Jesse Lemisch
----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages at gmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org> Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 8:02 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Let's Lock Up 14% of All Men Who Have Ever Married! (wasFeminism and the False Memory Syndrome)
> On 10/23/06, Jesse Lemisch <utopia1 at attglobal.net> wrote:
> > Again, it's Yoshie one-note, not condescending to reply to the excellent
> > relevant points raised by Jenny Brown, in particular her point about the
> > avoidance in court of marital rape and of sexual molestation within the
> > family. Hers have been the most clarifying posts of this thread, and its
> > simply ludicrous to describe as "voices of reason" those whose bias has
led
> > them repeatedly to avoid such things.
>
> Wellesley Centers for Women says this about marital rape: "Diana
> Russell (a prominent rape researcher) interviewed over 900 randomly
> selected women and found that, while 3% had experienced completed rape
> by a stranger, 8% had experienced completed rape by a husband. Wife
> rape was the most common type of completed rape reported. These
> numbers are calculated on all women, including those who haven't ever
> been married. If you only count women who have been married, 14% - or
> one in every seven married women - reported either a completed or
> attempted rape by a husband/ex-husband" (2001,
> <http://www.wellesley.edu/WCW/projects/mrape.html). I don't know if
> studies cited above are sound (the curious should visit the WCW Web
> site, get citations, and look into them), but let's assume they are,
> for the sake of argument.
>
> If we are to pursue justice for all marital rape victims rigorously,
> we might have to identify and lock up all marital rapists, roughly one
> in seven men who have ever married (excluding for the moment the fact
> that some men are probably raping more than one wife in the course of
> serial marriages, to facilitate our back-of-a-napkin calculation,
> since we do not have stats on serial marital rapists).
>
> BTW, most alleged offenders of any kind of crime (estimates based on
> victim surveys) are never caught and convicted:
>
> <blockquote>According to latest statistics (derived from figures 25-30
> covering 1994 in the United States, 1995 in England), the likelihood
> of conviction was about --
>
> * 50% for murder in both countries
> * 20% for rape in the United States and 10% in England
> * 2% for robbery in the United States and less than 1% in England
> * 2% for assault in the United States and 1% in England
> * 1% for burglary in the United States and less than 1% in England
> * 2% for motor vehicle theft in the United States and 1% in England.
>
> However, these estimates must be interpreted cautiously. For example,
> the rape conviction likelihood is inflated because it is based on the
> number of convictions divided not by the total number of rapes but by
> just the number recorded by police. ("Convictions per 1,000
> Offenders," Crime and Justice in the United States and in England and
> Wales, 1981-96,
> <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/cjusew96/cpo.htm>)</blockquote>
>
> Large as American prisons are, America catching and convicting more
> alleged offenders -- including rapists -- than England*, America still
> has a long way to go to satisfy all supporters -- including feminist
> supporters -- of law and order.
>
> <blockquote>According to latest conviction figures (1994 in the United
> States, 1995 in England) --
>
> * with the exception of murder, a person committing a crime in the
> United States is more likely to be caught and convicted than one
> committing crime in England (including Wales).
>
> The number of persons convicted in 1994 of --
>
> * murder for every 1,000 alleged murderers was 487 in the United
> States and 555 in England, indicating that a murderer's risk of
> conviction is slightly greater in England than in the United States
> (figure 25)
>
> * rape for every 1,000 alleged rapists was 188 in the United States
> and 100 in England, indicating that a rapist's risk of conviction in
> the United States is nearly double that in England (figure 26)
>
> * robbery for every 1,000 alleged robbers was 22 in the United States
> and 6 in England, indicating that a robber's risk of conviction in the
> United States is nearly four times that in England (figure 27)
>
> * assault for every 1,000 alleged assaulters was 25 in the United
> States and 14 in England, indicating that an assaulter's risk of
> conviction in the United States is nearly double that in England
> (figure 28)
>
> * burglary for every 1,000 alleged burglars was 14 in the United
> States and 6 in England, indicating that a burglar's risk of
> conviction in the United States is more than double that in England
> (figure 29)
>
> * motor vehicle theft for every 1,000 alleged vehicle thieves was 18
> in the United States and 12 in England, indicating that a vehicle
> thief's risk of conviction is 50% greater in the United States than in
> England (figure 30). ("Convictions per 1,000 Offenders," Crime and
> Justice in the United States and in England and Wales, 1981-96,
> <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/html/cjusew96/cpo.htm>)</blockquote>
>
> If we are to lock up all offenders to all victims and their advocates'
> satisfaction, we'll need even more prisons than we have now -- though
> we already have the world's biggest prison system, with about 2.1
> million people incarcerated at any time (Matthew Davis, "The World's
> Biggest Prison System," 7 April 2006,
> <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4858580.stm>) -- and no doubt
> we'll go bankrupt while we are making efforts to do so, but let
> justice be done, though the world perish.
>
>
> * But most agree that America is less safe -- for women as well as men
> -- than England, despite America's higher conviction rates.
> --
> Yoshie
> <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
> <http://mrzine.org>
> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
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