Keywords
nonviolent rape, rape, violence, sentencing, psychological injury, rape definitions
Abstract
Rape, by definition and in sentencing, is a crime that is predicated on a male-defined concept of violence. The lack of knowledge about rape trauma produces erroneous assessments or rape and erroneous sentences for rapists. The inability to recognize the damage cause by a "nonviolent" rape trivializes the seriousness of the crime and devalues the individual victim. Judges and attorneys must expand their definitions of violence to include injury to the victim's psyche.
Recommended Citation
Lynn Hecht Schafran,
Maiming the Soul: Judges, Sentencing and the Myth of the Nonviolent Rapist,
20 Fordham Urb. L.J. 439
(1993).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol20/iss3/5