Cases of Rape

 Labasa Rape Case

According to the high court judge who presided the case, this is the worst case of sexual violence
on child in Labasa. The suspect is the 32-year-old, stepfather of the victim. The first incident
occurred in 2013 when the victim was in 5 years of age and living in Northern Division with the
accused after her mother married him. The victim was been subjected to further humiliation and
pain when the suspect sewed her genital with needle and cotton thread. The abuse came to light
when victim’s cousin noticed a black cotton thread around victim’s genital while going for a
swim in the near river. The accused was charge and found guilty of raping his stepdaughter.

 Mount Rennie Rape Case

The gang rape of the Sixteen-year-old Mary Jane Hicks occurred on 9 September 1886. While
walking to a city employment registry, she was offered a lift by Charles Sweetman, the driver of
a hansom cab, who instead drove her in his cab to what is now the Moore Park area, then an
isolated piece of bushland in the suburb of Waterloo and called Mount Rennie. He attempted to
molest her in the cab but she screamed for help. Two young men approached and took her out of
the cab, purporting to save her from disgrace. The young men walked her to a different isolated
location where they were joined by several others, some of whom began to take turns in raping
her. The girl's screaming was heard by a passer-by, William Stanley, who attempted to rescue
her but was driven off by the gang with bricks, stones and bottles. Stanley ran to distant Redfern
police station to report the case and they interrupted the crime that was still in progress, but were
unable to apprehend any of the fleeing offenders. Twelve men were identified and eventually
arrested, including Charles Sweetman.

 Steubenville High School Rape Case

In the early morning hours of August 12, 2012, two high school football players, Trent Mays and
Ma'lik Richmond, raped a 16-year-old girl from Weirton, West Virginia. According to trial
transcripts, at about midnight the intoxicated victim left a party with four football players. They
went to a second party where the victim vomited and appeared "out of it". The same group left
after about 20 minutes, and headed to the home of one of the witnesses. In the backseat of the car
during the 15-minute trip, her shirt was removed and Trent Mays digitally penetrated the victim's
vagina and exposed her breasts while his friends filmed and photographed her. In the basement
of the house, Mays attempted to orally rape the victim by forcing his penis into her mouth. Now
unconscious, she was stripped naked and the second accused, Ma'lik Richmond, also digitally
penetrated the victim's vagina. She was again photographed. Three witnesses took the photos
back to the second party and shared them with friends. On March 17, 2013, Trent Mays and
Ma'lik Richmond were convicted of rape after the trial judge found they had used their fingers to
digitally penetrate the victim's vagina and that it was impossible for the incapacitated girl to have
given consent

 Chennai Rape Case

An 11-year-old girl with a hearing disorder was allegedly gang raped by at least 22 men in
Chennai for over 7 months. Police have today arrested 18 men including the security men, lift
operator and water suppliers of the society and are searching for others in connection with the
case. According to police, the Class VII girl was allegedly sedated with injections, drug-laced
soft drinks before sexually assaulting her and was video graphed. The accused reportedly
blackmailed the child for a prolonged period with the threat of releasing the videos and sexually
exploited her for months.

 Lima Malaya Rape Case

Lima Malaya is a female stroke patient living in a remote town in Camarines Sur. Her two
children, a 5-month-old son and a 3-year-old daughter, recently died due to malnutrition. Even
more deplorable, it was alleged that Malaya’s live-in partner, Estefanio Marlon, raped the
daughter in front of her. It happened multiple times, with Malaya unable to do help due to her
illness. The suspect's assault resulted in multiple injuries to Lima's daughter. The rape,
apparently, contributed to her death.

 Sudan Rape Case (Worst court ruling for women’s rights)

Noura Hussein was been sentenced to death in May after a Sharia court, which follows Islamic
religious laws, found her guilty of premeditated murder for stabbing her husband, whom she was
forced to marry. Hussein said her husband and three of his male relatives raped her six days after
their wedding ceremony because she refused to have sex with him. Marital rape is not a crime in
the predominantly Muslim African nation. After international outcry, the appeal court in
Khartoum charged Hussein with manslaughter and overturned the death sentence in June.

Legal Action for Rape Cases

Republic Act 8353 (The Anti-Rape Law of 1997)

"AN ACT EXPANDING THE DEFINITION OF THE CRIME OF RAPE, RECLASSIFYING

THE SAME AS A CRIME AGAINST PERSONS, AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ACT
NO. 3815, AS AMENDED, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE REVISED PENAL CODE, AND
FOR THE PURPOSES"

Article 266-B. Penalty.

Rape under paragraph 1 of the next preceding article shall be punished by reclusion perpetua.
  A person sentenced to reclusion perpetua must serve 30 years of his sentence before
becoming eligible for parole. Those serving a reclusion perpetua sentence can never
become eligible to run for public office, reclusion perpetua is one step below the death
penalty in the Philippines sentencing system.

Rape under paragraph 2 of the next preceding article shall be punished by prision mayor.

 Prision mayor- imprisonment from six to 12 years. Is imposed on the offender if rape was
committed through oral or anal sex or through the use of any object or instrument that
was inserted into the mouth or anal orifice of the woman or a man. This may also be
elevated to reclusion temporal (imprisonment from 12 to 20 years) or reclusion perpetua
depending on the circumjstances surrounding the crime

Effects of Rape

Physical Effects of Rape

Physical effects of rape can arise from both forced sexual assault and those not involving forcible
submission, such as drug assisted date rape. Forced sexual assault frequently causes visible
bruising or bleeding in and around the vaginal or anal area and bruises on other parts of the body
from coercive violence. But both forced and other types of rape can have many other physical
consequences:
• Painful intercourse (with significant other)
• Urinary infections
• Uterine fibroids – non-cancerous tumors in muscle wall
• Pregnancy
• Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) – HIV, genital warts, syphilis, gonorrhea,
chlamydia, and others
Psychological Effects of Rape

Victims experience both short and long-term psychological effects of rape. One of the most
common psychological consequences of rape is self-blame. Victims use self-blame as an
avoidance-based coping tool. Self-blame slows or, in many cases, stops the healing process.
Other common emotional and psychological effects of rape include:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – feelings of severe anxiety and stress

• Depression
• Flashbacks – memories of rape as if it is taking place again
• Borderline personality disorder
• Sleep disorders
• Eating disorders
• Dissociative identity disorder
• Guilt
• Distrust of others – uneasy in everyday social situations
• Anger
• Feelings of personal powerlessness – victims feel the rapist robbed them of control over
their bodies

Sociological impact and mistreatment of victims

After a sexual assault, victims are subjected to investigations and, in some cases, mistreatment.
Victims undergo medical examinations and are interviewed by police. During the criminal trial,
victims suffer a loss of privacy and their credibility may be challenged. Sexual assault victims
may also become the target of slut-shaming and cyberbullying. During criminal proceedings,
publication bans and rape shield laws operate to protect victims from excessive public scrutiny.
Secondary victimization
Rape is especially stigmatizing in cultures with strong customs and taboos regarding sex and
sexuality. For example, a rape victim (especially one who was previously a virgin) may be
viewed by society as being "damaged." Victims in these cultures may suffer isolation, be
disowned by friends and family, be prohibited from marrying, be divorced if already married, or
even killed. This phenomenon is known as secondary victimization.
Secondary victimization is the re-traumatization of the sexual assault, abuse, or rape victim
through the responses of individuals and institutions. Types of secondary victimization include
victim blaming and inappropriate post-assault behavior or language by medical personnel or
other organizations with which the victim has contact.Secondary victimization is especially
common in cases of drug-facilitated, acquaintance, and statutory rape.
Victim blaming
The term victim blaming refers to holding the victim of a crime to be responsible for that crime,
either in whole or in part. In the context of rape, it refers to the attitude that certain victim
behaviors (such as flirting or wearing sexually provocative clothing) may have encouraged the
assault. This can cause the victim to believe the crime was indeed their fault. Rapists are known
to use victim blaming as their primary psychological disconnect from their crime(s) and in some
cases it has led to their conviction.
It has been proposed that one cause of victim blaming is the just world hypothesis. People who
believe that the world is intrinsically fair may find it difficult or impossible to accept a situation
in which a person is badly hurt for no reason. This leads to a sense that victims must have done
something to deserve their fate. Another theory entails the psychological need to protect one's
own sense of invulnerability, which can inspire people to believe that rape only happens to those
who provoke the assault. Believers use this as a way to feel safer: If one avoids the behaviors of
the past victims, one will be less vulnerable. A global survey of attitudes toward sexual violence
by the Global Forum for Health Research shows that victim-blaming concepts are at least
partially accepted in many countries.
It has also been proposed by Roxane Agnew-Davies, a clinical psychologist and an expert on the
effects of sexual violence, that victim-blaming correlates with fear. "It is not surprising when so
many rape victims blame themselves. Female jurors can look at the woman in the witness stand
and decide she has done something 'wrong' such as flirting or having a drink with the defendant.
She can therefore reassure herself that rape won't happen to her as long as she does nothing
similar.”
Many of the countries in which victim blaming is more common are those in which there is a
significant social divide between the freedoms and status afforded to men and women.
In predominantly Muslim countries
Rape is forbidden under Islamic law. Some female rape victims are accused and punished for
having sex outside of marriage but there must be sufficient evidence before any sort of penalty is
given.
• Local courts in some third world countries regularly punish raped minor girls and women
by flogging them. But this is not according to the orthodox Sharia (Quran and Sunnah).
• "In 1979, the government of Pakistan adopted the Zina Ordinance to bring the Penal
Code into accord with Islamic principles. Under this ordinance, women who report having been
raped must prove that the intercourse was without consent. If unable to prove this lack of
consent, they can be charged with fornication. As a result, women are less likely to report rape..."
Some rights advocates say that this aspect of Sharia law "not only negates the rights of women
but is also a misinterpretation of Islam".
Mainstream Sunni Islamic scholars, like Imam Malik, clearly state that no punishment is applied
on the raped women. "The hadd (punishment) in such cases is applied to the rapist, and there is
no punishment applied to the raped woman"
References:

https://fijisun.com.fj/2018/07/27/judge-the-worst-rape-case-by-far/?fbclid=IwAR2U-
YBOyV6rYMb7oTVhLo_F-Qr854lvSi2B429MbU6Vvy9QmHqmkAfg3R0
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-women-rape/death-sentence-for-raped-teen-in-sudan-
named-worlds-worst-case-for-womens-rights-
idUSKBN1O32IR?fbclid=IwAR2DqEPbX8VsWWoLBNn9M2CgVLAKZoHXgH3ZUWlFevN
UjDqZeNla61JbHq8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rennie_rape_case?fbclid=IwAR1JRms29J31JX6mvHnyk4
hmskEiPBg5FxxToWbpENMtY7SBEl9VXDKxbsI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steubenville_High_School_rape_case?fbclid=IwAR3DoAaHzi79_
esSuDo7lLs5Vc-o1oxwR6KHi9z2gktnex97JSb0oZb_9O8
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/11-year-old-girl-gang-raped-by-
22-for-7-months-in-chennai-18-men-including-security-guards-
arrested/articleshow/65021934.cms?fbclid=IwAR0EUxlJ_uHBPqrjqi-
n4FhDDyOAF891g5loLoDIAqfEnghwQ9DuxEgymwo
https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/05/20/16/tragic-story-of-stroke-patient-stokes-calls-for-death-
penalty
https://www.healthyplace.com/abuse/rape/effects-of-rape-psychological-and-physical-effects-of-
rape
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_and_aftermath_of_rape
https://www.reference.com/government-politics/definition-reclusion-perpetua-e5ec0ab7c14d9a2
https://captainbarangay.wordpress.com/laws/anti-rape-law-ra-8353/