Conference turris::womannotes-v2

627.0. "Subject: Teen-age rapists" by HAMSTR::IRLBACHER (not yesterday's woman, today) Fri Jun 02 1989 09:01

    Recently, in NY Central Park, a woman was brutally raped and beaten
    by a gang of teen-agers.  There was a lot of publicity concerning
    the ages of the kids, their ethnic and personal backgrounds.  The
    rape victim's educational, financial and personal background was
    endlessly reported, as well as pros and cons of the reasonableness
    of *anyone* running late at night in Central Park, and especially
    the whys and wherefores of her apparent *running compulsion*.
    
    Today, in the Boston Globe, Page 23, Columnist Derrick Z. Jackson
    has another, and more chilling report, on another gang rape by
    teen-agers.  
    
    Only this article is much more frightening to me.  
    
    First, the victim was a 17-year-old mentally challenged girl. [am
    unsure what that means: assuming that she is educationally retarded?]
    and two of the accused are twin brothers, co-captains of the Glen
    Ridge High School football team.  She was raped with objects.  And
    8 members of the same high school stood around and watched.
    
    I think it would be far too long to put the entire story into this
    file; I know that I have a tendency towards eye-glazing when I see
    files which never end.
    
    What I am writing about is not just the rape, the consequent delay
    in bring anyone to arrest, the silence of the affluent community
    from which these kids came, and the attitudes of the high school
    students as a whole towards what happened.  I think, to get the
    entire feel of the piece, it needs to be read.  I will supply copies
    to anyone who wishes to have one.  Just send me mail.
    
    BUT: here are some statistics that Jackson wrote and THIS is what
    I am distressed about.
    
    Reprinted without permission
    "According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pittsburgh,
    rape arrests for 13 and 14-year-olds went up 100 percent from 1976
    to 1986.  Arrests for exhibitionism, fondling and grabbing went
    up 80 percent.
    According to the center's director, Hunter Hurst, the arrest rate
    for violent sex crimes for 13 and 14-year-olds has increased 10
    times the rate of homicide."
    "Last month at a Boston public school, I asked 6th-grade boys and
    girls to say the first word that came to mind about the other sex.
    The girls said: Fine. Jerks. Conceited. Ugly. Crazy. Dressy. Sexy.
    Dirty minds. Boring. Rude. Cute. Stuck up. Desperate. Sexually abusive.
    Punks.
    The boys said: Pumping ("big tits"). Nasty. Vagina. Dope bodies
    (big breasts and behinds). door knob (breasts). Hooker. Skeezer
    ("a girl who will 'do it' with 50 guys").
    "However rude, dirty, conceited or crazy the boys are, the girls
    at least gave them credit for having a mind.  The boys had the girls
    bodies charted like a road atlas.   ....   .....
    "It appears...the distortion of the male view of the value of wome
    is greater than ever," Hurst said. "None of the boys' terms suggest
    they are talking about a person."...
    "You can keep dreaming there is no relation between sick sex fantasies
    and rape.  You can label the criminals as "those others".  You can
    sweep the Glen Ridges under the rug.  You can call the Central Park
    boys "animals".
    "We were the ones who built their zoo."
    
    What do you think about all of this?  
    
    M

    I remember reading about the Glen Ridge attack and found that to be
    even more chilling than the Central Park rape.  And it wasn't the rape
    itself, but the way the community responded to it.  "She asked for it." 
    "Everyone knew she was easy."  "They are such fine young men."
    
    How can you expect 14 year olds to have a sense of right and wrong when
    their role models are so twisted?  It almost sounded like "its ok to
    rape someone if your white and upper-middle class and your victim is
    less fortunate", but its not acceptable "if you're black and your victim
    is successful."
    
    The statistics aren't really surprising to me.  The age of kids
    becoming "aware", be it sexually or in general, has been decreasing
    fairly consistently over the past 20 years.  And they learn about it
    from the media, from their friends and older people they associate
    with.  And that's a very impressionable age.  So if you see your role
    models expressing attitudes, the first assumption is that they must be
    right: 12-14 years old don't really have a fully, if at all, developed
    value system yet.
    
    I remember the attitudes expressed by one group of my friends in high
    school -- interestly enough, the non-intelligencia -- and although they
    weren't anywhere as bad as this, you could see how over the next 10 years
    these attitudes could evolve (devolve?).

    I read one thing about the Glen Ridge case that really worried me. That
    was a quote from the girl to the effect of "Some of the things that
    were done were voluntary, some were not." All I can see is some slick
    lawyer taking advantage of this mentally handicapped child, under the
    guise that sense she was promiscuous, anything those boys did to her
    was ok. That really frustrates me.
    
     The Doctah

    Just this week I borrowed a book from the library that caught my
    eye about rape. Not that I thought it could happen to me but I've
    recently become involved in a support group for battered women so
    I'm interested in different types of violence against women. 
    
    This book should be required reading for all women especially single
    women. The book is entitled:
    
    I NEVER CALLED IT RAPE
    THE MIS REPORT ON RECOGNIZING, FIGHTING AND SURVIVING DATE AND
    ACQUAINTANCE RAPE
    BY ROBIN WARSHAR
    PUBLISHED BY HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
    
    Some chapters are:
    The Reality of Acquaintance Rape
    Women You Know
    Why Woman Are "Safe" Victims
    Teenagers and Acquaintance Rape
    Men Who Rape Women They KNow
    For Men: The Benefits of Change
                                   
    If you think it can't happen to you some startling and unsettling
    facts:
    
    "25% of women in college have been the victims of rape or attempted
    rape
    
    84% of these victims were acquainted with their assailants
    
    5% reported their rapes to the police
    
    27% of women raped identified themselves as rape victims
    
    one in every 12 men admits to committing acts that meet legal
    definitions of rape.
    
    Run, do not walk, to you local bookstore and get this book or request
    your library to stock it.
    
    Regards,
    
    Linda