With school just starting, there's a lot running through students' minds during the work week: homework, books, football games and how many people you recognize in class, just to name a few. Another issue not so school related, however, is the attractiveness of the professor or TA. Not to say that this is a generalization for all students, but all the same it's not unheard of for a friend or roommate to gush about how cute the foreign language TA was, or how hot the new professor looked during lecture. It seems like such a harmless comment, but what about if, or when, it goes too far?
College campuses unfortunately are far too familiar with incidences of statutory rape. In 2001 alone, Dane County encountered 165 recorded incidences of rape, and that does not include the victims who failed to report the crime. In all of the reported cases, over 25 percent of the victims were under the age of 13.
Generally, it is assumed that in rape cases the victim is usually a female. This is not an unreasonable assumption, due to the advancing cases of female victim rape reports available to the public that have covered the media within the last few years.
One report that hits very close to home is the recent removal of Keith Cohen, a comparative literature professor at UW-Madison, for pursuing a 14-year-old boy for sex. However, women have been the seducers in the most recent nationally headlined cases.
Instances of rape with male victims are not such a heated topic of controversy, merely due to the fact that a male rape victim is not as common as female rape victims. However, according to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in 1998, 17 percent of rape cases involved a male victim. In a mere one-year period, the statistics of male rape victims increased by one percent.
Stories of teachers pursuing their underage students have appeared on newspaper pages far too commonly recently. As if this isn't disturbing enough, it has been reported that many women rapists have sued their "lovers" for child support — and won!
One of the more recent cases hitting news desks is that of 42-year-old Sandra Beth Giesel, who allegedly had sex with underage male students at a New York Catholic school where she was employed. The mother of four was fired from her job in June. Another case involves a young, attractive (as described by the defendant's attorney) woman who engaged in sex numerous times with an underage student. She claimed insanity, and plea-bargaining broke down because it was determined that she would never survive in prison.
It is hard to determine which is more outrageous; the frequency of this type of crime or those who perpetrated the crime merely receiving a slap on the wrist. Regardless of whether the youths in question were willing to partake in sexual acts is not the issue at hand. It is the fact that these women are not taking full responsibility for their immature decisions, nor are they feeling the complete wrath of their childish actions.
Many might say to these cases that the young boys are at fault also, sighting that they probably pursued their teachers. This idea is both absurd and just plain stupid. When reports come in about young females being raped, blame is never placed on them about being too seductive or flirtatious, and this shouldn't be the case for young boys either. At the tender age of 13, most boys are still completely immature and ignorant when it comes to sexuality. To rule that these boy victims are responsible enough to provide child support after being raped is just the same as assuming they've thought everything through at the time of their sexual encounters.
Women should not be given access to child support after their poor decisions and inappropriate actions, or be given a lesser sentence because of their gender. After all, it is still a crime when the rapist is the woman, and therefore should be treated like one.
Estie Kruglak ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in communication arts.