Today’s POV blog

In an exclusive story, CBS nearly early 90,000 women reported they were raped in the United States last year and that another 75,000 went unreported.  Of those reported, there is an estimated, paltry, arrest rate of about 25%. When you compare this to the 79% arrest rate for murder and 51% arrest rate for aggravated assault, these numbers are frighteningly low — especially to women who may at some point face the decision to report an assault.

For those women who have reported a rate in the last year, and when a rape kit was collected, some 20,000 kits remained untested. At least twelve major American cities: Anchorage, Baltimore, Birmingham, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Oakland, Phoenix, and San Diego are not clear on how many rape kits in storage are untested.

While rape is typically thought of as assault on women, as many as 1 in 5 males will be sexually abused before the age of 18, according to data from the FBI, and about 1 in 5 adult rape victims is male. Male rape does not only happen in prisons, though that is common. Male rape, like the rape of women and children, can happen almost anywhere and with little regard for how strong the man.

In 1977, Roman Polanski, plied a thirteen-year-old Samantha Gailey with champagne and a quaalude before having her pose for topless photos, joining her nude in a hot tub, and then performing oral sex and intercourse on the young teen. Following his indictment, Polanski agreed to a plea deal that spared him prison time, but when it seemed that the judge might not honor the deal, Polanski fled. He was arrested earlier this year — more than 30 years later.

Though rape is extremely violent, it is often coupled with other violence such as physical beatings and even murder. Authorities have been investigating convicted rapist Anthony Sowell, 50, after discovering two bodies in a fresh grave at his home on 29 October 2009, as reported by NYDailyNews.com. Since that date, nine more bodies have been found. Investigations have just begun into unexplained disappearances and rapes in other cities in which Sowell resided.

On 24 October 2009, a 15-year-old girl was gang raped, robbed, and beaten outside of her high school homecoming dance as a group looked on and did nothing. Investigators in that case are weighing options for charging the onlookers with a crime.

Escalating the beyond rape and into additional violent behavior at least raises the propensity for having the crime thoroughly investigated and solved, but it’s unpalatable to think one has to be murdered just to have their rape solved.

There have been countless crimes over the years where witnesses to crimes don’t testify, don’t intervene, or worse yet, don’t even call the police. Genovese Syndrome (also known as the bystander effect) is the name given to people who witness a crime or violent act and don’t want to get involved or just stand idly by and watch. The term was coined after Kitty Genovese was raped and murdered in New York in the ’60s. When asked why he didn’t report it, a witness in a nearby building stated, “I didn’t want to get involved.”

Such was the case recently when a girl was gang-raped the evening of her school’s homecoming dance. Police estimate over 20 people were involved or stood by and watched; some even laughing. Witnesses did nothing, not because they didn’t want to get involved, but because the group as a whole had decided to do nothing and thus reaffirmed the notion that what was occurring was acceptable.

Should these witnesses be charged with the same crimes as the actual perpetrators? Are they just as guilty for not standing up for the victim? Is there another side to this story that makes their actions justifiable? Does it matter?

In California, it is illegal not to report a crime if it involves children, but it only covers those who are 14 and younger, so the victim of the homecoming gang-rape is excluded (she is 15 years old). One person is all it would have taken to call the police, or just say stop. Should apathy be punished?

Lavinia Masters was raped at the age of 13. After 24 years, her case was reopened and tested for DNA. A match was made to a criminal already serving time in prison for a number of unrelated cases. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations on her case, the man was not prosecuted. She has since become an advocate for getting rape kits from cold cases tested.

Comparatively speaking, the science for evaluating DNA evidence is rather new. In previous years, when a serious crime was committed where DNA was present, the DNA was stored as evidence with the rest of the case — waiting for technological advances. This created a backlog of cold cases. With such a large queue waiting to be tested, many cases are still waiting to be solved. Often cases are only re-opened when they meet the criteria for an exceptionally heinous crime (as was the case with Jennifer Schuett), crimes may go cold until long after the statute of limitations expires, thus negating the need to continue to save DNA.

In Canada, unless the crime is sufficiently petty, the defendant can be charged at any time in the future. This policy would give our law enforcement all the time they need to solve cases and with a solved case, bring closure to the victims. Lavinia certainly has her work cut out for her.