Literature & Language Essay: The Development of the United States Rape Laws
Choose a topic from the list provided. Your 1st paper will be 5-7 pages in length doubles spaced. Please use the APA format of footnoting. This paper will demonstrate your ability to use proper reference materials as well as demonstrate your ability to communicate your ideas in a clear and concise manner while doing a critical analysis of the subject matter.
Proper academic resources include items such as the National Institute of Justice or Bureau of Justice Statistics, academic texts and Journal articles provided by the provided by the Library. Other sources such as USA Today, Newsday, New York Times, Daily News, Corrections Today and their like can be used in a supplemental manner but should not be relied upon for your major research.
Your paper will be written using the APA format. Appropriate citations referencing all sources including acceptable internet sources must follow the format of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) including your Reference page which refers to only those works used in your paper.
PLAGIARISM:
Remember as noted above plagiarism of any type is unacceptable at the college level (or any level) and is grounds for failure and /or dismissal. Factual material and other author’s research should be footnoted regardless of its use as a direct quote or paraphrased.
Hints:
When using five or more words of text, you must use quotation marks, and must footnote.
When putting ideas/thoughts/words of the authors in your own words, you must still footnote.
All factual material MUST BE FOOTNOTED.
Your paper should be proofed to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors.
You should develop a one sentence thesis for your paper.
Keep the topic narrow and to the point.
The Development of the United States Rape Laws
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Rape and sexual assault has been a major legal as well a social problem in America for a very long time. Rape refers to the slightest penetration of the anus or vagina with any object, body part, orally or using a sex organ by another person without the acceptance of the victim. For statistical purposes, rape laws vary from state to state in the United States jurisdictions. This paper discusses the changes in the rape laws over the years.[Tracy, C. E., Fromson, T. L., Long, J. G., & Whitman, C. (2012). Rape and sexual assault in the legal system. National Research Council of the National Academies Panel on Measuring Rape and Sexual Assault in the Bureau of Justice Statistics Household Surveys Committee on National Statistics, 4-5.]
One of the early sets of written laws known as the Code of Hammurabi regarded the rape of a virgin as a damage of a father’s property. For a long time, the rape of a woman was regarded as a property crime on the husband or father of the rape victim. In fact, the word rape emanates from the Latin word rapere meaning to “seize”. Up to the 11th and 12th centuries, rape was not regarded as a sexual and violent crime on the victims. Towards the late 13th century, the Westminster Statutes permitted the crown to indict rapists if the victim or victim’s relations do not, demonstrating a shift from rape being seen as just sexual pervasion and personal injustice to being a crime against a state.[Prince, J. D. (1904). The code of Hammurabi.] [Bretz, A. (2012). Emergent Identity: Masculinity and the Representation of Rape on the Early Modern Stage, 1590-1620 (Doctoral dissertation).]
Colonies of early America defined rape using common law as the forceful sexual intercourse with a woman of 10 years of age or below against his or her consent. In the 1800s, suffrage and temperance activists effectively petitioned to increase the legal consent age from 10 years to 14 to 18 years of age, depending on the state. However, not everyone welcome progress. In 1895, a congressman from Kentucky opined that a twelve-year-old girl should be able to resist a seducer just like any woman.[Kyla B. (2018). A Reflection on the History of Sexual Assault Laws in the United States. The Arkansas Journal of Social Change and Public Service. APRIL 15, 2018]
During the 1800s, Black and Hispanic women were sexually raped without legal redress. This is because in most states women of color, both enslaved and free were excluded from rape laws. Enslaved women underwent physically violent and sexual violent abuse that led to pregnancies. If an enslaved woman tried to save herself from such violent sexual abuse she would be badly assaulted. This happened until 1861 that marked the first time could report and file rape charges against white males.
It took another 100 years for rape to be considered violence against women. In the second phase of feminist movement era, anti-rape movements emerged as violence against the female gender. This happened in the 1960s, and it marked a major landmark in the American rape laws. During period, rape was realized to be a tool used by men to impose control on women. Before 1970, spousal or marital rape did not feature anywhere in the American rape laws. However, in 1976, Nebresaka was the first American state to criminalize marital rape. By the 1990, across 50 American states, marital rape was considered a crime.[Spiegel, M. (2014). Legal Aid 1900 to 1930: What Happened to Law Reform. DePaul J. Soc. Just., 8, 199.] [Featherstone, L., & Winn, A. G. (2019). Marital Rape and the Marital Rapist: The 1976 South Australian Rape Law Reforms. Feminist Legal Studies, 27(1), 57-78.]
The most significant change in the American rape laws featured in 1975 when Congress enacted rules 412, 413, 414, and 415 into the Federal Rules of Evidence. The rules, popularly referred to as the rape shield” laws, limit the ability of defendants to look into the sexual behavior, reputation and history of rape victims. Before 1975, the credibility of an alleged victim could be attacked by defendants by presenting the evidence of sexual activity of the victims. The public harassment and humiliation caused by parading the sexual history of victims in court was shaming hence any victims did not report their sex crimes. Due to strict and limited exceptions, rules 412-415 of the Federal Rules of evidence protect evidence of the sexual history of victims from being misused to bring into disrepute his or her allegations.[DeWitt, B. S. (2015). The Application and Construction of Rules of Admissibility in the Federal Rules of Evidence in Cases Where State Law Provides the Rule of Decision. Rev. Litig., 34, 283.]
Though rape laws vary from state to state, at the federal level where a person is displaced from his or her st...