Asking for It by Kate Harding

Author:Kate Harding
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2015-06-10T23:13:13+00:00

“Crime Has Consequences”

When we refuse to acknowledge that a victim’s testimony is legitimate evidence—perhaps not enough to send someone to prison on its own, but a good reason to suspect a crime has really occurred—we treat victims like criminals. If we believe that any given police report of rape stands a good chance of being false, when we know only a small minority actually are, we establish a habit of treating women as complicit in crimes committed against them.

Washington state’s John Koster, who ran for Congress in 2012, gave us a perfect example of how this works. When asked about abortion exceptions for rape or incest, he replied:

Incest is so rare, I mean, it’s so rare. But, uh, the rape thing—You know, I know a woman who was raped and kept her child, gave it up for adoption. She doesn’t regret it. In fact, she’s a—she’s a big pro-life proponent. But, on the rape thing, it’s like, how does—how does putting more violence onto a woman’s body and taking the life of an innocent child that’s not—that’s a consequence of this crime, how does that make it better? You know what I mean?14

The interviewer then says, “Yeah, but she has to live with the consequence of that crime,” to which Koster replies, “Well, you know. Crime has consequences.”

Crime has consequences. Crime has consequences. That’s what you say to a teenager who got busted for shoplifting, not to a victim of a violent assault.

Seriously, imagine he was talking about anything but rape there. “Don’t feel safe in your own home since it was burglarized? Well, you know. Crime has consequences.” “Haven’t been able to sleep since you were mugged at gunpoint? Crime has consequences.” “In terrible pain since someone beat the shit out of you? Crime has consequences.” “Dead now, because someone murdered you? Crime has consequences, young lady. You probably should have thought of that.”

It’s not some kind of slip or gaffe. All of this hedging about “the rape thing” goes back to the wrongheaded and dangerous belief that an enormous number of women who report rape are, in fact, guilty of a crime—not just the “sin” of premarital sex but the actual crime of filing a false report. People like this presume that there’s a fifty-fifty chance (at least) that any woman who goes to police and says, “I was raped,” is herself breaking the law—so all alleged victims must be investigated thoroughly on suspicion of that crime.

Combine that with a strong religious belief that (a) premarital sex warrants punishment and (b) a woman’s highest purpose is motherhood, and of course it makes sense to tell a pregnant rape victim, “Well, you know. Crime has consequences.” She probably did something wrong anyway, and her only problem is that now she has to do what she was put on earth to do.

In that worldview, genuine rape is so rare, it’s “small ball” (Republican political strategist Ron Christie), and talking about it is “an unfortunate distraction from the issues that matter” (Texas senator Ted Cruz).

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