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Our study of a small sampling of females who are characterized as "victims" of sexual offenses, and of a sampling of males who are characterized as perpetrators of sexual offenses, has yielded important insights which defy the popular assumptions and cliches on this emotionally charged subject. Many, perhaps most, accusations of sexual offenses are false or grossly exaggerated. As many as half of all reported "rapes" never really occurred. Of those assaults which really amounted to rape, only about one in ten produce any physical injury to the victim. In the large majority of cases, the accusation is vastly exaggerated by the "victim" and expressions of "injury" are enormously embellished. Perhaps as many as a third (one in three) accusations of sexual fondling or intercourse with a girl below an arbitrary age of consent are invented by the "child" or, more often, invented by an authority figure such as a parent or teacher. The age of consent for girls is set artificially high, long past the age of reproductive maturity. It is far older than the age at which parents actually expect their daughters to act responsibly. A child can be tried as an adult for a crime, but can't legally give sexual consent! Almost all sexual activity between men and "under-age" females is consensual. There is physical injury in fewer than 2% of the cases. Most of the supposed victims are adolescents who are biologically mature enough to deliver babies. About 6 out of 10 of the adolescent females have had sexual contact with clumsy and brutal peers who are far more liable to do them injury. Conventional "wisdom" is actually a line of official propaganda without any factual basis. It asserts that false accusations of sexual offenses are "rare," and that false accusations by children are very rare. That view is simply not correct. Exactly the opposite is true. The misleading line of propaganda is a misguided effort to lend credibility to allegations by females that they have been "violated." The strategy is a conscious effort to shift the burden of proof. Usually, the accused man is confronted with the impossible task of proving himself not guilty. The very fact that there is an accusation made by a woman is "proof" of his guilt. The fact is that false and exaggerated accusations of sexual offenses are quite common. They are used to blackmail, manipulate and to injure the accused man, often in insidious acts of revenge. In many instances no sexual activity at all took place. In fully 3 out of 4 of the false and exaggerated accusations, the sexual activity was essentially consensual. In fully 90% of the cases there is no physical injury to the victim." Where there is "injury," typically it is no more than the "injury" seen in ordinary, consensual sexual activity. At least 25% of the men imprisoned for sexual offenses are not actually guilty of the charges for which they are imprisoned. The present system requires that, in order to have even a hope for release, the man must lie. He is required to "admit" guilt. Often, these men must invent an imaginary event to "confess" and then to pretend to have been "cured." Our society values females substantially over males. Males are expected to endure substantial injury without recourse. Females, by contrast, are expected to be protected, pampered and coddled. This cultural norm reflects the historical religious view of females as valuable property and the source of pleasure in a cultural system dominated by the often savage competition between males. "Victims" of sexual offenses are very seldom injured. There is no question that, in a very few instances, females are killed as part of a sexual crime. Most of these tragic murders are really the result of the inhumane punishments imposed upon male offenders. Some men kill their victims in order to protect themselves. The punishment for rape is essentially the same as for murder. Having nothing to lose, the man kills the victim to prevent her from appearing against him. The injury done to children by sexual molestation is trivial. In most cases, the sexual molestation is little more than "education" or, at worst, annoyance. Virtually all children "victims" will eventually have sexual activity in any event. The "molestation" simply exposes the "victim" to a somewhat earlier introduction to adult roles. There is nothing injurious to sexuality. It's good and pleasant, not an evil. Children exposes to it are simply not injured. For a variety of psychological, emotional and physiological reasons the injury done by adult males to boys tends to be substantially more significant than any injury done to girls. Boys who are homosexually molested sometimes have difficulty in their adult sexual identifications and their image of self worth. Still, the actual injury typically done to them is about on a par with losing an important sporting game. The legal system and, even more, the "social welfare" system causes all the injury done to children "victims" of sexual molestation. The real damage, especially emotional and social damage done to children is done by the socio-political system, not by the "offender." Where female "victims" of sexual molestation and intercourse and adult males are compared, those girls who simply hid their activity or accepted it, showed no lasting injury. Those girls who were "saved" form sexual "abuse" by the social welfare system, suffered significant psychic trauma. The adult victims of the few genuine rapes and sexual assaults which actually occur, show fairly substantial emotional and psychological injury even where physical injury is slight. The typical injury appears to be about equivalent to being mugged or fired from a valued job. Those women who report and prosecute the assault show far greater degrees of injury. Men who are prosecuted as sexual offenders show by far the greatest injuries, of course. The men are ruined. In our culture, however, we expect men to endure such injuries even where they are not warranted. Men are both socially and biologically expendable. The punishment of those convicted of sexual offenses is extremely severe. It reflects the hostilities that males harbor for other males who engage in sexual activity. Punishments reflect extremes of emotional and religious biases as opposed to reason. If the punishment for the crime should "fit" the crime, that is, if the severity of the punishment should be proportional to the severity of the actual injury done by the offense, then sexual offenses are punished far too severely. Present punishments are cruel and irrational. They reflect the sexual obsession and callousness of our socio-political culture. The typical punishment for rape is at least 5 times more extreme than it should be based on injury and harm done. The punishment for "consensual" sexual molestation of an "under-age" female is at least 18 times more extreme than it should be based on injury. At most, violent rape should be punished no more stringently than any other physical assault, say a barroom brawl. The punishment should be based upon the actual physical injury before the "victim" embellishes and exaggerates it. It's not rational to behave as if an assault upon the sexual parts of a female's body is, per se, worse than an assault upon some other part of her body, such as her face. Similarly, it is irrational to hold that an assault with a penis is wore than an assault done with a fist. Because males in places of authority value and have traditionally valued the female sexual parts more than the other body parts, they view the "damaging" of those parts with "pollution" from another male's penis as somehow far worse than punching her in the face with a fist. Punishments have developed reflecting the male bias that a woman is nothing but a device to hold valuable sexual parts. She is nothing much of or by herself. On average, the punishment for violent rape should not exceed a year and should be in proportion to the actual injury done to the victim. In almost all cases, it would make better sense for the "offender" to pay an indemnity to his victim over a period of time. Unless there is real, physical injury requiring medical treatment, there should be no imprisonment for sexual molestation of children. Most "victims" benefit from the activity as much as they are harmed by it. Most sexual activity should be decriminalized. No sexual conduct should be criminal. Assault and injury should be criminal. At present there is no punishment for the many females who falsely accuse males off sexual offenses. It may be wise to impose a fine on such females. Certainly the so-called "rape shield law" which hides the identity of the accuser while ruining the accused man should be changed. Sexual obsession is politically popular. In their obsession, political and social extremists have appropriated the term "predator" to apply to male sexual offenders. The term is intended to dehumanize the offender and to make him appear both savage and animal. In appealing to the fears and irrational emotions of people the extremists intend to instill hostility. In a broader sense, the term is a condemnation of all male sexuality. Human males tend to pursue and seek out females as do most other male mammals. It's a system that has functioned effectively to perpetuate the species. A male is not a "predator" because he follows his natural appetites and pursues and tires his best to seduce females. That's the genetic imperative at work. To be a "predator" a man (in our legal culture it cannot be a woman) would have to kill or seriously injure a person. That almost never actually occurs. The term is used simply to malign, not to help or to describe the individual. In the same way, sexual offenders are supposedly "sick" or insane. Of course, that, too is not true. One's sexual tastes or sexual preferences are not a "sickness" or a mental aberration. Society must tolerate variations and ranges of conduct and tastes if it is to contain more than just clones of Big Brother. Having said that, however, it is reasonable to society to protect its members from excessive injury, but not from every little bump and anomaly. Recommend that society be tolerant of diverse sexual attitudes and discard insults, labels and generalizations. Recommend that all accusations of sexual assault be received with great skepticism and that proof of guilt, as opposed to proof of innocence, be required. Recommend that all sexual activities be decriminalized and that only conduct which is actually substantially injurious be criminal. Recommend that punishment for sexual offenses be proportional to the real harm done and that false accusations of sexual offense be punished. Recommend that men imprisoned for sexual offenses be released at the expiration of a year of their sentence or be resentenced to reflect actual injury. Recommend that all the brain washing schemes and "therapy" aimed at reeducating male sexuality and individual sexual tastes be discontinued. |
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