Is it rape???

Question

Today, naval midshipman Owens went on trial for alledgedly raping a fellow midshipman. According to the Washington Post, "while the woman, who was drunk at the time, said she never explicitly told Owens to stop she testified she didn't consent to have sex. She said she refused to kiss him and tried to pull away and told Owens she had a boyfriend."

If he had asked and she'd said no it would clearly be rape. But he didn't ask and she never said no. She just didn't say yes. So, is this rape or not?

Wow! Some very good points here on both sides.

Just to clarify, the quote above is from the alledged victim's own opening statement verbatim. No, I wasn't there but this is what she said occured.

Also, answers like "men should never have sex with a woman that's drunk." Good pratical advice I agree, but how many of us have had sex while drunk? Probably nearly everyone?? That's sobering!!

Results tabulated so far (93 responding):
52% it is rape
22% it is not rape
17% don't know/need more info
5% I can't figure out what the heck you are saying
So I guess so far--he's guilty in the court of public opinion

Answer 1

I deal with this day in day out.... firstly if she was so drunk and out of it that she could not have consented, this is still rape. You cant just 'have a go if your unsuspecting victim is out of it' You would need to make a conscious effort to make sure that the person is consenting. Simlilar to drug rape in a way, or if you were asleep to wake up and find someone just having sex with you. It is quite a grey area sometimes and to be honest it is a very common problem. Men as well as woman need to be very careful..... YOU FELLA'S NEED TO TAKE REASONABLE STEPS TO ENSURE YOUR PARTNER IS CONSENTING OTHERWISE YOU ARE UP **** CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE!!! I am referring to English law sexual offences act 2003

Answer 2

I don't know if it meets the legal definition of rape, but pretend for a minute she is your girlfriend, daughter, friend. Imagine that she has too many drinks and some guy takes advantage of the situation. She didn't say no because she was so drunk she couldn't think straight.

The question here isn't did she give consent, it was was she able to make a decision to consent or not. Any real man wouldn't take advantage of a women like that. This guy couldn't get it from her when she was sober, so he took it when she couldn't defend herself. He is a coward and a loser and I say yes, he is a rapist.

Answer 3

It is rape without a doubt. The key legal element here is lack of consent. This does not mean the victim has to say no it means they do not say yes and usually in some way, shape or form they attempt to communicate this. In this case the lack of consent, combined with gestures that would set off alarm bells in any law abiding person, would allow the prosecution to draw inferences that this man was clearly not concerned whether consent was given or not. That is rape.

Answer 4

Yes. If a woman is in a position where she can't say yes, for any reason then it is rape. If she had so much to drink and didn't at least make her intentons to sleep with him clear, and she infact pulled away from him, then she was raped.

Would you be questioning this if he had spiked her drink and then raped her while she was unconcious? She wasn't able to give consent, she was raped.

Answer 5

Dude the evidence isn't in what you said. We all know the definition of the word rape, and that sure sounds like it. Whether or not to incarcerate someone doesn't fall to people commenting on this site, it falls to the judge and jury. There is a reason for "due process," and that is not only to ensure than the innocent are protected, it's to ensure that the guilty do get presecuted.

Laws on slander and defamation are intended to protect the accused from elements like speculation or hearsay. This makes sense, oviously, and I'm not saying that these laws should be thought of as a tool for getting away with heinous crimes.

from "Defamation, per se," from Wikipedia.org (in part):
"...In states that recognize defamation per se, people making a defamation claim for certain statements do not need to prove that the statement was defamatory:"

See how that helps us past speculation? What we're doing here, after all, is only speculation, because the only evidence - is words on our screen. Furthermore, there aren't enough words to show the entire event. Those words are possibly in their 3rd or later iterations, so their content may be altered.

All in all, I just wanted to point out how this is an issue to be considered, and that it isn't wise to say we know if the guy is guilty. All we can really say is "IF he's guilty, lock him up," and not "he's guilty," because we'd be adopting a vigilante lynch-mob mentality.

Answer 6

bottom line she was drunk so she was not in a state to consent, if she wants to win all she has to say is that she was so drunk that she was not in a state to consent. did you know that if you have sex with your girl while she's asleep it's rape? she can't consent because she's unconscious. it is statutory rape when an adult has sex with someone under 18 because they don't have the legal right to consent, apparently minors aren't in the correct state of mind to say whether they are ready for sex or not. if there's a question of whether it was forced or not then there has to be a clear "Yes" at some point during the act for this guy to get off.

Answer 7

Realistically, no, but technically, it's rape if the other person is drunk (although this is only ever applied when the other person is a woman).

If she really didn't want to do it you would think she'd put up more of a fight. I've had girls tell me they had a boyfriend right before they consented to have sex with me. Sounds to me more like post-party regret is kicking in, but we'll never know.

Answer 8

If she was able to go through the act of having sex, and at no point say no, then I do not see how the guy can be held responsible.

At the end of the day, she is not the first woman on Earth to have cheated on her boyfriend and now that word is out she probably wants to make him think that she wasn't responsible.

At the end of the day, No is possibly the simplest word in the English language to say. For many it is also their first ever word, so why didn't she say No? Why is it incumbent on the man? Did he say Yes let's have sex or did she even ask him?

Men are unfairly discriminated against in this matter.

I am Gay so it is not really my problem, but that is how I see it.

Answer 9

If she was drunk then he clearly took advantage of the situation & raped her when she was in no fit state to stop him.
No true gentleman would act like that.
The fact that he didn't ask & she didn't get a chance to say no means nothing here.
He is guilty of rape.

Answer 10

This is for a jury to decide. But based solely on your statement above, I'd say that the female midshipman did not consent to sex. Even without the word "no" being uttered, she indicated clearly enough that she did not want to have sex.

I'd say there's definitely a case for rape.

Answer 11

Well the problem here is she was drunk and probably didn't remember most of the night. She probably cried rape after finding out that she cheat on her boyfriend. Even thou i don't condone rape she really look after herself a be aware of how much alcohol she can drink. Really it sheer lack of self responsibly.