Rape: The Sexual Weapon

By Maureen Dowd.

As Johnny Carson said good night, Jetta Young reached over to switch off the television set. She heard her roommate's footsteps coming down the hall and, glancing up, saw her silhouetted in the doorway of the dark bedroom. "Don't be afraid," she told Young, in a strange, flat voice. "We have company."

The bedroom light came on, blinding Young for a moment. She saw fractured images. A butcher knife shining against her roommate's throat. Her roommate's pinched, ashen face. A man in a blue nylon jacket and sneakers holding the knife. The stranger ordered Young to turn over onto her stomach and keep her face to the wall. For three hours on that cool night three months ago, he repeatedly raped and sodomized Young as her roommate lay trembling on the floor beside them.

Young did not resist. Through a blur of pain and fear, feeling the blade of his knife scraping up and down her back, she tried to keep a conversation going. "I quickly decided that if I lived through this, I was going to know as much about him as possible," recalls Young, 36, an emergency-room nurse who had often treated victims of rape but never imagined it could happen to her. "I kept putting my hands all over him, trying to feel for moles or scars or some identifying mark."

Before leaving, he asked if she had a camera. He liked to take pictures of his victims, he told her. When she said no, he walked out the front door into the black morning, calling back a chilling warning: "Don't move for ten minutes or I'll be back." Three days later, on June 4, Los Angeles police arrested Jerald Curtis Johns walking near Young's house. He was carrying a camera.

Johns, 32, a convicted rapist, worked by day as a desk clerk in a retirement hotel and as a leader of a young-adults group at his church. By night, he prowled the streets of a middle-class neighborhood of two-story frame and brick houses on the edge of Hollywood. Police believe he may have raped as many as 100 women, ranging in age from 24 to 71, living in a ten-block radius. One of his victims, Sandra Trine, 37, died when she choked on her own vomit during the rape. On Aug. 11, after pleading guilty to 13 counts of rape and one of first-degree murder, he was given a stiff sentence of 142 years. "I was a victim," says Young, who spoke publicly against Johns at his sentencing. "There was nothing that I could have done that would have changed that."

More and more rape victims are refusing to withdraw into a silent scream. They no longer readily accept any portion of blame in a society that has traditionally been ambivalent about siding with them. In the past decade, as women have gained greater equality, women's groups have coalesced across the country to work to bring rape out of a miasma of shame, insensitivity and injustice. In many ways, the crusade has paid off. There has been widespread improvement in the way rape victims are treated by the police, courts and hospitals. There are now more than 700 rape crisis centers nationwide. Laws in most states have been toughened, conviction rates are going up, and judges are likely to give more stringent sentences to offenders.

Nonetheless, rape remains one of the most misunderstood and underreported crimes. Only 3.5% to 10% of rapes are reported, according to an aggregate of surveys done by the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI and the National Opinion Research Center. Using conservative estimates, experts calculate that a woman's chance of being raped at some point during her life is an appalling 1 in 10. But as the social stigma on rape victims begins to lessen, they are fighting back through the legal system, reporting their cases and seeing them through to prosecution. The number of reported rapes has steadily risen, jumping 35% to 99,146 in 1981, the latest year for which the Justice Department has figures. (Justice calculated its number on a 56% rate for reported rapes, a percentage the experts agree is much too high.) Although most authorities feel there is some increase in the actual number of rapes, including gang rapes and rapes of children and men, most of the rise is attributed to more women reporting the attacks on them.

One of the key factors in making the system more responsive to victims is a better understanding of why people rape. The old image of a man's succumbing to uncontrollable (and, to many, understandable) lust, enticed by a provocative woman wearing sexy clothes, is fading, as is the notion that women falsely cry rape.

Rape is now regarded as a crime of violence, not passion. Sex is not the chief thing that motivates rapists, says A. Nicholas Groth, director of an innovative sex-offender program at the state prison in Somers, Conn. "Rape is the sexual expression of aggression."

Groth says that most rapists have wives or girlfriends and are not sexually deprived. They rape for power. "They are insecure, inadequate people who don't feel in control of their own lives or themselves." One rapist told Groth:

"You know I could get all the sex I wanted because my brother ran a chain of massage parlors. But if they were giving it to me, I wasn't in control. I wanted to take it."

Another rapist told his therapy group in Florida that he started out as a Peeping Tom before graduating to rape. "I started feeling bad about myself and guilty about what I was doing," he said. "The only way to make me feel better was to make them feel worse."

Some men rape as a way of expressing anger, and often these rapes include beatings. Fred, a slab of a man with a bushy beard and bizarrely tattooed arms, went to a convenience store one night for a pack of cigarettes, and the female clerk told him she had just closed up. Furious, he savagely attacked her. "The rape was just a reaction that took place so fast I didn't know it was happening," he said.

Often the anger is directed at the whole female sex. Rapists tend to view women with a mixture of reverence and resentment. They choose random women on whom to vent their roiling rage about mothers who mistreated them or women who rejected them. "I was angry with my wife for having a crush on my brother, and I was angry with the first girl I went out with when I was 17 who told me I wasn't assertive enough," said John, a rapist in the sex-offender program at Western State Hospital at Fort Steilacoom, Wash. "I felt judged by women."

Most psychologists agree that rape is not a form of mental illness but a behavior problem rooted in emotional immaturity. Most discount the theory that rapists are latent homosexuals. Rapists usually recoil from the idea. As one put it, "Raping a woman, at least that's normal." (Rape crisis centers report a rise in the number of calls they are getting from men who have been raped by other men. The victims are both gay and straight men, as are the rapists.) Ironically, most rapists are sexually naive and embrace conservative sexual attitudes.

Studies and statistics offer a rough picture of a "typical" rapist. He is young, most likely between the ages of 15 and 19. He is apt to strike in summer rather than in winter, at night rather than by day, and half the time he rapes the victim in her home. He is usually poor and, like three-quarters of all rapists, he was sexually abused as a child. But experts say the statistics are too sketchy to categorize rapists; the exceptions spill across all social classes. Says Judy Ravitz, executive director of the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women: "They're your employer, the people who go to school with you, anybody." Fred Berlin, a psychiatrist who runs a clinic for sexual offenders at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, says his patients include a priest, doctor, lawyer, teacher and television administrator.

Several highly publicized rape cases have reinforced the notion that rape is a crime of terrifying randomness in terms of who does it, who suffers it and where it happens.

P:Dr. Edward Franklin Jackson Jr., 39, a respected Columbus physician, admitted through his lawyer last week that he had raped 22 women and sexually assaulted at least ten others, including a nun, over a four-year period. Jackson's lawyer described the doctor, who is married and has two children, as "two people," dutiful by day and degenerate by night.

P: A 14-year-old St. Louis girl went for a dip in a fountain in a popular local park one day in July and was brutally assaulted by two youths who ripped off her shorts and repeatedly raped and sodomized her for 40 minutes. At least three adults stood by and watched as the girl screamed for help. Finally, an eleven-year-old boy alerted authorities.

P: Last March, a 21-year-old mother of two walked into Big Dan's tavern in New Bedford, Mass., to buy a pack of cigarettes. A man in the bar threw her to the floor, stripped her and hoisted her onto a pool table, where he and three companions took turns raping, sodomizing and beating the woman. Other patrons cheered the rapists on, screaming, "Go for it! go for it!"

There has been an increase in incidents of gang rape, particularly on college campuses. Nine Ohio State athletes were called before a Columbus grand jury last April to testify about an alleged "rape train" that occurred in February in a dormitory; the victim, the daughter of a minister, never returned to school. At Duke University last year, Beta Phi Zeta was dissolved following a university investigation of an alleged gang rape at the fraternity house.

"Assailants have no idea that what they are doing has devastated a life," says Peg Ziegler, director of Atlanta's Rape Crisis Center. "They think, 'It's just sex. She's had sex before. What's the big deal?' " As one rapist put it, "There has to be some point in every rape where the woman relaxes and enjoys it."

Studies show that it takes from six months to six years for rape victims to feel normal again, if they ever do. "It's like living through your own murder," says Lindsay, 28, a Houston nurse. Her two attackers broke her jaw, took turns raping her and stuffed snowflake-shaped earrings into her vagina. "My whole life flashed before me," she recalls. "I thought how I really wanted my mom to know I cared about her, and I concentrated on breathing. I was on my period and had a tampon embedded deep inside. I had to sit and talk to a policeman with dried semen all over my face."

The array of aftershocks for rape victims includes depression, guilt, diminished interest in sex, breakups of relationships, obsessive concern for safety and loss of trust. Studies show that divorces and suicide attempts are fairly common after rape. "I live like I'm in a cage," says Mary Bronnenberg, one of Johns' victims in Los Angeles. "There are bars on the windows and floodlights on the house. I know there's no way anybody can get in, but I'm still scared."

There are no standard responses to an attack. Many self-defense specialists advise acting aggressively early in the assault, yelling or bending his pinkie finger back. But there is no way of knowing how a given attacker will respond. In Groth's group, one rapist said he "would let them go as soon as they started to cry." Another said he stabbed a woman who became assertive.

Rape crisis centers usually have counselors on call 24 hours a day. They stay with the victim during the medical exam and assist her with the police report. Reporting the rape is important both to put repeat offenders in jail and for therapy. "It's getting back," says Gail Abarbanel, director of the Santa Monica (Calif.) Rape Treatment Center. "To discourage women from reporting is a bad message that implies the victim had a role in the rape."

The hardest rapes for women to report are "acquaintance rapes" or "date rapes," an increasingly common practice on college campuses. In these attacks, which represent about half of all reported rapes, the victim knows her assailant, sometimes just to say hello to and sometimes on a friendlier basis. That makes the victim fear people will regard her as guilty in some way. Says Martha Burt, research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington: "Women end up being their own worst punishers."

Andrea, 24, from Gardner, Mass., was introduced to David Partridge at a party last New Year's Eve by his sister, whom she knew. The two offered to give Andrea a lift home. David dropped his sister off first and asked if he could come up to Andrea's apartment for some coffee. "I trusted her. Why not trust him?" Andrea says. "He had been so nice, so polite, all evening long." Once inside, Andrea alleges, he forced her to perform a variety of sex acts. She decided to prosecute. It turned out that Partridge had got out on parole on a rape conviction only six days before he met Andrea. People at the party testified for the defense that they had seen the couple talking that night and Andrea drinking. A jury acquitted Partridge. He is now on trial again, for the alleged rape this month of a 13-year-old girl. "I just want to cry when I think about that poor girl and what he put her through," Andrea says.

Four thousand years ago, the Code of Hammurabi engraved in stone women's dependent status and culpability in Babylonian law. A man was slain for raping a betrothed virgin, but a married woman who had the misfortune to get raped had to share the blame equally with her attacker. They were bound and thrown into the river. Through the centuries, laws continued to imply that the rape victim was somehow guilty. Women were expected to produce physical injuries proving resistance; psychological trauma was not enough. Defense lawyers were fond of using Balzac's celebrated statement on rape: "One cannot thread a needle when the needle doesn't stand still."

Michigan, Minnesota and California have model comprehensive laws in which discrimination against the victim has been corrected to improve conviction rates. Many other states are preparing to follow suit. In the 1975 Minnesota law, victims no longer have to prove that they resisted, and their testimony needs no corroboration. The county where the rape occurred must pay for the medical examination. The law made sentencing less subjective by linking the severity of the punishment to the nature of the injury.

In a key change, Minnesota and most other states have enacted "rape shield" statutes, which prevent defense attorneys from asking about a victim's sexual history unless they can prove it is relevant. Women are now more likely to press charges when they know that they have some protection from being harassed and humiliated in court about their morals. Many prosecutors' offices are establishing special assault units to minimize the number of interviews that victims must face. In Philadelphia, which assigned eleven district attorneys to a rape unit in 1978, the conviction rate stood at 80% last year, twice as high as the city's 1977 record. Other cities report similar success with police and prosecutors' rape units. In Manhattan, convictions in recent years average 80%, in Los Angeles 85%.

Bert Graham of the district attorney's office in Houston says he has noticed an evolution in juries' attitudes. "Juries used to be skeptical of rape victims," he said. "They were always looking for some straw they might grasp to call it an orgy instead of a rape. Now juries are quick to side with the complainant."

Police treatment of rape victims in most cities reflects a new sensitivity. Recruits are given instruction on handling victims, and many forces have established special rape squads, with contingents of female officers. "The old line that women ask for trouble just isn't heard any more," observes Spencer Nelson, a Seattle-area detective.

In hospital emergency rooms, where precious evidence was often lost through carelessness, techniques have greatly improved. Rape crisis centers send experts to lecture to interns at medical schools. Many hospitals now use evidence kits consisting of envelopes marked for clothing, fibers, hairs, blood and secretions.

Therapy groups are also forming around the country for sex offenders, although experts disagree on how much recidivism can be curbed among these chronic offenders. The emphasis is on making the rapists take responsibility for their behavior. "I used to think of myself as a good guy," admits Walter, 34, who is in therapy at Lino Lakes prison in Minnesota. The former college halfback raped a woman after the date he was waiting for stood him up. "I have no illusions now. Good guys don't do these things."

Minnesota established the Lino Lakes program in 1979. About 30 sex offenders attend three group-therapy sessions a week, read books and articles dealing with their addictive behavior, and see movies showing the feelings of victims. Rapists must swear off hard-core pornography, which one psychologist describes as being "like a shot of whisky to an alcoholic." Since the program began in 1979, only four of 96 inmates completing it have been jailed again for sex crimes.

Five programs are testing the controversial drug Depo-Provera to reduce testosterone levels of offenders. Others offer Clockwork Orange-style reconditioning.

At Western State Hospital, patients make tape recordings, talking about their deviant sexual fantasies. The tape is played back and when it comes to the moment of sexual gratification, the script is changed so that something awful happens. Statistics show that 78% of those who complete the program at Western State have not so far committed other sex crimes. At the state prison in Avenel, N.J., a facility built solely for sex offenders, prisoners undergo fantasy reconditioning, masturbating for about an hour, until it is physically painful, to deviant fantasies.

Ironically, despite her success at Western State, Maureen Saylor, director of the program, is dubious about the long-term effects of therapy. "Many of these people can't be treated," she says. "No woman is immune from rapists."

Ron, who just finished therapy in Miami, says he is not sure how long he will stay straight. "When I see a light in the window, I start thinking about how I can do it and get away with it. That's a battle that will be with me for the rest of my life."

Even with strides in therapy for rapists and a new sensitivity for the victims, most experts agree, there is still a long way to go. The old stereotypes die hard.

Dean Kilpatrick, a clinical psychologist with the Medical University of South Carolina, cites a study of young doctors in his hospital that found "they still make a judgment about whether or not it's a 'real rape' that is similar to society's stereotype." Says Kilpatrick: "Around here, we refer to a real rape as the rape of a nun on her way to Sunday vespers who gets assaulted by Hell's Angels. But.if you have a victim who had been drinking or if the victim knew the guy even a little, you get some negative attitudes."

Last month Illinois Criminal Judge Christy Berkos gave a lenient sentence to notorious Plumber-Rapist Brad Lieberman, who, on top of prior rape convictions, pleaded guilty to five rape charges. In an interview, the judge explained his sentence: "Lieberman had done things that did hurt the women, but fortunately he did not hurt the women physically by breaking their heads or other things we see. He didn't cut their breasts off, for instance."

The fact that a state judge could seem almost casual about rape shows that beneath the new surface sensitivity, many of the cultural prejudices linger. "What we do in our society, whether it's in photography, films or language, is devalue sex," says Psychologist Groth. "and that gives the message that sex can become a weapon to degrade somebody." Such moral carelessness is what has made the U.S. violent in private, as well as in public. --By Maureen Dowd.

Reported by Cheryl Crooks/Los Angeles and Ruth Galvin/Boston

With reporting by Cheryl Crooks/Los Angeles, Ruth Galvin/Boston This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.