Monday, May 15, 2006

What Does the Alleged Rape Victim Having Had Sex with Her Boyfriend Mean?

The revelation that the alleged victim in the Duke Rape Case had sex with a man other than one of the accused has brought out several feminists who correctly ask how this is relevant to the case, as well as several non-and anti-feminists who claim that this is proof positive that the alleged victim is lying.

Well, I do agree that the fact that she may have had sex with someone around the same time as the alleged rape does not affect her credibility, it is relevant in that it might explain where the damage to her private areas came from. If she had had rough sex with someone else around the same time as the alleged rape, it might have caused some of the tears that are being used as evidence that she had had sex.

Certainly this would be of little or no relevance if this were a case where the issue were her consent or lack thereof, that is, if everyone agreed that sex had taken place. But that is not the issue; the boys deny having had sex, consensual or non-consensual, with the alleged victim. Therefore, the defense would need an alternate explanation as to why the evidence points to her having had sex around the time of the alleged rape. This provides such evidence.

That is all.

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