Court: Unwanted sex does not necessarily equal rape

apotshot · 2011-09-24T15:24:38+00:00

Sojka climbed on top of her to initiate sexual intercourse, but she pushed him and yelled at him to stop. He got up, put his clothes on and left the apartment.

She called her boyfriend and best friend, went to bed, then called 911 shortly after 5:00 a.m.

sigh

c0mputar · 2011-09-23T12:48:09+00:00

TLDR - Jury was instructed to disregard the defendant's lack of intent to commit rape and only consider the accuser's lack of consent.

In California, a lack of intent to commit rape is a defense. So the title is quite accurate in this case, a lack of consent does not necessarily equal rape. This actually strikes a serious blow to most rape statistic which have the only necessary condition for rape being a lack of consent. A legitimate survey will now require that there be reasonable grounds that the perpetrator intended to have sex against one's will.

So, if you find yourself in the position that this guy did, don't say anything to the police. Your premature admission to anything may be what is needed for a DNA sample to further build their case, and/or a successful conviction. Secondly, if necessary, remind your lawyer that you can make a defense out of your lack of intent to commit a crime.

Lawtonfogle · 2011-09-23T20:06:33+00:00

As to the ruling, this is actually very good; give me a second to explain why.

If rape can exist when consent did not happen but when the accused believed in reasonable faith it did, then you can have a woman who says "please put your penis in my vagina and let's have sex", but who says she didn't consent. Just because any reasonable man would have taken what she said to be consent, she still gets to decide if it was consent or not, and she can easily say she never consented. Ergo, there is no level of consent that couldn't be revoked by a woman saying "Well, I did say that, but I still didn't consent."

If the average person in the same situation would have thought the action constituted consent, then even if the woman didn't mean to consent, it still can't be seen as rape.

Lawtonfogle · 2011-09-23T20:01:08+00:00

Unwanted =/= lack of consent.

I consent to a lot of things I don't want, largely because some other part of the deal I do want. Do I really want to work 10 hours 5 days a week? No. But I do want the paycheck, so not only do I consent to working, I consent to doing a good job while I work, even though I don't want to have to work.

NotTheHumanTornado · 2011-09-23T12:43:51+00:00

Unwated sex is the only kind r/mr subscribers have a chance to get.

Title	Court: Unwanted sex does not necessarily equal rape
Author	PierceHarlan
Upvotes	25
Comments	10
Date	September 23, 2011 10:43 AM UTC (14 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/koxoq/court_unwanted_sex_does_not_necessarily_equal_rape/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/court-unwanted-sex-does-not-necessarily-equal-rape.1034223 https://theredarchive.com/post/1034223

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