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Salient. Official Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 44 No. 9. May 4 1981

[Introduction]

Photo of a male shadow attacking a woman

Rape is a crime which is becoming increasingly more violent and frequent. In 1977 and 1978 there were 34 indictments of rape, 28 of these were convictions. In 1979 there was a dramatic increase of 123 indictments while the number of convictions was 61. Although there has been a sharp rise in indictments of rape the number of convictions has decreased.

Rape is a brutal crime, a display of power by men against women. This relationship of oppressor and oppressed reinforces the traditional roles that are set down by society.

In a society which sees women as just a pretty face and a body and continually prepetrates this image in the media, advertising and various pornographic material, rape is seen as merely an extension of this concept. The conditioning of men by these ideas produces the actual crime of rape and its justification. Men who are conditioned to think of women as mere sex objects, subservient to their will and needs, rape to show their dominance and to reinforce the role that they have been given -one of superiority.