9/20

Today in class we had quite a few people missing, so discussion for a few chapters was lacking. Nobody from chapters 21-24 were present, so we began our discussion at chapters 25 and 26.

Chapter 25 had a portion about injuries sustained by sex, sexual assault, and rape. There were stories where doctors, lawyers, etc. use the claim, "these general injuries could have been from consensual sex". This excuse irks me. I watch a lot of Law and Order: SVU and have heard this line come up on the show quite a few times. The fact that many defense attorneys will quote this exact line and then go on to say something like "well the victim was into rough sex", or "the victim likes BDSM", or even go as far as saying "the victim had a rape fantasy". And while yes, these activities can cause internal and external injuries to the sex organs, and yes, some people are into these things, that absolutely DOES NOT make it okay to use this as an excuse for a rapist. If someone is being charged for rape, and there are sexual injuries done to the victim, it is not likely this is a false accusation, and it is not likely the victim was into the "rape fantasy". The fact that saying something like this is even permissible in court makes me sick.
Moving on through chapter 25, there was the issue of victims not wanting to seek medical attention, for many reasons: embarrassment, lack of insurance, in shock about what happened, not wanting to get the assailant in trouble, etc. This is a fact the jurisdiction needs to be made aware of.
When it comes to questioning a rape victim, we took a look at nurses questioning, which we could compare to police questioning from earlier in the book. From this we learned that nurses do much better about sticking to their protocol and asking questions that actually make the victim feel comfortable. They ask for consent for any procedure, and let the patient know what happens if they deny consent. Comparing this to police questioning which often time strays from questioning that would actually help the case.

In chapter 26 we talked about how many times the defense tries to paint the assailant as some great guy who would never even harm a fly. However, rapists are "not some strangers that jumps out of the bushes at 2am, it's often someone you wouldn't pick out, a lot of times are quiet, unaggressive people, with frustration that builds up until they explode" and commit an action like sexual assault. So while yes, the assailant may never swear, never drink, never even gotten detention before, it doesn't mean they aren't capable of sexual assault.

Some of the most interesting takeaways from today's class came in the form of information about Pullman. Today I learned that no hospital or doctor's office in Pullman, WA has someone qualified to do a rape kit. We also learned that only 35% of WSU students drink, which came off as very shocking to me, as it seems that everyone I talked to at work, or in class, is a drinker. However, I do not drink, and a couple of my close friends only do rarely. Last interesting takeaway from today was the fact that the number of people aged 16-35 are 4x more likely to be raped than people of all other ages. When you put this into perspective, a large chunk of that age range is college students, where a plethora of rape cases occur. This makes sense and shows the numbers add up.