(no subject)

[dreamer_easy]

DNA evidence is increasingly be used to free innocent people from prison, often men wrongly convicted of rape. (Bizarrely, anti-feminists claim this is evidence that women lie about rape.) Less high-profile are cases where criminals are being caught thanks to DNA evidence, as in the conviction of the rapist and murderer of Johanne Hatty, after twenty years.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

That seems highly unlikely unless you're talking about the fairly typical scenario where you have a boy and girl who are on either side of 18 yrs old doing the nasty. Technically about half the first sexual encounters I know of took place between teenagers and it's fairly likely that most were technically statutory rape, even though both partners were willing and at similar levels of maturity.

I simply can't believe that nearly half of men are that loathsome.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I tracked down a quote from the NS editorial:

"Ida Dickie, a forensic psychologist at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, conducted a survey of men seeking casual work in Ottawa, Canada. Her as yet unpublished research shows that 42 per cent admitted either to having raped an adult, or having had sex with a minor at least five years younger than themselves."

Until the research is published, there's not much more we can say about it. But I don't believe that figure is representative of Western men as a whole.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

it's possible, i suppose, that unemployed casual workers have a much higher proportion of bastards who deserve to have their genetalia hacked off, but THAT much higher?

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

I am very relieved to hear that!

As-yet unpublished research is a hell of a thing to base such a huge statement on -- but lazy reporting is *probably* the culprit here.

Still, "men seeking casual work" are inherently unlikely to be a great barometer for "Western men". I would not be surprised to find a greater percentage of miscreants among men with presumably poor education, limited skills, and other problems.

Rape is, after all, fundamentally about violence, not sex.

Hmm. 17 and 22 would fit the "college guy dating a minor" mold and be five years' difference. I wonder what percentage was that sort of thing rather than raping an adult?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I have been tch-ed at by doctors for reading about radical new treatments in New Scientist and asking if I could get them. :-)

You could be right about "men seeking casual work", though I'd add the caveat that no stratum of society is free of rapists - for example, about 8% of college men admit committing rape or attempted rape (not including statutory rape IIRC).