# Did half the town Rape this girl? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 9, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070 "2011-03-09T18:26:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/81 "2011-03-10T23:34:42Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > His point was people being fucked up is usually because of single mothers. Oh, I took it to mean that he supported gay marriage. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/82 "2011-03-10T23:39:06Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > I want to know, where \*were \*the men? Sounds like there weren’t any to be found. Otherwise non of this crazy shit would have happened. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/83 "2011-03-10T23:41:49Z")
It’s sickening that so many people are more compassionate toward the accused than toward the victim. I can’t imagine what that poor girl went through . . . and what she undoubtedly continues to go through. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/84 "2011-03-11T00:10:42Z")
What will it take for people to finally say “Okay, that one, she really didn’t bring the rape on herself?” I can’t believe I’m hearing this about an gang raped 11 year old. There is nothing- nothing- a fourth grader can do to legitimately temp a man into sex. No matter how lost she is, how unsupervised, how scantily clad, every single person on the planet has the responsibility NOT to rape her. > [@kambuckta](#): > > But if she is to get _any_ justice and healing at all, then her family and her community need to take a damned good look at themelves too. Eleven year olds should be climbing trees, making cubby houses and playing with their Barbie dolls, not having sex with an older man. Something went very, very wrong with this little girl, and punishing the men _alone_ is not going to fix it. What went wrong with her probably involves the first man who ever molested her. I agree that it’s a horrible that her childhood was stolen by guys who like to have sex with children. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/85 "2011-03-11T00:15:16Z")
> [@villa](#): > > In UCLA’s Neil Malamuth’s survey of 1986, 30% of men admitted they would commit rape if they knew there was no chance of getting caught. > > When the question posed changed the word ‘rape’ to ‘force a woman into hving sex’ the number who answered in the affirmative was over 50%. > > A similar survey of Californian teen males found over 50% thought it was acceptable to force a woman to have sex if she “leads him on” or has gotten the man sexually aroused. I think that is a mischaracterization of the survey results (and I have doubts about the use of surveys for this area anyway). I doubt the survey asked “Do you admit that you would commit rape if you knew there was no chance of getting caught”. I don’t doubt that most men have the capacity to rape, and that the chance of getting caught factors into that, but that does not mean they will rape, or that they have a desire to rape. The victim, the rapist’s parents, the media, and now men in general. Anybody feel like blaming the rapists? ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/86 "2011-03-11T00:35:29Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The victim, the rapist’s parents, the media, and now men in general. Anybody feel like blaming the rapists? Can you show me one single person who has not condemned these men for their revolting acts? Just one will do. Thankseversomuch. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/87 "2011-03-11T01:07:36Z")
> [@Isamu](#): > > “Great evil” is a bit of a catch-all term. I think its true that most men (and women) would rob another blind if they thought they could get away with it. > > Violent rape is another thing altogether, and I don’t think most men support it or are capable of perpetrating it. Just my opinion though. As \*\*even sven \*\*stated, plenty of people will not only rape, but murder if given a good enough pretext to do so. Indeed, we’ve seen this again and over again. That said, I’m wary about this story. This being in a large part due to a French case where eventually 4 people were convicted, out of maybe 20 prosecuted (and it has been made obvious that they had nothing to do with the rapes, it’s not an issue of lack of evidences. Some of them had been jailed for years, one had committed suicide) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/88 "2011-03-11T01:38:54Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Can you show me one single person who has not condemned these men for their revolting acts? Just one will do. > > Thankseversomuch. :rolleyes: Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that. I did mean to imply that others are not to blame. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/89 "2011-03-11T02:39:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I thought the part about the makeup and clothes was to point out the lack of parental care in this girl’s life. I thought the point was to emphasize the essential depravity of the whole town, that such an issue would be raised. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/90 "2011-03-11T02:48:07Z")
> [@j66](#): > > I thought the point was to emphasize the essential depravity of the whole town, that such an issue would be raised. That may be. I had only read a skimpy report when I posted that. Not much information was available. But I didn’t assume the information was provided to make a ‘blame the victim’ statement. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/91 "2011-03-11T02:49:52Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Oh, I took it to mean that he supported gay marriage. Thank you. > [@Omegaman](#): > > Sounds like there weren’t any to be found. Otherwise non of this crazy shit would have happened. Thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/92 "2011-03-11T02:54:31Z")
I’m not done with [this](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/opinion/l10rape.html?ref=todayspaper) letter writer. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/93 "2011-03-11T02:57:21Z")
To the Moderator: What was disturbing was Jinnie Spiegler’s characterization of an 11-year old girl as a “victim”. She asked: “How is this relevant except to subtly blame the victim?” A better question is: Why do the town residents hold these views and why doesn’t Jinnie Spiegler direct her letter towards the views of the town residents instead of the reporters of _The New York Times_? In fact, the reporter, James C. McKinley Jr., should be commended for his objective reporting. Even the headline, “Vicious Assault Shakes Texas Town”, was prescient. Kozmik ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/94 "2011-03-11T03:20:32Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > His point was people being fucked up is usually because of single mothers. It takes two for a person to raise a kid alone, and the one who is screwing up on the “raising the kid” part usually isn’t the one who is actually there, you know, raising the kid. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/95 "2011-03-11T05:02:38Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Nice victim blaming. That’s not victim blaming. Victim blaming would be “what did she expect - dressing so sexily?” Recognising that an 11 y.o has no place dating and riding around with a 19 y.o is not victim blaming - it is recognising that there is something wrong in her life. Identifying that, for whatever reason, her own behaviour is inappropriate for an 11 y.o is discrete and separate from the horror of the rape. To sweep it under the carpet does a disservice to all. What went wrong, why was she doing this, does anybody else bear any culpability for letting the situation arise, is there a culture of little girls dating little men (they are men in age only, not in maturity) in this community that also needs to be addressed. If you don’t allow this discussion, as you don’t want to allow you are doing a disservice to the community. What this poor little girl did makes no excuses for the men, it does not lessen the severity of it, nor the penalities I would like to see them face - but it should be raised and discussed, not hidden from. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/96 "2011-03-11T05:04:19Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > It takes two for a person to raise a kid alone, and the one who is screwing up on the “raising the kid” part usually isn’t the one who is actually there, you know, raising the kid. Way to go…men are all arseholes and mothers are never wrong - what a nice subtext to that comment. You have not revealed your biases in the least. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/97 "2011-03-11T05:06:46Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > Way to go…men are all arseholes and mothers are never wrong - what a nice subtext to that comment. You have not revealed your biases in the least. Only if you believe that men can never be the custodial parent. If you believe that, then your biases are showing. **even sven** ’s comment was gender neutral. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/98 "2011-03-11T05:10:04Z")
> [@bengangmo](#): > > That’s not victim blaming. > > Victim blaming would be “what did she expect - dressing so sexily?” > > Recognising that an 11 y.o has no place dating and riding around with a 19 y.o is not victim blaming - it is recognising that there is something wrong in her life. > > Identifying that, for whatever reason, her own behaviour is inappropriate for an 11 y.o is discrete and separate from the horror of the rape. To sweep it under the carpet does a disservice to all. What went wrong, why was she doing this, does anybody else bear any culpability for letting the situation arise, is there a culture of little girls dating little men (they are men in age only, not in maturity) in this community that also needs to be addressed. > > If you don’t allow this discussion, as you don’t want to allow you are doing a disservice to the community. > > What this poor little girl did makes no excuses for the men, it does not lessen the severity of it, nor the penalities I would like to see them face - but it should be raised and discussed, not hidden from. This little girl didn’t do anything “inappropriate.” She was a little girl. She has absolutely nothing to answer for. Your questions about her “behavior” are inappropriate and gross. ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/99 "2011-03-11T05:16:01Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Only if you believe that men can never be the custodial parent. If you believe that, then your biases are showing. **even sven** ’s comment was gender neutral. have you seen the poster’s hiostory? Do you know what proportion of custodial parents are woman? ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070/100 "2011-03-11T05:19:57Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > This little girl didn’t do anything “inappropriate.” She was a little girl. She has absolutely nothing to answer for. Your questions about her “behavior” are inappropriate and gross. So you think its normal and appropriate for an 11 year old to be dating a 19 year old? Why weren’t questions asked about this, from her family, from his friends? It’s a crappy and nasty situation. But to put your fingers in your ears going _blah blah blah_ and not address that 11 y.o should not be dating 19 y.o is only looking at half the problem. I don’t need to think it’s her fault, or that she bears any blame to recognise that “eh - this situation is not right, how did it come about?” Sorry ETA - I don’t think she has “anything to answer for” in any sense of the word. I do want to know why it was allowed to develop, and who thought it appropriate that she ride around as girlfriend to a 19. y.o [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-half-the-town-rape-this-girl/574070.md?page=6)