Archive for September, 2007
Conviction
NS September 4th, 2007
I was appalled to read in the paper this morning that a man convicted of abducting and repeatedly raping a 12-year-old girl who asked him for directions, and then inviting three of his friends to do the same before driving her home, was sentenced to only six years in prison. With “good behaviour” he could be out in three. I was already feeling a bit queasy (the Noble Child has passed on a charming virus to me) but that made my breakfast reach the top of my throat and the tears sting my lashes. Further research online gave more grotesque detail, almost more than I could bear to read.
Six years. Six fucking lousy years. I guarantee that the 12-year-old girl will be punished for more than six years. What about her life sentence?
It’s a joke, albeit a national one. Rape conviction and sentencing rates in the UK are among the lowest in the industrialised world. From a recent article in the Guardian:
A long-awaited study into the attrition rates, whereby reported rape cases are lost from the legal process, in England and Wales was published yesterday revealing there has been no improvement in the record of low convictions. Around 6% of reported rape offences resulted in a conviction in a sample of 676 cases from eight police forces in 2003-04.
The report points out that taking into account convictions for lesser offences, such as indecent assault, lifts the conviction rate to 13%. But for rape convictions the 6% figure is little changed from the record low of 5.5% conviction rate published two years ago by the Home Office.
Pathetic. The misogyny and complete lack of justice is mind-blowing.
Or how about this case, in which a 24-year-old window cleaner was convicted of raping a 10-year-old girl and then passing her off to a friend (who sexually assaulted her as well) but only served just over nine months, eight of which were while awaiting sentencing. Which means, essentially, he was given five weeks. The judge in the case said that while the fact that the man had sex with a girl aged 10 within 45 minutes of meeting her was indeed a crime, she had “dressed provocatively and looked as though she was 16.” The rapists lawyers insisted that the sex was consensual and was only termed rape within the framework of the law. As if sex with a child, a girl barely a decade old, is ever consensual.
Ten year-olds, while possessing sexuality, do not have the capability to understand it, control it or consent to that sexuality being aroused. It doesn’t matter if she was wearing a midriff-baring t-shirt that said Gagging For It and a mini-skirt that would make a streetwalker blush, a child’s behaviour or appearance should never be interpreted sexually by adults. And I’m not just talking about the abusers themselves: I’m talking about the regular folks and people in a position to protect these kids who still have that ‘blame the victim’ mentality, especially in matters of female sexuality. Despite all of our advancements in modern society, the onus is still on us to repress our sexuality and hide it from male view lest we release some primal urge in those who are bound to attack us, as if we were a juicy cut of meat and the potential perpetrators a pack of rabid, feral dogs.
In another gruesome instance, a man raped and then strangled his two-year-old niece and received a life sentence. Finally, I thought, a just conviction. But the tragedy of this case is not only that the victim was so young and related to her attacker, but that the toddler’s death could’ve been avoided. The vicious rapist had been charged with the crime before, by a 12-year-old girl just four years earlier. The charges against him were dropped immediately before he was scheduled to stand trial, due to new evidence coming to light which cast doubt on the victim’s story. Because the prosecutors felt that a conviction was unlikely, they dropped the case altogether. It wasn’t until the victim was much younger that his sexually violent behaviour was taken seriously, which goes to show that unless a child is considered completely outside the realm of being able to ‘act provocatively’ (which is probably only –in some people’s eyes — under eight or nine years old), they are still at risk of being blamed for their victimhood, for their very biology.
Until the message is sent that women are not carrots on sticks, out to tempt men and there for the taking, these heinous crimes will continue. Misogyny, rape, abuse and disrespect of women: all are contributing to the unraveling of our societal quilt, a patchwork of violence and misery. Wake up, Britain, and start respecting your citizens by denouncing rape. A rap on the knuckles and a few years is not an appropriate deterrent, and we are not chattel.
