Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 SMI; site sun.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!dcdwest!ittvax!decvax!decwrl!sun!sunny From: sunny@sun.uucp (Sunny Kirsten) Newsgroups: net.women,net.singles Subject: Rape: The Unresolved Trauma Message-ID: <1855@sun.uucp> Date: Fri, 7-Dec-84 04:09:22 EST Article-I.D.: sun.1855 Posted: Fri Dec 7 04:09:22 1984 Date-Received: Sun, 9-Dec-84 05:38:57 EST Distribution: net Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lines: 77 Xref: watmath net.women:3731 net.singles:4779 Patriarchy: The Degradation of Women From the Sacramento Bee, Tuesday 11/13/84, By Ann Japenga, L.A. Times ..."most women who are raped never even enjoy [] 'the hollow victory' associated with a conviction. FBI esitmates say that anywhere from 3 to 10 times more rapes occur than are ever reported. Of those rapes that do go to trial, few result in convictions. Of 5,298 sexual assaults reported in L.A. County in 1982, for example, there were only 393 Superior Court convictions, according to a criminal justice profile released by the attorney general's office." Taking the conservative figure of 3 rather than 10, we get a conviction rate of 393/(5298*3) = .024726311816 which is less than 1 in 40 rapes. Even that should seem bad enough, ignoring the other extreme of 1 in 135 rapes. Obviously the criminal "due process" system, for I certainly could not call it a system of justice, fails miserably to deal with these heinous crimes by men against women. Los Angeles (AP): "Jack Oscar King, 65, a maintenance worker at the housing project where Cheryl [Bess] and her mother lived, was charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, assault with a caustic chemical, assault with intent to commit rape and mayhem." "Early on Oct 24, [he] kidnapped Cheryl as she walked to San Bernardino High School, where she was a sophomore. He tried to rape her, failed, then poured a caustic chemical over her head and left her in the desert, investigators said." "For eight hours, she wandered around trying to rub off the liquid." "Cheryl Bess' face and parts of her arms and neck were burned to the bone..." "The 15-year-old's burns, which eroded her flesh to the bones of her face, skull, shoulders, neck, hands and forearms, are 'the worst that I've seen in an awful long time,' said Dr. Bruce Achauer, the plastic surgeon who is trying to repair Cheryl's body at the University of California, Irvine." Returning to the first article now: "...the content of a victim's statement in the courtroom is controlled by attorneys and judges: [quoting Jan Shirchild, of the Santa Cruz Women Against Rape]: 'It's clearly a case of the state against this man, and she only gets to respond to questions asked her by other people.'" According to the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women, the victim knows her assailant in more than half of all reported rapes. "[A] woman [who] had been raped by her therapist when she was 19 years old" was assisted by the Santa Cruz group in a confrontation with her raper, and said: "I have been carrying around a big burden of pain, confusion and guilt. I want to give that burden back to you. It is for you to work out, not me." "Public airing of the man's actions [] places pressure on him from peers and the community, the group says. [] 'Some of us have worked at the rape-crisis center and we've seen what a rape survivor's (survivor is the preferred term in the anti-rape movement) options are. The legal system doesn't serve her needs. What she needs is to get back control of her life." That is the point folks. A rapist takes from a woman, her control of her life, when he takes control of her body and uses it to his own ends. The trauma HE inflicts on HER is seldom resolved. back to the article: "Over the last 10 years, the Santa Cruz group has facilitated ("We help women plan confrontations; we don't do them," they emphasize) as many as 100 confrontations in restaurants, doctor's offices, auto repair shops, retail stores and - though rarely - in private homes. Confrontations are normally carried out in public, with as many as 30 support people present, to ensure the protection of the women involved." Let's see, that's 10 resolutions of rape per year. Oh well, better 10 women should *start* to mend their lives than none, but consider the untold, unresolved trauma so many carry for the rest of their lives... all so men can assert their dominance... their God given right to use women as their slaves. excuse me, I think I'm going to puke... -- mail ucbvax\!sun\!sunny decvax\!sun\!sunny ihnp4\!sun\!sunny<