Sexual robbery: The missing concept in the search for an appropriate legal metaphor for sexual aggression.

Abstract

Political efforts by feminists in the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in the redefinition of rape as physical in Canada's 1983 rape law in the Criminal Code. This paper argues that treating a woman's sexuality as as did the rape law prior to 1983, was correct. Redefining rape as sexual assault, and measuring the severity of the crime by the level of physical violence, established the legal and social expectation that the woman must be injured to be a legitimate victim. While suggesting rape is akin to means that a woman's sexuality is treated as property, the study believed it would achieve reform by shifting ownership from the domain of a male, as was the case under the old law, to the woman herself. Robbery implies the use or threat of force, but unlike assault, does not require harm to the victim as evidence of the robbery. The document examined every case of sexual assault, physical assault, and that appeared before the Halifax Law Courts between 1983 and 1988 to evaluate the proposition that conceptualizing the essence of sexual aggression as assault has failed and that robbery may be more appropriate. The article provokes discussion about the nature of rape and societal and legal responses to it in law-related education (LRE) settings at secondary, college, or adult education levels. (LH) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Sexual Robbery: The Missi g Concept In The ,/earch For An Appropriate Legal Metaphor for Sexual Agression 0:CIF V,AR1 T Cw EDUCATION EouCAT ON At HFSOUKE.S INFORMATION CENTER t ERIC ...,,1 has tver, ep. iC2 as pe,:n ., otgawatt,.. Z, 4.1;0 1 0 !,' , Ver, 1C. 10 er,se-t OE RI ;., /..,, K. Edward Renner and Kathaleen A. Yurchesyn Department of Psychology Dalhousie University Halifax, N. S. Abstract PE-Hts1110N TO fiEPHCEUCE AND DISSEMINAIE THiS rOATERIAL HAS BEEN ,-111ANTED E=,)'PE-Hts1110N TO fiEPHCEUCE AND DISSEMINAIE THiS rOATERIAL HAS BEEN ,-111ANTED E=,)' 70 THU EDUCAli0,,A: INF-OnmApot; cujEk Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early years of the next decade, feminists provided compelling evidence that under the existing rape laws a woman's sexuality was treated as belonging to a man. They emphtsized that rape was an aggressive invasion of a person's physical integrity and in 1983 rape was redefined in the Criminal Code as a form of assault. The use of physical as a metaphor had the effect of shifting the emphasis of the essence of sexual aggression away from a woman's sexuality as property to the coercive nature of the act. A decade later, the evidence suggests this was an illconceived change. Redefining rape as a sexual assault, and measuring the severity of the crime by the level of physical violence, has established the legal and social expectations that the woman must be injured to be a legitimate victim. This paper advances the proposition that treating a woman's sexuality as property, as did the old rape law, was correct, and that a more appropriate metaphor is robbery. The metaphor of treats a woman's sexuality as property. but achieves reform by shifting ownership from the domain of a male to the woman herself. Robbery implies the use or threat of force, but, unlike assault, does not require harm to the victim as evidence of the robbery. The theoretical proposition that conceptualizing the essence of sexual aggression as assault has failed and that robbery may be more appropriate was evaluated by examined every case of sexual (n=50), physical (n=158) and (n=82) that appeared before the Halifax Law Courts between 1983 and 1988. This legal profile of sexual was compared to the alternative profile created by examining every case (n=593) of sexual reported to the local sexual service during the same time period. Beginning in the late 1970s and continuing into the early years of the next decade. feminists provided compelling evidence that under the existing rape laws a woman's sexuality was treated as belonging to a man (Brownmiller. 1875; Clark & Lewis, 1977). They emphasized that rape was an invasion of a person's physical integrity and sought to have rape redefined as a form of (e.g., Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1976),