Gang Rape Case Research Articles

‘With you, sister @JenniHermoso’: Productive rage in the viralization of #SeAcabó

The hashtag #SeAcabó [It’s over], which was originally published on X by Spanish football player Alexia Putellas in support of her teammate Jenni Hermoso following a nonconsensual kiss by the then president of Spanish football, Luis Rubiales, managed to channel the transformative collective rage toward sexual violence in Spain. Following the World Cup final, while mainstream media, especially sports media, either ignored the act, gave Rubiales a voice, or even defended him, indignation at an act seen as sexual violence went viral on the networks. #SeAcabó spurred the expression of rage in a digital environment conditioned by the previous La Manada ( The Wolf Pack) gang rape case in 2016 that gave rise to the hashtag #YoSiTeCreo [I do believe you] in support of the accuser. While Rubiales has maintained that the kiss was consensual and has accused ‘false feminism’ of conspiring against him, Hermoso has become a legitimate spokesperson for those who fight against the affective injustice suffered by victims of sexual violence, who even go so far as to deny their condition, for fear of not being believed. In this short piece, we draw on Lorde and Cherry’s concept of productive rage to argue that Spanish feminism fostered, through the #SeAcabó movement, collective resistance to sexual violence, managing to put consent at the center of the debate in the public sphere. This piece is a part of a special themed issue on the Rubiales / Hermoso non-consensual kiss.

Juvenile Justice System in India: An Overview

Juvenile justice is a legal framework that defines justice for juveniles. The problem of juvenile delinquency is not new. It happens in all societies simple as well as complex, that is wherever and whenever a relationship is affected between a group of individuals leading to maladjustments and conflict. The major debate and discussion surrounding the juvenile justice system began after the heinous incident of the Nirbhaya Gang Rape Case within which an accused was only six months faraway from reaching the age of 18, the age of becoming significant, and forcing the Indian legal system to convict him as a juvenile instead of a full-fledged offender.1 To solve the challenges of juvenile delinquency various declarations and conventions at the international level and laws were enacted by the respective governments at the national level. It is a serious worry for the country and answers for end the issue should be looked for all around prudently. Indian lawful system and legal executive has reacted to these trends and has acquired a few amendments the laws pertaining to juvenile justice in India.2 The Juvenile Justice System is the most dynamic and irradiated framework embraced by the world which deals with all-round development of children. The main focuses to give consideration to the unprotected children. The concept of juvenile justice was derived from a belief of problems that the hurdles of juvenile delinquency and youth in abnormal situations are not amenable to resolution within the ambit framework of the traditional process of criminal law.3

Forensic medicine dimension of gang rape cases against adolescents

Aim: Gang rape incidents are rarer than other forms of sexual abuse, and there is little research focusing on adolescent victims. The aim of this study is to describe the common characteristics of gang rape cases against adolescents and the forensic medical evaluation process.Method: News and medical literature published in the internet media were searched. Google search engine and Google Scholar were used as browser. Key words were “gang rape”, “young”, “child”, “adolescent”, “gang rape”,”young”, “child” and “adolescent”. After the search, descriptive news and literature samples on gang rape incidents against adolescent individuals were selected.Results: This study examined the gang rape incidents against adolescents, which were covered in the media. There were no time limitation. In the news and literature review, the sociodemographic characteristics of the victims and the descriptive features of the event were determined. Alcohol use was common. Psychological symptoms and consequences requiring continued health care, were evident.Conclusion: A systematic forensic examination and reporting including a psychological evaluation of the victim should be done. In order to prevent this type of sexual violence against adolescents, it is very important to be informed about gang rape.

RELATO DE CASOGENÉTICA FORENSE NA INVESTIGAÇÃO DO ESTUPRO COLETIVO: CONCEITUAÇÃO E RELATO DE CASO

Introduction: Sexual violence, within the scope of Legal Medicine, is exemplified by rape, mainly, whose epidemiology is devastating for female and black victims. The punishment of this crime is usually based on the analysis of materials containing DNA, found in forensic examinations. The aim of this study is to report a case of gang rape, explaining the importance and complexity of genetic profiling tests. Material and method: The present study is part of the case report modality, arising from a demand to clarify the nature of the suspects of a crime of gang rape. A narrative review of the literature on gang rape was also carried out in three open access databases. Results: GSL, a woman, a possible victim of gang rape, which occurred in the interior of Ceará, was submitted to an expert examination, in which samples of biological material were obtained, from her and from CAA, the main suspect, which were later analyzed by the Forensic Expert of the State of Ceara. Discussion: In the process of analyzing the samples, other cell types may be present, in addition to spermatozoa, such as epithelial cells. From such samples, DNA from non-sperm cells can be extracted. This strategy offers a great contribution in situations where a small amount of male material is found together with the victim’s cellular material. Conclusion: The possibility of CAA being the main suspect was compatible, but not the only one. Thus, the final result corroborated the main hypothesis of gang rape. Keywords: rape, genetic profiling, forensic genetics.

Cartographies of sexual violence from Delhi to Hathras: an intersectional feminist understanding

The gang-rape case of Delhi in December 2012, usually referred to as Nirbhaya to the very recent Hathras case of September 2020, led to mass protests and demonstrations. However, reading it through the feminist intersectional lens clearly indicates the difference in public response, political stance, and legal progression. There was a protracted struggle, indeed, but sexual violence in Delhi subsequently led to the change in legal reforms, aligning itself towards rendering justice to the victim, but in the case of Hathras, it’s treading upon blurred pathways of judicial proceedings. This article evaluates the altered textures of protest and the trajectory of feminist intervention when it intersects with the spectrum of caste, class, space, and gender. Therefore, even beyond the social and economic position, the location plays a crucial role in deciphering the discourse of rape or sexual violence. Through the intersectional reading of these two case studies, this article evaluates the discourse of sexual violence in both urban and rural India and the politics of justice meted out to them.

Understanding Multidimensionality of Muslim Women’s Experiences of Sexual Violence Through the News Coverage of the Bilkis Banu Gang Rape Case in India

ABSTRACT Research suggests that the media in India determines the newsworthiness of a rape case based on the social and demographic identifiers of the victim. Bilkis Banu’s gang rape case was one of the few cases covered by the media where the victim belonged to a minority community. Banu, a young Muslim woman was gang raped in 2002 by a mob of hardline Hindu men, as she was fleeing her riot-torn village in Gujarat. Using the intersectional lens, this paper analyzes the news discourse in the Bilkis Banu gang rape case as covered by the Times of India over a period of 17 years. It endeavors to understand the impact of politicized religion in the construction of Muslim women’s intersectional identity as victims of sexual assault in the media. The dominant narratives within this news discourse suggest that Banu’s experience as a victim of sexual violence is intentionally ignored on account of her religious identity. Additionally, in-depth interviews with journalists at English-language publications in India discuss issues related to access and stigma that are linked to the victim’s social status.

Tribunal Theatre in Spain: Jauría and the La Manada Gang Rape

Jauría (2019) was the first tribunal verbatim play in Spain and it had a great impact on audiences in the context of heated debate about how national legislation had a long-standing legacy of sexism. Based on the transcripts of the legal proceedings of the La Manada gang-rape case, Jauría not only clarifies this controversial case for different types of audiences, but it also poses very important questions concerning the nature of rape and how the judicial system treats the victims of rape. This article studies the performative force of tribunal verbatim in shaping the audience’s understanding of an actual gang-rape case and indicates how a feedback loop is created in the performance itself, transforming the spectators’ attitudes. Svetlana Antropova is a lecturer at Villanueva University in Madrid. Her recent publications include ‘Filming Trauma: Bodiless Voice and Voiceless Bodies in Beckett’s Eh Joe’, in Elspeth McInnes and Danielle Schaub, eds., What Happened? Re-presenting Traumas, Uncovering Recoveries (Brill/Rodopi 2019), and ‘De/Construction of Visual Stage Image in Samuel Beckett’s Play’ (Anagnórisis: Revista de Investigación Teatral, XXII, 2020). Elisa García Mingo is an associate professor in Sociology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is an associate member of the Centre for Transforming Sexualities and Gender at the University of Brighton.

Status of child sexual abuse in India with reference to 2022

The most valuable stage of human life is his childhood; this is the time when the craftsmen of the country or society sculpt the childhood of these children with high human values ​​so that they can be made to build a better future for the country and society. These children are the golden future of our society, country, and childhood is the period that paves the way for this golden future and this is the period which is most sensitive where these children expect a very sensitive attitude and behavior from family and society. That is why children are called the heritage of the nation because the children are the most vulnerable group in the society. Therefore they need special protection and care, they are the victims of various abuses in the society, and one of the main ones is child sexual abuse or child sexual abuse. Some perverted mentality and ill-tempered people in the society use children for sexual pleasure; this is a gross inhuman crime which is most fatal for children because it is not only physical but also mentally and emotionally serious to the children. Child sexual abuse is an inhuman act and is a serious problem for the country and the world. In order to stop the sexual abuse of children in India, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act 2012 was passed by the Government of India, which has provisions for severe punishment, but when we look at the increasing cases of child abuse today, it appears that Enforcement agencies' interest in the implementation of this law is negligible, making laws and enforcing law effectively, both are different things. We saw the case of gang rape in Unnao and Kathua, which makes us see the insensitiveness of the government machinery. There is a need to strengthen the legal provisions to prevent child sexual abuse in a sensitive manner and focus on their successful implementation. This study reviews the issues related to child sexual abuse in India, studies the factors responsible for child sexual abuse, it also critically analyzes the existing legal framework. The study has also been done as well as the focus has also been on the new amendments of the POCSO Act. What are the shortcomings in the legal provisions, what are the shortcomings in its enforcement, the attitude of government agencies and their sensitivity has also been studied in the research paper and this study also focuses on effective measures and methods to prevent it.

#SisterIdobelieveyou: Performative hashtags against patriarchal justice in Spain

ABSTRACT In recent years, anti-rape culture and anti-rape communication have taken new forms, including the diverse use of tweets and hashtags, prompting so-called hashtag feminism. In this article, we examine digital and analogue discussions propelled by a notorious case of gang-rape in Spain in 2016, which became known as “La Manada”/The Wolf Pack” (hereafter TWP). Hundreds of thousands of Spanish women took to the streets in protest during the three years of the case and their chants also flooded social media. This article is the result of a hashtag ethnography of the hashtag #SisterIdobelieveyou. We argue that the synchronized performative action of “believing” undertaken by thousands of Twitter users, along with mass demonstrations on the streets, had a triple effect: it gave rise to a “virtual” community of sisterhood, challenged prevalent rape culture and gender stereotypes in Spanish society, and provided social media users with a new framework to conceive of and express themselves about sexual violence.

Working with “monstrous men”: ambivalent sexism in the Bombay film industry

ABSTRACT In India, the 2012 Delhi gang rape case catalyzed protests for women’s rights, particularly in regard to their safety. These demands were rekindled with vigor anew with the eruption of the #MeToo movement. In the Indian film industry, the most visible change appeared in the gradual increase of films with women-leads. But behind the scenes, there has been comparatively less change in female representation. Currently, approximately less than 10% of film directors in India are women. Considering the importance of having stories about women being made by women, in this article I examine the factors that hinder women’s entrance and tenure in the Mumbai film industry. I argue that a composite of concerns, including but not limited to reputability and personal security, thwarts women’s progress in the industry. I base my conclusions on interviews with women and men working in the film industry, conducted in Mumbai in 2017. I use the framework of the Ambivalent Sexism Index developed by psychologists Glick and Fiske in 1996, and revised in 2013, (1996, 2001, 2013) to examine my interviewees’ encounters with hostile and benevolent sexism. This article complicates our understanding of the reasons that limit the work of women beyond explanations of overt discrimination.

A Quest for “Justice” in Capital Punishment: A Socio-Legal Study of the Nirbhaya Gangrape Case

The December 16, 2012 gang rape case in India’s capital ignited fierce discussion on women’s rights, safety measures as well as the punishment for the rapists. A major question stemming from this case and elaborated in this paper is: is capital punishment for a rapist an effective measure, as a form of “justice” for the victim? The paper concludes that capital punishment should be abolished even for gruesome crimes like rape and it further raises the question whether capital punishment can serve as a reform tool for the existing and oftentimes dysfunctional criminal system in India. Through a thorough analysis of Mukesh & Another Vs State of NCT of Delhi and others (known as the Nirbhaya gang rape case), the paper explores capital punishment for the rapist from a socio-legal and cultural perspective. The case particularly becomes important as, along with other issues, it is concerned with the question of rights of the victim vis-à-vis the rights of the offender. In other words, the paper delves deeper into the conflict between the victims’ interests and the right of the offender in the justice system by examining who is responsible for what and to what extent. Taking a human rights approach, the paper examines the human rights jurisprudence in India as well as in international laws. Further, it maps the social and historical perspective revolving around rape victimhood and gender along with arguments that have been predominant for and against capital punishment, particularly for rapists in an Indian context.

Overview of Gang Rape Registered in High Court Province Five of Nepal: An Analytical Study

Rape, which is a heinous crime criminalized by law in Nepal is increasing and includes cases of gang rape. The Case Law Study was done on the 5 years registered cases of gang rape in High Court, Butwal Bench with official ethical permission. There are 6 district courts under the jurisdiction of High Court with diverse population and geographical distribution. There were 472 cases registered as sexual violence. 141 cases with 149 survivors were awarded with final summary hearing; 12% of these were gang rape cases. There were 18 survivors of gang rape with 52 male perpetrators. More than half the survivors of gang rape were minors and almost 90% of perpetrators were adult men, two third of them known to the survivor. The gang attacked to rape a sole vulnerable survivor range from 2 to 8 perpetrators. There were more than 10% male children accompanying adults in the activity. Most of the noted site of gang rape was fields, followed by the survivor’s home. Two thirds of the cases had medical evidence suggestive of violence. One third of the cases were acquitted due to lack of evidence, and few of the survivors were punished with fines for wrongful accusation in the final verdict. There are several challenges and loopholes in the socio-cultural as well as criminal justice system in Nepal which demands to be scrutinized to justify the maxim, ‘Let hundred guilty be acquitted but one innocent should not be convicted’ in heinous crimes such as gang rape.

Balancing Juvenile Crime and Justice as a Response to Growing Youth Crimes

A child is a person who is going to carry on what you have started.... He will assume control of your cities, States, and nations. He is going to move in and take over your churches, schools, universities, and corporations ... the fate of humanity is in his hands. - Abraham Lincoln Over past twenty years, the society have undergone a tremendous change in terms of ideologies and moral perspective. What was considered as immoral or unethical a decade ago is now considered as completely normal. People in order to achieve the goal of a better life are moving forward with faster than ever to open the doors to a better and developed society and in the process, they haven’t paid much attention to self-introspection. This has impacted the lives of children more than we can think of. Children are also exposed to the competitive environment where there is a continuous pressure to do better than others however this deprive them of the basic common sense, sympathy and moral values which were to be taught to them since a younger age. Children are growing ahead of their age and have knowledge of the things which even adults lack however this knowledge comes at an expense. Children today are involved in crimes that can’t be justified by highlighting their dark past. Nirbhaya Case (Delhi Gang Rape case) was an eye opener which shed light on the kind of crimes a 17-year-old can commit. All the legislation whether it be in India or any other country, the main aim has always been to make laws to protect the child till date however now it’s time to make laws to protect the society from the heinous crimes committed by children under the pretence of immaturity. There has always been a difference opinion when it comes to question of what and how much punishment is suitable for the minors. The conflicts always arise as to at what age and crime a child should be tried as an adult in the court and what is the basis to decide it. This article is an attempt to understand the present Indian Legislations with reference to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2015 drafted for the children who act in conflict with law and whether under given circumstances these legislations are enough for creating a balance between the crime and justice in juvenile cases. Many countries including USA and UK have amended their laws considering the rising crime rate of the crime committed by minors. This article is an attempt to compare the laws of different nations along with the international laws laid down for the same. The main objective behind the research is to understand that where the legislations are still lacking with respect to the recent cases in and try to look for a middle way out for the same along with measures that can be adopted to decrease these crimes.

Gendered violence, frontline workers, and intersections of space, care and agency in Dharavi, India

The resilience and activism of marginalised urban populations have played an important role in imagining urban politics in Indian cities. Similarly, the issue of sexual violence against women in public spaces became a significant part of urban politics in the aftermath of the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case. However, subsequent activism and research have paid lesser attention to other pervasive experiences of intimate violence and structural inequalities that confront marginalised urban populations, particularly poor women and children. Drawing on participatory ethnographic research with frontline workers engaged in an NGO’s violence prevention program in Dharavi, Mumbai, this paper re-inscribes ‘gender’ and ‘violence’ as experiential concepts into the urban framework. I use the term ‘intersection’ as a heuristic device to examine how frontline workers come to understand gender as a relationship of inequality that produces conditions of violence. I term this intersection ‘gender/violence’. The second intersection, ‘frontline’, further underscores how negotiations of the public–private divide in urban spaces, women’s caring labour in supporting survivors of violence and the resultant forms of gendered agency are interconnected. I argue that such a holistic understanding of women’s everyday actions of resisting and negotiating structural and gendered violence contributes to recent urban scholarship on gender and violence and furthers our understandings of agency, solidarity and resilience.

From the taxi drivers’ rear-view mirror: masculinity, marginality and sexual violence in India’s capital city, Delhi

The Delhi Gang Rape and other public sexual violence cases have led Delhi to acquire the dubious distinction of being called India’s ‘rape capital’. This has been accompanied by an outcry for guaranteeing ‘women’s safety’ in the city. The growing incidence of violence against women in urban India, more generally, is said to point to a crisis of masculinity, where the confidence shown by women entering higher education, the workplace and the public arena seems to trigger insecurity among men who are used to being in charge. Political leaders and the media have repeatedly portrayed low-income male migrants as being responsible for such violence. How do working-class migrant men construct their own masculinity, and perceive of women’s access to public spaces? To answer this question, this article explores the narratives of twelve working-class migrant men, all of whom are associated with a kin-based taxi stand in affluent South Delhi. The narratives are based on interviews, group discussions and participant observation conducted primarily in 2013.

The Representation of Gender and Sexuality in Priya’s Shakti (2012)

As a response to the emerging discourse on violence against women in the aftermath of the heinous 2012 Delhi gang-rape case, filmmaker Ram Devineni and his collaborators Dan Goldman and Lina Shrivastava created Priya’s Shakti – India’s first augmented reality comic book geared towards young teenage children. This essay analyzes how the comic book represents Priya as a rape survivor. Using my interviews with Devineni and an analysis of the reception of Priya’s Shakti, I argue that this work’s success is a testament to the new forms of media that are being deployed across class and location, to create new conversations about taboo topics like female sexuality and rape. These new graphic media narratives, I contend, redeploy the power of mythological characters that are inspired by the classic Amar Chitra Katha comics. By recasting these mythological characters, they invite readers to see all cultural norms about gender and sexuality as malleable rather than fixed; this opens up a new space for exploring how a rape culture may be challenged and changed.

Identifying to dis-identify: occidentalist feminism, the Delhi gang rape case and its internal others

Euro-American feminism’s embeddedness in a neo-liberal geo-political framework has created new though contested spaces for knowledge production among scholars, practitioners and policy-makers. In particular, a theoretical tool that has lost its transformatory potential is disidentification, specifically as a signifier for forging collective activism within Europe. In the age of global mobility and border-crossings, Western feminist disidentification is increasingly framed through a pre-conceived notion of the ‘other’ as dis-empowered, exotic and violent. These faulty identifications rather than integrating multi-ethnic intersectional identities deepen the cleavages, especially within the academy. This article draws on two case studies that emerged following the Delhi gang rape case (2012) in New Delhi, India. These studies highlight how debates within the western academy are largely framed from the standpoint of the empowered European feminist self. Thus disidentification, rather than being a process for unpacking hegemonic discourses, becomes, instead, yet another way of packaging new hierarchies of knowledge.

#30ContraTodas : a repercussão de um caso de violência de gênero na luta feminista

#30ContraTodas is a campaign that emerged on social networks, following a case of gang rape in Rio de Janeiro. The crime against the 16-year-old victim has generated strong repercussions on social networks. In the week of the event, about one million tweets marked with #30ContraTodas were counted. In this article, we analyze the contribution of messages published on Twitter for Feminist Studies and for the fight against rape culture, especially in Brazil, which has high rates of violence against women. The study is conducted under the methodologies of discourse analysis and structural network analysis.

Uncovering Rape Culture

This study examines the news content and experiences of male and female Indian journalists to explore and understand the influence of patriarchal socialization on newsgathering and reporting processes in coverage of the Delhi gang rape case of 2012. Findings suggest that many male and female journalists acknowledge the existence of sexist norms that govern rape-related reporting in India. Female journalists are more actively trying to change the ways that rape and sexual assault were covered historically, by employing non-traditional story angles. But while female journalists often experience the “sharp end of the deal,” some fail to acknowledge the influence of patriarchal hegemony because of their deep integration in the system that revels in their subordination in a male-dominated environment.

Polyrhythms of Citizenship

This talk was presented as a keynote address at the Gendered Citizenship: Manifestations and Performance Conference, January 6, 2015, at the University of Warwick. In this forty-two minute audio-essay, Roy theorizes what she calls polyrhythmic citizenship, the way the intelligibility of the concept of citizenship plays out, much like music, across different contexts and cultures. She discusses “transformative constitutionalism” and “insurgent citizenship” as the component parts of this citizenship, and takes for her key examples the founding of the Indian state and its constitution, and the Delhi gang rape case of 2012 which resulted in the death of Jyoti Singh.