News Flash: Bill to increase sex-crime penalties

The article I found in the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Bill would increase sex-crime penalties” explains how California legislators are looking to change the way rapists, and other sex offenders are tried in courts and penalized for sex-related crimes. After teenager Chelsea King was raped and murdered in San Diego, these legislators introduced “Chelsea’s Law” in an attempt to stop treating all sex offenders the same, increase parole and jail time for sex offenders and prohibit sex offenders from visiting parks where there are a lot of children. Before “Chelsea’s Law” California had a “one-strike” law for some sexual crimes which put rapists and child molesters behind bars for 25 years to life depending on prior convictions and if the offender seriously injured the victim. However, the article explains that if “Chelsea’s Law” had been implemented before Chelsea’s rapist and murderer was convicted, he would probably be sentenced to a life in prison, and if he were to be released would face a lifetime of parole with GPS monitoring, yet “Chelsea’s Law” is pushing for a life sentence without parole. As the legislators explained, this is the big step in a long fight against sex-related crimes, and while I think making legal steps to further protect children and other victims will help reduce future crimes, I think we also need to look at why so many sex offenders, which are usually men, feel compelled to commit theses sex-related acts of violence.

After doing a little more research on sex-crimes in California, I discovered that before “Chelsea’s Law” there was also “Megan’s Law” and then “Jessica’s Law” which, as the article explains, prohibited sex offenders “from living within 2,000 feet of parks and schools, prompting more than 2,300 sex offenders to register as being homeless.” “Megan’s Law” was the original law that made information regarding registered sex offenders available to the public. Thus from “Megan’s Law” to “Chelsea’s Law” there has been a much-needed progress made in terms of prosecuting sex offenders; however, the problem is that many women, men and children are still being attacked and molested by these registered and non-registered offenders, thus how many more young girls will it take to be raped and murdered before the number of sex-crimes is dramatically reduced? Since “Megan’s Law” was passed in 1994, the number of forcible rapes per year has decreased, with relative fluctuations, yet as of 2008, the number of forcible rapes was 89,000 (U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation). Thus even though rape rates are decreasing, the number of rates per year in the U.S. is still dangerously high. It only takes one rape for a young girl’s life to be changed forever, along with the pain felt by the young girl’s family. As Chelsea’s parents explained in the article, “We were never activists or advocates before, we had never done an interview. We wish we never had. But this is what we’re going to do now.” Thus the dramatic steps to increase jail time to sex offenders to up to a life sentence without parole, may help drive this rape rate down even further and prevent sex offenders from committing even more crimes.

While I think increasing the penalties for sex-crimes is a practical and beneficial step in protecting rape and sex-crime victims, not only is there still a high number of rapes per year, but there are also so many more rapes that go unreported for a variety of reasons. As a result, I do not think we can rely solely on the legal system to deal with sex-related violence, because in reality regardless of the laws and their enforcement, sex-related crimes are still going to happen. Thus in order to protect future victims and ourselves and our families, we need to realize that rape is an act of power and begin to understand why and where this compulsion comes from. As Brownmiller explains in her book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, “the typical American perpetrator of forcible rape is little more than an aggressive, hostile youth who chooses to do violence to women” (274). The typical sex offender is not a crazy psychopath who just wants to have sex, but in most cases is a regular guy looking to exert his domination and power over a woman by force. Thus where did this compulsion to flaunt one’s power, specifically male power over females come from? Brownmiller and Whitney Walker explain that this need to use power against women is a direct result of the patriarchal and competitive society that we live in today. As Walker explains, men do not walk down the street afraid that a woman might attack them yet if a woman walks down the street late at night and a man approaches behind her, she will inevitably feel that sense of fear for her own safety. Brownmiller explains that this fear will constantly exist in the minds of women because the fact “that some men rape provides a sufficient threat to keep all women in a constant state of intimidation” (282). But why do men feel compelled to exert their domination over women even in a patriarchal society? Is this competition for power inherent to the system or can we somehow do away with it?

While it is true that women do rape and molest men, a majority of sexual-related crimes consist of a male offender and a female victim, which I think is a reflection of the society that we live in today. All men are not sexual offenders or molesters, however I do think it’s safe to say a majority of men have been socialized to think they are stronger, smarter, and generally have more physical and social power than women. Some men may translate this domination into physical acts of force or violence, but what about the men who do not act on this domination but still know it to be true? Is this mindset acceptable as long as the man isn’t hurting anyone? Of course it is better than displaying this power through rape or molestations, but I do not think sexual-related crimes will ever be dramatically reduced until we change this idea that men are dominant over women. However, since this idea would require a complete transformation of the system we live in today, how can we prevent men from looking to act on this notion of domination? Walker would suggest that women should take the initiative and learn to defend themselves from possible attackers. However what about thirteen-year-old girls who do not stand a chance against a strong thirty-year-old man? Also, why is it the responsibility of the woman to defend herself, when it should be the responsibility of the man to not commit an act of violence? Although Walker argues that learning to defend oneself removes or at least reduces that sense of fear of possibly being raped, I think that fear will still exist as long as society tells us that men are dominant over women.

As we have discussed in class, victims of sex-crimes have much higher suicide rates and are generally much more psychologically damaged than victims of other crimes, which is why there is and should be such a focus on protecting our children from possible rapes or molestations. Although sex-crimes do seem to be highly correlated with the need for men to exert their dominance over women, it is very difficult to remove this masculine domination driving this act of violence because it is so deeply embedded in our society. As a result, looking to prevent or reduce the number of rapes through increasing legal punishments for sex offenders is a practical and necessary step in helping young girls and women, especially, feel safer knowing the law is making more efforts to protect them.