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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 20. August 8 1977
Rape Centre
Rape Centre
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Rape is a subject still surrounded with prejudices but there are signs of enlightenment.
The Evidence Amendment Bill was introduced tut year by Jim Mc Lay MP and is now adopted as a Government measure. The new legislation eliminates the unsatisfactory practice of procuring evidence relating to the sexual experience of the complainant, leading in the past to the charge that the victim herself was on trial.
This is a good start, but other aspects of rape are overdue for attention such as the corroboration of a rape complaint and police investigation procedures. Whether the crime of rape should be replaced by offences involving degrees of sexual assault is another matter, as is the whole question of non-consenting intercourse.
Two books have contributed to the enlightenment.
From America in 1975 came Susan Brownmiller's "Against Our Will" a feminist study of the history sociology and politics of rape. From England this year came Barbara Toner's "The Facts of Rape" which devotes considerable space to recent changes especially those following the outcry raised by the 1975 House of Lord's ruling that no man could be convicted of rape if he believed the woman had consented !
One recently published book which is against this mainstream of enlightenment is the Report of the Royal Commission on Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion.
| 1. | Because of the difficulties of administration, such as whether it should be performed only after a conviction. To be consistent the same administrative difficulties should also apply to cases of incest and intercourse with a severely subnormal woman, but they are glossed over. |
| 2. | Because women would cry rape and thus abuse the law. To support this contention is the astonishing claim (pg 213) that between April 1967 and November 1971 in the State of Colorado, no rapist was charged with the crime of rape, much less convicted of it, but 290 abortions were carried out on the grounds of rape. This argument was plucked uncritically from a book devoted to the anti-abortion cause. Had the Commission checked on such an unplausable argument they could have found in the US Bureau of the Census that for example in 1970, when the population of the State of Coldrado was just over 2.2 million there were over 850 forcible rapes known to the police and the Colorado rate was the highest in the country ! |
Coming close to home a positive step was the establishment in May of this year of the Wellington Rape Crisis Centre. The centre provides a service of support for women who have been raped or for women who want to talk about rape. Volunteers are rostered throughout Wellington and they can be contacted any evening by telephone.
Wellington Rape. Crisis Phone 898 288
NZ Political Science Conference
Auckland University 26 - 28 August. Enquiries to Pols. Department