Does sexy attire lead to rape? No — and yes

BeFoRe anything else, let’s be absolutely clear: Any crime is the sole responsibility of the criminal, assuming he acted on his own without impairment of his or her judgment and free will. the thief who breaks into a car is solely to blame for violating the law, not the motorist who left a fancy briefcase in the vehicle easily seen from outside.

now, the car owner may be considered careless in raising the risk of theft by failing to follow the prudent practice of keeping valuables out of sight. But that negligence does not exempt anyone from the obligation to respect private property and obey moral and civil codes. nor do mitigating circumstances like the thief’s joblessness and family needs, although they may lessen culpability and punishment under the law.

Applying the above thinking to the recent debate in mass and social media over whether rape victims are to blame if they wear sexy attire, they DEfiNITELY ARE NOT CULPABLE — ONLY attackers are. And mitigating circumstances in most legal jurisdictions apply solely to statutory rape, the crime of having sex with a minor, and in certain narrow situations.

in short, short skirts and other attire deemed sexually attractive should not and do not put blame on rape victims. Period.

So, when people blame attire for assault, they’re plain wrong, as jurors were when they unanimously acquitted a kidnapper-rapist in a 1989 Florida case, saying of the victim:

“She asked for it. the way she was dressed with that skirt you could see everything she had. She was advertising for sex.”

“We felt she was up to no good [ by] the way she dressed.”

“She was obviously dressed for a good time, but we felt she may have bit off more than she could chew.” (Remarks are from a University of minnesota report, available at: https://scholarship. law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi ?article=1412&context=lawineq.)

Modest dress won’t stop rape

So, what’s with the “yes” in the headline?

in answering that question, one may ask another: will modest dress stop rape? Sadly, it won’t.

nuns all covered up have been raped, especially in war, and perverse attackers relished the thought of violating religious sisters sworn to virginity.

early this year, before pandemic restrictions banned public events, a fashion show in Poland featured rape victims in modest clothes they were wearing when they were attacked ( https://notesfrompoland. com/2020/03/16/rape-survivorshold

St. maria goretti (1890-1902), whose memorial day is tomorrow, was a paragon of sanctity and modesty at the tender age of 11. Still, Alessandro Serenelli, then 20, her next-door neighbor in the town

of Nettuno, 65 kilometers south of Rome, tried to rape her one midafternoon, after months of making sexual overtures and threatening violence if she did not yield.

When the girl resisted, he stabbed her 14 times. Before St. Maria Goretti died a day later, she said before breathing her last: “I forgive Alessandro Serenelli … and I want him with me in heaven forever.” While the killer was in prison, the saint appeared to him and forgave him. He was converted and eventually became a Franciscan lay brother.

St. Maria Goretti was declared a martyr of chastity in 1945, beatified in 1947 and canonized

in 1950, with more than half a million faithful in attendance, the largest canonization crowd at the time. For that reason, the ceremonial Mass had to be held open- air at St. Peter’s Square, not the Basilica, for the first time in history ( https://mariagoretti.

The Italian girl was also the youngest saint ever declared till the centenary of the Our Lady of Fatima’s apparition on May 13, 2017, when Pope Francis recognized two Fatima visionaries, Francisco and Jacintha Marto, who died at age 10 and 8 during the 19181919 Spanish flu pandemic.

According to Fr. Carlos Martins, head of the Vatican office caring for holy articles, St. Maria Goretti’s remains have more miracles attributed to them by far than those for any other saint’s relics. She is patron saint of chastity, purity, poverty, forgiveness, youth and girls.

How sexy attire leads to sex attack

So, back to rape: if modesty does not prevent it, how does sexy dress promote it? In two ways: raising risk and eroding values.

Before discussing these issues, it’s absolutely important to constantly remember that blame is different from risk or values. Criminals are to blame for crimes, not victims, even though possibly contributing factors like risk and values may have been affected by the actions of others.

Now, can sexy attire raise the risk of sexual offenses? Consider two other questions: In a place with many people, who are likely to catch the eye of potential sex offenders, those modestly dressed or those in sexy attire? And given how media and culture attribute sexual meanings and intentions to revealing dress, can such clothing convey such ideas, even if the wearers never intend it?

Again, this is not to blame those wearing sexy attire but to assess how it may raise risks and stir thoughts that contribute to criminal offenses.

As for values, the sexual objectification of people is one factor seen as contributing to sexual abuse and assault. “Sexual violence is a consequence of a dehumanized perception of female bodies that aggressors acquire,” said a 2017 review of academic research cited by the US National Institutes of Health ( https:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/PMC5344900/).

Another 2017 review of research studies found: “The use of sexual images of women and children [in media] has increased over time and viewing such images

is also linked to self- and otherobjectification” ( https://link. springer.com/article/10.1186/ s40691-017-0101-5).

Will reducing sexual material in media lessen the objectification linked to sex offenses? We’ll leave that question to the researchers, and just end with today’s second Sunday Mass reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans ( 8: 9, 12):

“You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. … Consequently, brothers and sisters, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.”

Live by the Spirit, not the flesh.