by yoursl | Oct 19, 2016 | Dating/Relationships, Sex and Culture, Sex Crimes and Trials, Sex in the News, Sexual Abuse, Women's Sexual Health |
Sexual violence against women is not a joke. For a public figure, especially someone who is running for the highest political office in the country, to think sexual violence is humorous “locker room talk” is despicable as well as disrespectful to victims of sexual violence. “This was not just a lewd conversation, this wasn’t just lock room banter, this was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior,” First Lady Michelle Obama said in a speech on October 13. She summed up the situation very well and that started my thinking of the facts and data on sexual violence in America and what can be done to reduce its prevalence. Every two minutes an American is sexually assaulted and the majority of victims are between the ages of 12 and 34, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This set of statistics includes all cases of sexual violence. One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped in their lifetimes, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. This set of statistics just looks at rape and nothing else in the sexual violence crimes category. I’m not a sociologist, a criminologist or a police officer. I am not a judge or a prosecutor. I am a college-educated and real-life trained journalist. I am a human being with intelligence. I am a woman — one who has survived sexual assault. I’ve been thinking for a long time about sexual...
by yoursl | Aug 27, 2015 | Sex Crimes and Trials, Sexual Abuse |
The St. Paul’s School rape trial is in full swing. The victim in this case is a 16-year-old girl, who was a 15-year-old freshman at the time of the alleged incident, which took place on May 30, 2014, just days before graduation. The victim has stated she was a virgin at the time of the alleged attack. The alleged perpetrator is Owen Labrie, a 19-year-old who was a member of the 2014 St. Paul’s School graduating class. Labrie was charged with three counts of aggravated felony sex assault, four counts of misdemeanor sex assault, endangering the welfare of a minor and using a computer to set up the alleged attack. Labrie allegedly used email and the social networking site Facebook to lure the victim to an isolated location at the school. The sentence for the each felony charge is up to 20 years in prison. St. Paul’s School, located in Concord, New Hampshire, is an elite prep school where the tuition exceeds $50,000. At the heart of this rape trial is the St. Paul’s tradition of the “senior salute,” in which graduating senior boys attempt to score sexually with younger girls. The goal is to take the virginity of young girls, the younger the better. Labrie himself has stated that the senior boys kept an online scoreboard of these sexual encounters and that he “wanted to be number one.” Labrie’s defense attorney, J.W. Carney, Jr., commented to the media that “…the senior salute has been a tradition for so long at St. Paul’s School that it would be entirely unfair to put the blame on a single student for engaging...
