Why is it wrong to use the word rape?
Posted by angela on 03/15/08 in Domestic Ramblings
Isn’t a “rape” the same thing as a “sexual assault” ?
If someone believes that they have been raped then why can’t they say that they were raped?
If someone was raped and they are asked what happened, are they supposed to say that they were sexually assaulted?
Aren’t the two terms the same?
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homemom3 | Mar 16, 2008 | Reply
I think the word rape shows it as a horrible thing. While both are the same thing, one sounds worse than the other. (my own opinion)
Gayla | Mar 16, 2008 | Reply
I agree with Eliza. The word rape has been used in society to describe the more horrific crime imaginable against a woman - to use it in a testimony I gues they think it will predispose the jury to think the worst possible.
For me, sexual assault is just as bad. I don’t see the difference at all really
Tracy | Mar 16, 2008 | Reply
First, you have to understand that different areas may have different terms to describe different crimes.
But usually, even under the law, rape and sexual assault are two separate things and separate charges. We all know what rape is.
A sexual assault is defined as any unwanted, offensive physical sexual contact. So some guy walking by me on the street who grabs my breast could be charged with sexual assault. You don’t want a rapist only charged with “sexual assault”.
That’s why the judge substituting the words “sexual assault” for “rape” is so horrible if the case was actually about a rape. It diminishes the seriousness of the crime.
angela | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for showing examples of that Tracy!
angela | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
So somebody who has actually been raped can not use the word “rape” in their testimony? That’s the part that is upsetting to me. Otherwise, if it had been me on the stand in a court of law and I had not been raped I would have said that I was touched inappropriately.
Tracy | Mar 18, 2008 | Reply
“So somebody who has actually been raped can not use the word “rape” in their testimony?”
In that one particular judge’s courtroom, and at least for that one case — yes. I don’t know whether or not that’s a rule he enforces in all rape or sexual assault cases or not. It may have been something specific to that case. I really don’t know anything about the case.
If it was a girl getting stoned drunk and going home with a guy who’d also been drinking and they had sex, then later she says it was rape because she was drunk and wasn’t “responsible” for her behavior and that he took advantage of her being drunk (but then if he’s drunk too, he isn’t “responsible” for his behavior either, right?), then the judge may have decided that her using the word rape was too prejudicial, considering that the guy hadn’t grabbed her off the street against her will and forced himself on her.
I don’t know if this is something that this particular judge does regularly or not, and I don’t know anything about the case, though– so it’s merely speculation at this point.
angela | Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
Hopefully the courts figure it out because I can’t help but feel that there are a lot of victims out there that don’t come forward because they are afraid what happened to them will come back and haunt them and that there will be no justice.