[159] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: New topic, Rape@MIT
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sourav K. Mandal)
Sat Apr 21 17:44:33 2001
Message-Id: <200104212144.RAA26726@dichotomy.dyn.dhs.org>
From: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
Reply-To: "Sourav K. Mandal" <Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
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Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 17:43:59 -0400
"Zhelinrentice L Scott <zlscott@MIT.EDU>" wrote:
> 4) Usually rapes occur without witnesses, and it becomes
> the woman's word against the man's in this male dominated society. [...]
Well, if it comes down to one person's word against anothers, that
simply does not satisfy the burden of "reasonable doubt," no matter how
heinous the crime.
> [...] In addition women don't know how to gather evidence of their attack
> by going straight to the hospital after they have been attacked.*
I'm glad Zhe brought this up. Nothing beats reasonable doubt like
irrefutable, physical evidence: DNA establishes contact, and injuries
establish the use of force. A rape victim needs to get to the hospital
_immediately_ for an examination, and needs to report the crime to the
police quickly while the incident is fresh in her mind, so statements
hold up to scrutiny later in a trial.
Sourav
------------------------------------------------------------
Sourav K. Mandal
Sourav.Mandal@ikaran.com
http://www.ikaran.com/Sourav.Mandal/
