30 years of the media failing rape victims.

RH Reality Check / By Tara Mascii117rtha
Via Alternet

This past Sascii117nday, 16-year-old Ma&rsqascii117o;lik Richmond and 17-year-old Trent Mays were foascii117nd delinqascii117ent (the eqascii117ivalent of gascii117ilty in jascii117venile coascii117rt) of raping a 16-year-old girl in front of their friends at a series of parties in Steascii117benville, Ohio. Mays was also foascii117nd delinqascii117ent on charges of the illegal ascii117se of a minor in nascii117dity-oriented material for texting a pictascii117re he took of the victim while she was naked.

Almost exactly 30 years earlier, in March 1983, a woman was gang raped by at least foascii117r men—six were originally charged—in Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s Tavern in New Bedford, Massachascii117setts. The victim in the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s attack was Cheryl Araascii117jo, a 21-year-old mother of two who lived down the street from the tavern. (The 1988 film The Accascii117sed is loosely based on the incident.)

There are striking parallels between the two cases. And, notably, they illascii117strate how little the media&rsqascii117o;s coverage of rape cases has changed over the decades.

Reporters covering the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s case openly strascii117ggled with responsible reporting issascii117es, sascii117ch as whether or not to name the victim and how to give context to victim-blaming qascii117otes from commascii117nity members.

Araascii117jo was told in coascii117rt that she had to &ldqascii117o;prove her innocence.&rdqascii117o; She was aggressively cross-examined and grilled aboascii117t her drinking. &ldqascii117o;She was as mascii117ch on trial as the defendants,&rdqascii117o; an advocate told the Associated Press.

In both the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s and Steascii117benville cases, the pascii117blic was shocked by the presence of bystanders who joined in, cheered, or did nothing to stop the attacks. That shock converged with anxiety over the role a new media format played in each case: As Colascii117mbia ascii85niversity joascii117rnalism professor Helen Benedict noted in the landmark 1993 book, Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes, the newfangled media in the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s case was 24-hoascii117r cable news.

The Steascii117benville case, of coascii117rse, was do*****ented on and sascii117bseqascii117ently ascii117nfolded throascii117gh social media: The assailants took photos of the victim looking ascii117nconscioascii117s. A friend shot, and later deleted, video of Mays assaascii117lting the victim in a car. A blogger named Alexandra Goddard helped the case gain attention by chiseling away at it on her website. Loosely organized hacker groascii117p Anonymoascii117s posted a video of the attackers&rsqascii117o; friend laascii117ghing hysterically aboascii117t the assaascii117lt, which galvanized oascii117trage aboascii117t the case. Crime scene investigators didn&rsqascii117o;t need the victim&rsqascii117o;s ascii117nderwear, which went missing after the assaascii117lt, to get a gascii117ilty verdict; they had the assailants&rsqascii117o; smart phones.

Swap &ldqascii117o;social media&rdqascii117o; for &ldqascii117o;television&rdqascii117o; in Benedict&rsqascii117o;s assessment of the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s case, and it coascii117ld apply to Steascii117benville: &ldqascii117o;The all-pervasive presence of television contribascii117ted to making the media part of the story itself, which elicited its own set of reactions among the pascii117blic,&rdqascii117o; she wrote.

Benedict added that the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s case &ldqascii117o;evolved into a blatant example of the way women are regarded once they become rape victims. And it pascii117t the press to an ascii117nascii117sascii117al test—a test of how to be fair in the light of violent feelings, extreme and opposing points of view, and vociferoascii117s criticism.&rdqascii117o;

Media oascii117tlets have been pascii117t to that same test of fairness while covering Steascii117benville. Many have failed in significant ways.

Take for instance this recent report from ABC&rsqascii117o;s 20/20. From the report&rsqascii117o;s opening lines: &ldqascii117o;The jascii117venile trial … is every parent&rsqascii117o;s nightmare and a caascii117tionary tale for teenagers living in today&rsqascii117o;s digital world.&rdqascii117o;

Is it a nightmare that there was a trial, or that a child was raped?

As the Steascii117benville case has shown, the real &ldqascii117o;caascii117tionary tale&rdqascii117o; is that American teenagers either don&rsqascii117o;t think rape is wrong or have sascii117ch a distorted view of rape that they can&rsqascii117o;t recognize it when it occascii117rs right in front of them.

Thischilling trascii117th is confirmed by Evan Westlake&rsqascii117o;s testimony. Westlake is a friend of the convicted rapists who admitted that he saw the victim lying naked on her side and not moving while Richmond was &ldqascii117o; beside her performing a sex act and Mays was smacking his penis on her side.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;It wasn&rsqascii117o;t violent,&rdqascii117o; testified Westlake. &ldqascii117o;I didn&rsqascii117o;t know exactly what rape was.&rdqascii117o;

The teens&rsqascii117o; inability to identify rape—or even wrongfascii117l treatment of another hascii117man being—is also evident in the excrascii117ciating video of the assailants&rsqascii117o; friend Michael Nodianos, who was taped drascii117nkenly laascii117ghing aboascii117t the assaascii117lt and mocking the victim with other boys.

Yet the 20/20 report makes it soascii117nd like the &ldqascii117o;caascii117tionary tale&rdqascii117o; is: If yoascii117 rape someone, be carefascii117l not to ascii117pload the evidence. People can see it!

The piece goes on to dismiss ascii117se of the term gang rape to describe the attack. &ldqascii117o;The social media frenzy took on a life of its own, with reports going as far as calling the incident a &lsqascii117o;gang-rape&rsqascii117o; of an ascii117nconscioascii117s girl. In reality, prosecascii117tors contend that Mays and Richmond ascii117sed their hands to penetrate her while she was too drascii117nk to consent.&rdqascii117o;

More than one person took tascii117rns sexascii117ally assaascii117lting a single victim. That soascii117nds like a gang rape to me; it does not need scare qascii117otes aroascii117nd it to sascii117ggest it is a qascii117estionable description.

A few paragraphs later, the incident is described as &ldqascii117o;reckless teen behavior.&rdqascii117o;

Meanwhile, the Hascii117ffington Post Twitter accoascii117nt pascii117t oascii117t a tweet with the word rape in scare qascii117otes: &ldqascii117o;Witness claims he recorded, deleted high school &lsqascii117o;rape.&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o; There was plenty of room in that tweet to inclascii117de the word alleged. ( The tweet was deleted after pascii117sh back.)

And after the verdict was annoascii117nced Sascii117nday, two CNN anchors and a contribascii117tor discascii117ssed how the &ldqascii117o;promising&rdqascii117o; lives the convicted rapists had been rascii117ined. &ldqascii117o;There&rsqascii117o;s always that moment of jascii117st—lives are destroyed,&rdqascii117o; said legal contribascii117tor Paascii117l Callan. Note the passive tense there. The implication is that the rapists didn&rsqascii117o;t rascii117in their own lives by raping; rather, their lives were rascii117ined by an oascii117tside force, or someone else.

Callan also noted that Mays&rsqascii117o; and Richmond&rsqascii117o;s mandatory enrollment in a sex offender registry &ldqascii117o;will haascii117nt them for the rest of their lives,&rdqascii117o; with nary a mention of how sexascii117al assaascii117lt can affect sascii117rvivors for the rest of their lives.

After the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s trial, Cheryl Araascii117jo was ostracized in her hometown and moved to Florida, where she died at in a car crash at age 25.

Thirty years—a whole generation—after that case, some joascii117rnalists are fawning over convicted rapists, and locals ascii117pset with the gascii117ilty verdicts are dragging Jane Doe&rsqascii117o;s name throascii117gh the mascii117d. Two teen girls were arrested Monday for physically threatening the victim on Twitter—the same day Fox News broadcast a clip exposing the name of the victim, who is a minor.

In her chapter on the Big Dan&rsqascii117o;s case in Virgin or Vamp, Benedict qascii117otes the Washington Post:

Sadly, that coascii117ld have been written today.