Is Rape a Crime?

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This episode was named for Michelle Bowdler’s award-winning memoir, Is Rape a Crime?

Omnibus content warning for this episode: We talk about the history of rape and sexual assault, with some detailed descriptions of past cases.

When student journalists published a story in September about a reported gang rape at Cornell University, it became national news.

The particular details of the lawsuit—the screenshots of the group chat, Jane Doe’s texts with the men afterward, and the consequences (or lack thereof) for the fraternity men involved—spawned a thinkpiece bonanza attempting to determine what, specifically, went wrong here. What, pray tell, is to blame for something so horrid?

The darker half of the internet had a different question: Was this even a gang rape? The behavior was abhorrent, sure, of course, but rape?

Maybe it was the ketamine and alcohol. Maybe it was the (seemingly consensual) threesome. Maybe it was the sexual revolution.

But gang rape—particularly in this context—is not a mystery. We need not scour the case file for “what went wrong.” In fact, we’ve known for decades what drives this sort of behavior.

And if we’ve known for decades, why is this a lesson we refuse to learn? What does it mean for every other victim of sexual violence if this event, of all events, is considered a particularly complex gray area?

What does it mean to violate another person if this was not a violation?

Diabolical Lies investigates.