather dangerous if they wouldn't ask any questions in case of rapes. A case from this year is that a woman falsely accused men of rape 11 times.

Though in this case, if I recall correctly, they had some photos and a video so it was rather clear?

Regarding the point whether the victim's actions can be a factor in a rape, certainly they can be. Though saying that alout will create a hysterical shitstorm. Drinking yourself unconscious is a major factor in possibly causing some problems, whether it's passing out outside during winter and dying, or getting abused like this. If I keep my wallet in my trousers' back pocket, that can increase the risk of it being robbed, though of course it doesn't make it my fault either. It's just a realistic approach. In some countries the risk of being raped can be increased by not wearing a veil, in some by wearing a miniskirt. Take for example the popular tourist destination in Bulgaria, the Golden Sands, there is a major problem with sexual harrasment, acknowledging the risks is realism. That either doesn't make it anymore acceptable though. Especially since drinking a lot of alcohol and wearing "sexy clothes" is a norm in such parties like in this case.

Well, I felt bad for the 2007 school shooter here. His father uploaded an emotional video of his son to Youtube, it's not so that you can't feel bad for a criminal. But yeah, in this case they seem like complete douchebags. I'm more interested in how the community felt about them because they're athletes. I know the American stereoptype of 'jockeys' and general respect for athletes like free university degrees that would be a ridiculous idea in most of Europe.

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

Of course a girl's behaviour can be a factor in the cause of rape. But other than that it bears on whether consent was or was not given that sort of thing has no place in a courtroom.

IIRC studies show that girls who dress more modestly are more likely to get raped because it's seen as a sign of shyness and rapists tend to be looking for people who won't fight back anyway. So claiming that a girl's a bit of a slapper is just. Woosh.

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

There are false reports for all sorts of crimes. But that doesn't discount the real crime of rape.

The problem isn't that these questions weren't being asked. They were. The problem is that there was evidence to show that this was not a random attack and was in fact planned by the attackers.

Instead of taking the young girl's claims seriously the community discouraged it because they wanted to keep the image of the team intact. Even as it became obvious she wasn't lying about what happened to her, they kept attacking her.

The media didn't treat her sympathetically, and even accidentally leaked her name when media is supposed to protect the name of the rape victim. This set her up for attacks across the country.

Video, audio, social network, statements from other young women. It's all in the link that was posted above- all pretty available to get, the police ignored it early on and the community played hysterical woman card here. They had video of them abusing and raping the young girl, laughing about it, and bragging they did it.

Doesn't matter tbh. When someone gets raped, that's because the attacker made a conscious decision to do so. The blame is completely on the attacker in those cases, the magnitude of the attack shouldn't be waved off by what ever condition the victim was in. People shouldn't be living in fear of these kinds of things, or have to fear from this victim blaming mentality that seems to come up, blaming women for these actions because they dressed suggestively or got drunk is the lowest of lows.

From the website again,

Those guys were going for the intent to rape her. Maybe she should have not gone in the car and attended parties, but you might as well tell young teenage girls never to leave their house and live in fear. At the end of the day these guys were the ones who raped her, she can't be blamed for their decision.

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

If it would have stopped her getting raped, it does matter. If it's good advice on how not to get raped, then it should be shouted from the treetops. Provided that it's reasonable and effective.

People shouldn't have to live in fear. But we lock our doors at night. There are some people, who you've histories with, and their friends that you simply do not go somewhere alone with, or ... anyone who reacts to frustration with anger and violence for instance. There are kinds of people who you do not make yourself vulnerable to. That's not the same as having no social life mind, which isn't reasonable, nor is it the same as living in constant fear.

And if you are going to go out with people like that, then you should at least take some sensible safety precautions: like not accepting drinks, having check in times with people you trust, making sure people know where you are and with who.

None of which excuses the actions of these disgusting... creatures... that did this to her. But I don't think he intended to. It does seem like that I admit, because the only time a lot of people venture any opinions on how to prevent rape is when someone's raped and that makes it look like they're just saying it to let the rapists off the hook. You know? It's bad advice given at the worst possible time, when someone's at their lowest. It's reasonable to feel something along the lines of: Where was your advice when it could have done someone any good? And why is your advice so bad if you care at all? If you cared, you'd do your homework and spread it around at other times than just when it was in the news. So, it does seem a lot like an excuse. But then you think that people might not realise that not getting raped has any complexity at all if they've done absolutely no homework. Lots of people don't seem to have anything to be afraid of, so maybe that's just how reality looks to them. Maybe the social implications of avoiding rape really seem the same as the social implications of locking your door at night from a certain point of view.

Looking at the pictures on that site is really... it just makes me unspeakably angry. There's some disgusting stuff in this world. A few years for this sort of organised rape isn't anywhere near enough, and not nearly enough people have been charged. The police let the girl down in their investigation, (whether through corruption or incompetence,) her parents let her down via failing to forewarn her appropriately and arm her with more maturity. The boys, the school, the community that was trying to keep the image of the team together; hell, I'm not even going to talk about those, things. Everyone who should have been looking out for a child let her down.

Maybe we can move this in a more constructive direction though.
If people honestly do believe that the victim, in a non-excusing the crime way, shares some of the responsibility for the event, then it seems like there's a lot of low-hanging fruit in publishing useful anti-rape advice rather than talking about the girl being drunk or dressing up provocatively.: If you don't want to get raped, what can you reasonably do to avoid a situation like this?

Something I and my sister were told when we first started going out drinking was: If a drink's been out of your sight, at all, just don't touch it. I do wonder sometimes, whether if more girls had better parents and got advice like that and kept up with their kids social lives, and we were told more about who to trust and why, and it was emphasised more that you do not go anywhere with people you do not trust. Whether there'd be a lot less of this sort of shit.

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

Well that would imply a responsibility on the parents' part. Who the hell ever heard of that?

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

Responsible education about adult issues based on the idea of treating your daughter as a real person, rather than as a total helpless retard who needs you sitting there with a shotgun and ineffectually threatening her boyfriend? What sort of weird liberal sissy land do you live in? :p

Re: Steubenville rape case
 

Well...I don't really want to talk in great detail about it, but let's just say a family member tried dating a family friend who was more traditionally religious than we were and...yeah.

It didn't work out so well. Oh, we're still friends (in a platonic sense), but it's not the same. My parents have a deep-seated sort of resentment for the whole thing, unsurprisingly.

Ahh...well...life goes on I suppose.