A Feminist Gets Married

I got hitched Saturday. Beforehand, I had been sheepish about telling my students I was getting married. It seemed inconsistent with my professional persona as an independent, fearless, freedom-fighting law professor. So I waited until the last possible minute to mention it. “OK, I have a quick announcement,” I began a recent Criminal Law class. “I do apologize, but I have to cancel next Thursday’s class because… um… well… my partner and I have decided to get married.” My students then began to clap. Gads, this was worse than I imagined it would be. The applause grew.

“No, no—please don’t clap. This is a truly freakish event that was never supposed to happen to someone like me.” Applause turned to laughter. Now I’d gotten myself in a fix.

Gavin had faced none of this angst. He had told his journalism students months ago, and he’d enjoyed their applause, while I skulked around my school as if I had a dirty little secret.

I’ve critiqued the institution of marriage for as long as I can remember. Heterosexist. Patriarchal. The usual list of sins. The unit on marriage in my Feminist Legal Theory class begins with the English common law of coverture in which a female’s legal existence is erased by its merger into her husband’s at marriage.

So what’s a self-respecting feminist to do when she decides that a public commitment to her sweetheart is the next step in her spiritual and emotional growth? What happens when she loves someone in a way that—despite societal evidence—burbles with the hope of lasting a lifetime?

No new last name. No veil. No white dress. No “love, honor, and obey.” No father “giving the bride away.” No throwing the bouquet. No garter—goddess, no garter toss. No bachelor party. No church. No dieting for the big day. No updo, no French manicure. And no wife.

I told Gavin, “OK, look, if we get married, I will not be your wife. I never want you to refer to me as your ‘wife.’ I’m serious.”

He was a bit taken aback. “Why?”

“Let’s look up the etymology of the word.” 2002 American Heritage College Dictionary. “ME wif <>wif. See ghwibh- in App.” So we looked up the root word “ghwibh-” in the appendix: “Shame, also pudenda.”

No joke.

Then we looked up “husband” and followed its root (“bheue”) into the appendix. “To be, exist, grow.” So he gets to be, exist, and grow while I am labeled a shame-pudendum? I don’t think so.

Rejecting so many labels and traditions forced us to create new ones. A surprise: that creative process was more meaningful and fun than I’d imagined it would be. What emerged was magical, warm, celebratory, and quite personal.

Thankfully, there is precedent for marriage under protest: abolitionists Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell’s 1855 declaration of dissent against the patriarchal institution signed upon their wedding day. And a dear friend of mine from law school spoke in her ceremony about continuing the fight for gay and lesbian marriage when she and her partner tied the legal knot back in 1995. So I had footsteps to follow.

Meanwhile my feminist students, gay and straight, seemed genuinely thrilled with my late-coming announcement. “When I heard you were getting married,” one said to me last week, “I was so happy. If even you can find someone, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us!”

A Second Rape Charge Against Milwaukee Cop

On March 2, 2006, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: "Milwaukee Police Officer Steven J. Lelinski, already facing charges of sexually assaulting a woman last fall, was charged Thursday with a similar crime against a different woman in 2002 while wearing his gun and full uniform. Lelinski, 42, a politically prominent officer, was charged Feb. 13 with assaulting a 22-year-old woman while off duty in October. In that case, he was charged with second-degree sexual assault, attempted second-degree sexual assault and indecent exposure. On Thursday, he was charged with two counts of third-degree sexual assault for the 2002 incident. The two cases resemblances, most prominently that each woman said Lelinski left a $20 bill after the assaults. Police sources have said that Lelinski has been investigated in the past for similar allegations, but no charges were ever filed. Prosecutors have declined to comment on past cases." The article is here.

Sexual Assault Reports from Katrina Keep Coming In

On March 3, 2006, Women's E-News reports: Six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, advocates are still collecting rape reports from sex-assault survivors whose stories were lost in the storm. They hope the new database will be valuable during future crises. The story is here.

NAESV Statement on Management of Sex Offenders

The Board of Directors of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV) has just adopted the following policy statement on the management of sex offenders:

Community Management of Convicted Sex Offenders: Registration, Electronic Monitoring, Civil Commitment, Mandatory Minimums, and Residency Restrictions

Policy Summary

The National Alliance to End Sexual Violence (NAESV) believes that polices formulated to manage sex offenders must have as a primary goal the prevention of future sexual victimization. Such policies must hold sex offenders accountable while providing support and safety for victims and their families. The National Alliance supports proposals which are grounded in research, include collaborative approaches which are multi disciplinary and multi agency based, and are assessed critically and routinely to ensure their effectiveness. The National Alliance strongly encourages and supports primary prevention policies and practices which we believe will ultimately reduce sexual victimization by perpetrators.

Problem Statement

States and communities across the nation are developing measures to manage adult sex offenders with the express purpose of increasing safety for victims and communities. Unfortunately, not all measures currently being enacted do, in fact, increase safety. Some put communities at higher risk, while others create a false sense of security. In addition, community education is critical in the effective management of sex offenders, yet is often not a strong component of management policies. Lastly, measures should not replace or reduce comprehensive, evidence-driven strategies to reduce sex offense recidivism. Comprehensive strategies include:
* Actuarial risk-assessments
* Polygraphs
* In-depth treatment provided by qualified practitioners, paid for in whole or in part by the offenders themselves
* Intensive supervision and monitoring by specially trained probation and parole officers
* Community prevention and education, including social messaging campaigns on respectful interaction
* Advocacy on behalf of victims

!CAUTION!

Victim and community measures to manage sex offenders ordinarily only address convicted sex offenders. However, research shows that the vast majority of sex offenders are never reported, let alone tried and convicted.

Contrary to the popular myth of "stranger danger," children and youth are far more at risk of sexual abuse from adults they know. The same holds true for adults victims of sexual assault. Research shows that the vast majority of sex offenders know their victims, yet measures are generally designed to address situations in which the sex offender is presumed to be a stranger to the victim.

Community members need to understand the limitations of current measures to manage convicted sex offenders, because without this critical knowledge, the enactment of measures can lead to a false sense of security, thereby putting children at even greater risk.

Guidelines for the Development of Effective Measures

1. The goal of measures for the management of sex offenders is to increase victim and community safety, therefore, the first question is, "Will the proposed measure increase safety?" The way to determine if a proposed measure will increase safety is through the application of research-based knowledge. Proposed measures should be developed from a strong foundation of documented research results.

2. Public resources are limited, so those resources allocated for the management of convicted sex offenders should primarily be directed to those at highest risk of re-offense. Highest risk can most accurately be assessed through the application of evidence-based actuarial risk-assessment tools. This assessment should occur prior to sentencing.

The risk of re-offense cannot be accurately determined by the seriousness of the charge for which a sex offender was convicted, as numerous factors can lead to offenders being charged or convicted of lesser crimes than what actually occurred.

3. In order for communities to most effectively protect their citizens from the danger of sexual assault, comprehensive sex offender management policies must include community education. This education should consist of:

* Information regarding sexual assault (myths and facts, incidence and prevalence data, victim information)
* Information regarding sex offenders and sex offending behavior
* Information regarding prevention and risk reduction measures, including the strengths and limitations of victim and community measures
* Information regarding resources for victims, offenders, and families
* Social messaging campaigns on respectful interaction

These educational components should be developed in conjunction with police, probation and parole, sex offender treatment providers, rape crisis victim advocates, and municipal and/or county officials.

Examples of Victim and Community Measures

1. Sex Offender Registration and Public Notification

Sex offender registration can be useful for law enforcement agencies in their identification and tracking of convicted sex offenders. However, over-inclusive public notification can actually be harmful to public safety by diluting the ability to identify the most dangerous offenders and by disrupting the stability of low-risk offenders in ways that may increase their risk of re-offense. Therefore, NAESV believes that internet disclosure and community notification should be limited to those offenders who pose the highest risk of re-offense.

In addition, it is NAESV's position that internet disclosure and community notification should be limited to those offenders whose public disclosure will not immediately or implicitly identify the victim. Without such limitations, victims who are related to the offender may be deterred from reporting their crimes.

Any internet disclosure or community notification should include comprehensive community education. Regarding internet disclosure, the community education components should be shown on pages required to be viewed prior to the listing of sex offenders, so that community members are fully apprised prior to seeing the listing.

2. Electronic Monitoring, such as G.P.S. (Global Positioning Satellite) Tracking

Electronic monitoring can be an effective tool in controlling offender behavior during probation or parole, as preliminary studies indicate that electronic monitoring can provide greater surveillance of offenders under supervision. It is not yet clear, however, to what extent such monitoring deters recidivism (see for example, Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, Report No. 05-19, April 2005). Given the limited research results and the limited availability of public funds, NAESV believes electronic monitoring may be used most effectively in situations requiring intensive supervision and monitoring, such as for those offenders at highest risk of re-offense.

3. Residency Restrictions

A number of states and locales are considering residency restrictions in which sex offenders may not reside within a certain radius of schools, parks, skating rinks, certain neighborhoods, etc, and may not utilize resources such as group homes, homeless shelters and hurricane shelters. However, there is no evidence that these laws protect children. In fact, those states that have studied the issue carefully have found no relationship between sex offense recidivism and sex offenders' proximity to schools or other places where children congregate (see for example, Minnesota Department of Corrections, Level Three Sex Offenders Residential Placement Issues, 2003 Report to the Legislature; Colorado Department of Public Safety, Report on Safety Issues Raised by Living Arrangements for and Location of Sex Offenders in the Community, 2004).

Moreover, residency restrictions are having unintended consequences that decrease public safety. For example, Iowa Department of Public Safety statistics show that the number of sex offenders who are unaccounted for has doubled since a residency restriction law went into effect in June 2005 (Iowa Sex Offender Registry, data as of February 15, 2006). Sex offenders who continually move or become homeless as a result of residency restrictions are more difficult to supervise and monitor, thereby increasing the risk of re-offense. In addition, the establishment of sex offender residency laws is creating a domino effect, in that once a law is established in a community or state, the neighboring communities and states are considering similar laws so as to keep sex offenders from moving to their jurisdictions.

Research has shown that sex offenders with domestic stability (stable housing and social support) are less likely to commit new sex offenses compared to those offenders who lack such stability (Managing Sex Offenders in the Community: A National Overview, Lane Council of Governments, Eugene, Oregon, 2003). Because residency requirements cause instability, which may increase the risk of re-offense, NAESV opposes residency restrictions.

4. Mandatory Minimum Sentences

Long mandatory minimum sentences can have a number of negative consequences that serve to decrease, rather than increase, public safety. For example, lengthy mandatory minimum sentences sometimes result in prosecutors not filing charges or filing charges for a lesser crime than a sex offense, as well as increased plea bargains down to a lesser crime. Similarly, judges or juries may be less inclined to convict a defendant on a sex offense because of the mandatory minimum sentence. Long mandatory minimum sentences can also keep victims who were assaulted by someone they know from reporting the crime. All of these possible negative consequences can result in fewer sex offenders being prosecuted and/or tracked, thus NAESV opposes mandatory minimum sentences.

5. Civil Commitment

Civil Commitment statutes allow state authorities to hold sex offenders after their criminal sentences have expired if the offender is deemed too dangerous to be released. Such statutes usually mandate that these offenders be confined to a treatment facility until they are no longer an imminent risk to the community. Legal opinions about civil commitment have indicated that appropriate treatment must be made available to those who are confined involuntarily and that such confinement must not be oriented toward punishment.

Additional Resources

NAESV supports the effective management of sex offenders. For additional information on effective management, including victim and community measures, consult the following resources:
1. Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA) -www.atsa.com
2. Center for Sex Offender Management (CSOM) - www.csom.org
3. Florida Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (FATSA)- www.floridaatsa.com
4. Stop It Now! - www.stopitnow.com

Illinois Judge Backs Down on Forcing Victim to Watch Rape

An Illinois judge is backing down after threatening a rape victim with contempt of court if she continued to refuse to watch a 13-minute videotape of her alleged rape as part of her cross examination. The article reports:

"Appalled advocates sprang into action Tuesday after [Judge] Kennedy said he might find the Naperville woman, now 20, in contempt of court if she did not agree to watch and answer questions about the videotape in which two young men allegedly have sex with her. Defense attorneys on Tuesday asked the judge to drop the sexual assault charges if the woman did not watch the tape. The woman, who testified that she had been drinking on the night of the alleged assault and has no memory of it, said she had never seen the tape. 'I was in complete and utter shock,' said Lyn Schollett, general counsel for the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault. 'It's inconceivable a court would threaten the victim with jail.'"

The article is here.

Another Recent Finding on Extent of Sexual Violence

As Sarah Deer of the Tribal Law and Policy Institute points out, another important finding from the Jan. 2006 study, "Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Rape Victimization: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey" by the National Institute of Justice is: 34% of Native American women reported rape - more than 1 in 3 Native women. The study is still here.

Florida Wants to Overhaul Sex Offender Management

On Feb. 17, 2006, the Miami Herald reported that the Florida House Appropriations Commitee held a two-hour oversight hearing on the status of sex offender corrections in the state "prompted by a four-part Miami Herald investigative series published two weeks ago," which I previously blogged. The article continues, "The series, Predators Among Us, revealed a woefully underfunded program with loopholes that allow 60 percent of the men being held at the center to avoid treatment and a lack of follow-up and monitoring for offenders released from the facility." The article is here.

Book Review of Consent to Sexual Relations

The Stanford Law Review has just published a book review by Mark Kelman, vice dean at Stanford Law School, of Alan Wertheimer's latest book, Consent to Sexual Relations (Cambridge 2005). Wertheimer's book relies on evolutionary psychology to explain a supposed male propensity to rape women of child-bearing age, a theory I find unpersuasive.

Juvenile v. Adult Sex Offenders

The Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families has published an interview with David Burton, chair of education and training for the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, here. Choice questions and answers include:

Q: What are the differences between offenders who target adults and pedophiles? And assuming they're caught and serve time, what should happen to lower the risk that either group will offend again?
A: Generally speaking, those who abuse people of their own age, including date rapists, show more criminality -- substance abuse, robberies -- and overall aggressiveness. They are younger, on average, than child molesters because a lot of rape and that sort of aggression decreases with age. Child molesters are less criminal, meaning they have fewer other crimes. They may do nothing else but abuse children. Both groups have crime related cognitive distortions, or thoughts that don’t reflect social standards. Child molesters may think a child wants sex because they look at them, and a rapist may think the way a woman looks means she wants sex. So treatment needs to address those cognitive issues.

Q: How do juvenile sex offenders differ from adults?
A: They have higher trauma rates -- of sexual abuse and physical and emotional abuse. Clinically I’ve seen less deviant sexual interest, in rape or child molestation for example, than among adults. They might act in anger like adults, or out of deviant interest, but their internal dialogue is very different.

New Study on Extent of Rape

A Jan. 2006 study, "Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Rape Victimization: Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey" has just been released by the National Institute of Justice. The study is here. Among the important findings: one in every six women has been raped. More than half of female victims were raped before their 18th birthdays. Only one in five rape victims reports their victimization to police.

Civil Confinement for Sex Offenders

Feb. 9, 2006, Stateline.com reports that eight states are considering civil confinement measures for convicted sex offenders: Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota and West Virginia. The article is here. As the article puts it: "When the most dangerous sexual predators are due to leave prison in 16 states, officials can revoke their freedom and toss them into mental hospitals indefinitely."