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Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

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Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#141

Post by belorn »

falsedan wrote: post #133
DoreenMichele wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a young daughter and information like this kind of terrifies me. Teach your child that hugs and kisses require mutual consent. Teach her it is her choice and kissing someone once does not obligate her to future kisses. Tell her if someone disrespects her no to come get a parent. Tell friends and relatives of yours no for her if they try to insist she is obligated to give hugs and kisses. Being dragged off into…

I hear most perpetrators of sexual assault are men, shouldn’t your advice be more effective at prevention/avoidance if directed at sons instead?

With 25 serial rapists a year, how many sons are born each year (assuming all of them are male).

Out of those 25, how many should be seen a clinical sane and would had their behavior changed if they just got the right advice as a child?

Giving advice to "all boys" or "all girls" seems like one of those things that make people feel like they are doing something but which will have zero impact. Rape is one of those crimes which you could double the punishment for and still not see any change in the crime rate, as if it was done by less rational and rather sick minds.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#142

Post by rhino369 »

turc1656 wrote: post #79

I think the most disturbing thing about this is that there are even 800 serial rapists in one single county, even if it's over a 30-35 year period. That's around 25 serial rapists a year in that one county, which is kind of extraordinary when you think about it. Serial rapists are supposedly incredibly rare. They say that in nearly every case it's someone that the victim knows. This makes me think twice about that. A…

>Serial rapists are supposedly incredibly rare. They say that in nearly every case it's someone that the victim knows.

Serial rapists aren't rare, but they do know their victims typically.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#143

Post by jdietrich »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #135
falsedan wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear most perpetrators of sexual assault are men, shouldn’t your advice be more effective at prevention/avoidance if directed at sons instead?

I would like to see all children get the message. I certainly raised my two adult sons exactly like that. The problem with your theory is that it is incredibly disempowering for women. I see this over and over and over. Everyone wants to cure "rape culture" for just one half of the equation. I don't think that works.

Look at the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein and Louis CK. Many of these women wanted to say no, but didn't feel able to.

Teaching young men to respect the boundaries of women is clearly important, but we also need to give young women the confidence and skills to assert their boundaries.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#144

Post by dguaraglia »

quirkot wrote: post #3

My god, how do you leave over 11k crimes just sitting in a store room... in one county. I'm glad they're addressing this gross miscarriage of justice. Hope it's an isolated thing (but not actually expecting it to be so)

Notice the uproar whenever people encounter the term "rape culture", yet when pieces like this come out, nobody puts two and two together: oh shit, maybe when people complain about rape culture, what they mean is that we don't take sexual assault half as seriously as we should.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#145

Post by opencl »

turc1656 wrote: post #79

I think the most disturbing thing about this is that there are even 800 serial rapists in one single county, even if it's over a 30-35 year period. That's around 25 serial rapists a year in that one county, which is kind of extraordinary when you think about it. Serial rapists are supposedly incredibly rare. They say that in nearly every case it's someone that the victim knows. This makes me think twice about that. A…

"Serial rapist" means "has more than one victim", not "rapes strangers". It is entirely possible for one person to rape ten people who know and trust them, and not at all surprising that anyone sleazy enough to do this would likely be a repeat offender especially when there's such a high probability of getting away with it.

The numbers are quite staggering though: "A rapist rapes on average seven to 11 times before they're caught. ... Of our set of 817 ... over 50 of them have 10 to 15 hits apiece."

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#146

Post by rhino369 »

sp332 wrote: post #69
pavon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not when 82% of the population are African American.

The county is only 40% black. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/waynecountymich... And the kits were put in storage from 1984-2009, during which time the demographics of Detroit changed very rapidly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Detroit... It wasn't always 80% black.

But you wouldn't expect the rapes to be randomly distributed. Wayne County is a tale of two cities. There are rich white suburbs and the poor, black city.

You have to compare the untest kits to the demographics of record victims. It's likely women of color are much more often victims of rape. That is the trend nationwide.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#147

Post by IWeldMelons »

code_duck wrote: post #134
wavefunction wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a problem that crosses socio-ethnic boundaries as well, unfortunately. Not that I mean to minimize the historic and ongoing mistreatment of minority crime victims... Austin Texas -a predominantly white and affluent city- has a terrible history of mistreatment of rape kits, 850 in this case: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-memo-mold-found-con...

Austin has plenty of poor people, and the white population is somewhat under 50 percent - 47 according to recent estimates. Hispanic population is about 36%. Keep in mind Austin is the core downtown city, and if you’re thinking of affluence and whiteness, you might be thinking of the suburbs. It’s possible that economically disadvantaged nonwhite people maybe disproportionately represented among rape victims, also th…

Austin is a mostly suburban city. Just look at the map.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#148

Post by code_duck »

IWeldMelons wrote: post #147
code_duck wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austin has plenty of poor people, and the white population is somewhat under 50 percent - 47 according to recent estimates. Hispanic population is about 36%. Keep in mind Austin is the core downtown city, and if you’re thinking of affluence and whiteness, you might be thinking of the suburbs. It’s possible that economically disadvantaged nonwhite people maybe disproportionately represented among rape victims, also th…

Austin is a mostly suburban city. Just look at the map.

Thanks, I’m aware of how the city works since i lived in Austin for a couple of years. I feel like the demographic information that’s available out there can give more information then looking at the map. If you’re talking about APD, it’s fairly urban.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#149

Post by wavefunction »

code_duck wrote: post #134
wavefunction wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a problem that crosses socio-ethnic boundaries as well, unfortunately. Not that I mean to minimize the historic and ongoing mistreatment of minority crime victims... Austin Texas -a predominantly white and affluent city- has a terrible history of mistreatment of rape kits, 850 in this case: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-memo-mold-found-con...

Austin has plenty of poor people, and the white population is somewhat under 50 percent - 47 according to recent estimates. Hispanic population is about 36%. Keep in mind Austin is the core downtown city, and if you’re thinking of affluence and whiteness, you might be thinking of the suburbs. It’s possible that economically disadvantaged nonwhite people maybe disproportionately represented among rape victims, also th…

Austin is more than the "core downtown city." And I am not talking about Round Rock or Cedar Park or Buda which are majority white.

The downtown/near-downtown is one of the priciest places in the state of Texas as far as real-estate costs and the attendant costs of a matching lifestyle. It's only out in the middle ring of the suburbs of Far North/East/South Austin that it starts getting affordable. That is, until you get back into the affluence again in the northern bedroom communities of Round Rock, Cedar Park and Georgetown.

Re: Abandoned rape kits identify over 800 serial rapists in one Michigan county

#150

Post by dmix »

code_duck wrote: post #134
wavefunction wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a problem that crosses socio-ethnic boundaries as well, unfortunately. Not that I mean to minimize the historic and ongoing mistreatment of minority crime victims... Austin Texas -a predominantly white and affluent city- has a terrible history of mistreatment of rape kits, 850 in this case: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-memo-mold-found-con...

Austin has plenty of poor people, and the white population is somewhat under 50 percent - 47 according to recent estimates. Hispanic population is about 36%. Keep in mind Austin is the core downtown city, and if you’re thinking of affluence and whiteness, you might be thinking of the suburbs. It’s possible that economically disadvantaged nonwhite people maybe disproportionately represented among rape victims, also th…

> also there exists a possibility that there is economic or racial bias in the processing of rape kits.

There were 11,000 untested rape kits over 2 decades. This hardly sounds like a mistake related to some bias. There is obviously a much bigger issue here, it wasn't individual cases being ignored based on some parameters.

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