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It Could Have Been Your Daughter
Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
The brutal gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Northern California last weekend is a wake-up call for all parents.
You'll be curious to know how I first learned of the gang rape of a 15 year-old girl in Richmond, California.
A few days ago, the blog for The New Agenda, a women’s advocacy organization that I helped co-found, got hundreds of hits from search engines looking for "gang rape teenage girl.” Regrettably, our stories show that the Richmond attack, while horrific, is not an anomaly. Young women are more vulnerable to violence than any other age group.
Parents beware: Our daughters are in danger and the statistics are staggering. And as details emerge about the two-and-a-half hour episode, we must use the Richmond case as a teachable moment on gender-based teen violence.
Here’s what the Richmond case signifies, plain and simple: Gender-based assault has become an acceptable norm in our country.
Of course, as usual, our media screwed it up. A major cable network grouped the Richmond case with other attacks on teenagers—males and females—and attempted to make this a youth-violence issue. The print media set out on its victim-blaming mantra: “Sure, the victim was sober during the dance, but had she been drinking before the attack?” “She asked for it, right?” “It’s like the college girl who goes to hang out with one guy and ends up getting raped by eight…well, she chose to go to the fraternity.” Or like the media's search for what the pop star Rihanna could possibly have done to upset her mild-mannered ex-boyfriend Chris Brown that would make him almost strangle her to death.
Here’s what the Richmond case signifies, plain and simple: Gender-based assault has become an acceptable norm in our country.
• Wendy Murphy: Why Bystanders Should Be PunishedA not-for-profit group called Parents Television Council released a report this week titled "Women in Peril." The shocking findings: From 2004 to 2009, incidents of violence on prime-time broadcast television increased 2 percent; in the same period, scenes of violence against women increased 120 percent. And, the kicker: There was a 400 percent increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims.
No wonder the rape onlookers in Richmond were enjoying a free look-see while they filmed with their cell phones. It's just like sitting at home in the den—watch a few broads get knocked around on the tube, then run down a few "whores" in a video game, glance at a few half-naked girls in a magazine, and then pick up the cell phone for some afternoon sexting.
This is a wake up call, parents: Our teenage girls are in danger. Nearly half of teen girls who have been in a relationship say they have been victims of verbal, physical, or sexual abuse by their boyfriends. And if you are reading about the Richmond case and thanking goodness that your daughter is home safe, think again: One in five girls will be raped by time they are 24 years old. Richmond's church-going honor student, who was attacked on her way home from a homecoming dance, could be your daughter next.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Amy, you are right of course. And girl on girl violence is now as prevelant as boy/boy. But the idea of a witnessed gang rape is close to the max. horror. I can only claim knowledge of my own home. We had video games and violent TV in the house, but we sure never had violence between the parents or worse, towards a child. I wish I had an answer for the sad parenting that is ruining our youth.
Very multicultural, this bit of buiness. Diversity is our greatest strength.
Parents should be held responsible for their children's actions until the child is 25-years-old. Dropping out of school, having children without benefit of two parents, forces society to support them. That should no be permitted. Parents must be required to provide restiution for crimes committed by their children. When bodily injury or death results the parents should be required to serve the same time in jail as their criminal children.
Maybe the bystanders were busy. On cellphones, texting, or listening to i-pods.
Girls do not deserve to be assaulted BUT when they dress and act in ways suggesting they want sex they must accept their signals may be taken differently than they intend. Girls do not deserve to be raped but they had better expect agressive behavior. The rapist must go to jail, possibly for life, but imagine what would not have happend if the girls had acted or dressed modestly AND the boys had been taught to respect girls.
great story Amy!!
Obama uses sexism/misogyny to win elections so don't count on anything but silence from him or his hula hooping wife.
@jrjenki
R U out of your freaking mind? I happen to think ppl with the letters jrj in their tag lines are asking to sexually assaulted, so you had better change your name quick like!
and if I ever see you wearing a two-piece swimsuit, wow, get down for action cause I know you want it bad! brain cells come in handy, try finding yours and taking them out for a stroll.
I should count my lucky stars that I managed not to get raped while grocery shopping today since I am wearing a short skirt. You are nuts!!!!!
Um, she should have been able to trust her friends, no matter what she wears.
I'd like to see independent verification of the statistic that 1 in 5 girls by the age of 24 will be raped. That's 20% of the female population in the age group. An example of statistics being skewed: in Ohio a traffic accident is classified as alcohol-related if any of the participants - drivers or passengers - have been drinking. That kind of labeling has to inflate the numbers. That being said, this was a vile, horrific event and the people involved need to be behind bars for a very long time.
Amen Carmen Ohio...the reason we inflate statistics is so that "the man" (government in any form) can "protect us". I think it would reason that more cops and maybe private security would have stopped this particular situation - oh, but wait..there were 4 police officers and up to 10 (reports vary) private security monitors in attendance at this dance, so what the hell happened. The problem overall is lack of personal responsibility, and the litigious society in which we live permeates the ridiculous notion that somehow people are, at the very least, not 100% responsible for their actions. The people who participated in this crime (active participants-the rapists and non active participants - the on lookers) should be held 100% accountable for their actions and prosecuted accordingly. I don't like acrticles like this one that segregate crime...who the hell cares the classication of the victim of a crime (crimes against women, gays, blacks or people born in the month of June) a crime is a crime and should not be treated any differently than any other crime...period.
I offer two andecdotes...first to jrjenki - Madam or Sir, it is wrong to rape someone! Even if they showed up to the dance naked - helllloooo?!!! Anyone home. And secondly jrjenki - parents should held accountable for their children until the age of 25? Uhhh, no. Personal responsibility, that is what we need to teach and act on...oh wait a minute, if my child wins a personal injury suit for $5million bucks at age 23, then I would get the same amount, oh OK, I've changed my mind on this issue, I'm with you....NOTTTTTT!!!
Richmond and Oakland are tumors on those of us who live in the Bay Area
Crimes, drugs, gang infested are what these cities prime contribution is to our lives
Pick up the local papers
Every night same story
Gang shootings over drugs or no real reason
Car thefts and high speed chases
Parents letting kids run on the streets
Inept, incompetant and nepotism riden local governments
Wow. Let's blame two cities for the gang rape of a 15-year old girl. That's brilliant. Better barricade yourself into your little pink suburban house, briansays. And dig your head a little deeper into the sand.
Violence against women happens everywhere. And it is always despicable.
Amy, I can't imagine anyone disputing what you say or arguing against what you recommend .
That said , I am struggling with the stubborn facts that in large part make your call to action jejeune.
I have a hard time seeing the difference between this horrible gang rape in Richmond and the even more horrible(my double standard) beating death of a teenager outside his school in Chicago a few weeks ago...recorded on video while the bystanders watched .
Given a cultural landscape constructed on resignation,shame,hopelessness, fear and inescapable poverty, and a completely dysfunctional educational system, how can we expect the teens therein to eschew violence ?...it is the air they breathe . You cannot easily suppress the brutality in the brutalized.
I assert that the boys who beat the kid in Chicago to death ,and the boys and girls who watched it, are in no way distinct from the boys and girls in Richmond involved in that episode.
Why focus only on violence against teen age girls ? I can understand it . Your passion and arguments are compelling.
However, you are preaching to a choir...sorry for the cliche...but it reminds me of Nancy Reagan and the "just say no" to drugs campaign 25 years ago.
Our President has inspired us to transform our society. We need to attack this issue of teen violence in totality from every direction at once...not piecemeal . The First Lady might make a more powerful contribution if she went after the roots of this phenomenon...the net outcomes from the combination of the culture of hopelessness and poverty and the culture of greed and indulgence.
We pay bright young teachers 10% of what we pay new associates at Goldman Sachs. Is Goldman Sachs going to lead the transformation and development of our future,or will it be the school systems we have now ?
I assert that this design flaw is the etymology of the rape of the girl in Richmond, the beating death in Chicago, and the violence against teenage girls and boys. Symptom and underlying disease.
You're absolutely right ,but you need to reach out further.
You are absolutely right.
We need to get that Faith based office busy.
Many of us have begged them, and begged Obama to get moving.
We were told it would be throught Faith based, but they do not even email groups back.
We need the Federal Government to set standards, on private and public education programs to eliminate the huge drop out rates. To identify the bad kids and stop them.
We need to stop blaming the victims.
In many of the school shootings, while not saying the shooters were right, the reality is, they were bullied, and hurt, and picked on until they decided to get even.
We need to put the zero tolerance as low as pre-school and teach the parents.
One child who was always beating up other kids: I asked her, "does your Mom fight like this, every day" She told me nope, she only fights two or three times a week. Well, guess she told me!
A child expelled for bringing "Grand Theft Auto" to his exclusive private school. Who bought it for him? Dad. He said that the kid wanted it. Dad had no idea what it was.
I agree the First Lady could be helpful in all of this.
Each Governor and the education administrations all the way from Arne Duncan to the States, to principals.
We need to, as a nation, put our money, as noted above, into our schools, and our youth. They are rapidly becoming a lot worse than Clockwork Orange.
I have never heard Mr. Sharpton take up the cause of feminist work. He focuses on black issues. Women have every right to focus on violence against women. Why?
Because when one in five young women will be assaulted by men, it demands that we focus on this problem. Rihanna was told by 50% of youth in Boston she deserved the beating. Find me a poll that shows that shows 50% of youth believe that young black boy deserved what he got. Can't do it! Violence against women is epidemic across all lines of society. And media inspired by the hateful words we use nightly on TV to demean women.
Inner city violence is an issue of poverty. Very different. The issue with women is a viewpoint that the are property of males. Talking about seeing women as fully human is what we need to do to stop VAW. It is shameful to try to stop the conversation about women's progess with racial overtake. Frankly is sounds like sexism to me.
"jrjenki
Girls do not deserve to be assaulted BUT when they dress and act in ways suggesting they want sex they must accept their signals may be taken differently than they intend." Yes, and I just saw a girls t-shirt at Walmart with an ADULT STYLE LACY CORSET printed on it labeled "Sassy Kitty." I showed it to the manager and she said, indignantly "that's what they're wearing." Just an example of the mass idiocracy we face that feeds into the misogyny machine.
Also, will the recent hate crimes bill signed by President Obama treat rape as a hate crime as it most certainly is? I've always wondered why it wasn't treated as such; too widespread I suppose. Sad, and every woman's worst nightmare -- for herself and her children.
I hope the perpetrators's cell mates "run the train" on them.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Don't start blaming video games, that's crap. Don't start blaming 'society', that's also crap. Richmond isn't exactly known for being a saintly place to inhabit. There are only 2 groups of people who can take blame:
1. persons performing acts
2. parents of persons performing acts
and to a lesser extent politicians, but that's a digression.
Ronin - Had the rape victim in Richmond been male I would agree with you and, had the murder victim Chicago been attacked by white students because of his race, I would agree with you. The excessive violence you address is a major problem that needs to be paid attention too. Even so, sexist attacks like this rape in Richmond need to be recognized as a special case, just as racist attacks are.
Violence against women and girls has not BECOME acceptable -- it has ALWAYS been acceptable. The tragic part of this is that, in the comments above, I am seeing the same justifications I heard thirty years ago.
My personal favorite was the political candidate who came to speak before a group of women living in low-income housing and told them that if they wore "provocative" clothing they were asking to be raped.
Keep in mind that, until a very few years ago, it was not illegal for a man to beat his wife. Some states went so far as to legislate what he could legitimately beat her with!
In my opinion, the situation has gotten worse instead of better! Yes, we must teach our daughters (and ourselves) to live defensively, but we must also teach our sons that violence against women is wrong.
We must also continue to try to teach women not to accept this behavior and we need to increase the penalties for gender-based assault.
FInally, with regard to the bystanders, if you watched and did nothing - you did it too and should be punished accordingly. How many of those bystanders were young women?
You know, this crime is horrifying, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if gangrape of this horrible a kind predominantly happens to girls, but your insinuation that our culture of portraying teenage girls as common victims somehow enables this kind of behaviour it unacceptable. You're playing the blame game, and pointing fingers as if to say that there is some causality between, for instance, the makers of the videogame Grand Theft Auto, and this kind of rape.
This is completely unsubstantiated. I mean...if you were right, you would be demonizing someone deserving of it, this is true, and you would be directing the public the right way, helping to alleviate the problem in the process.
But if you're _wrong_ - if somehow, this gut feeling (because there's no other evidence, so far as I can see, that the portrayal of female victims in media is causing gender-based crime than your gut feeling) you have, turns out to be incorrect, you're not only demonizing innocents, you're delaying a solution to the real problem. There are precious few resources around to solve this, and if the interest groups who need to apply pressure to improve these things don't hit the right spot, because of this accusation you're making, you're directly responsible for delaying a real solution.
The facts are, rape and sexual abuse of youths predominantly happens to boys and men, not girls and women. This is info available right here on the daily beast:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-29/polanskis-vict im-and-me/?cid=tag:all2
That doesn't at all fit with the idea you propose, that this is a gender issue, or that we, as a society, feel gender based assault is ok - it fits much better with the idea that preying on weak youths is somehow seen as ok. The fact that rape of boys is still more common than rape of girls seems to directly contradict the correlation you portray between abuse of girls and girls being portrayed as victims in popular media. In other words, unless I'm missing something here, you're plainly _wrong_ about these assertions.
And you know what?, that's not ok. You're in a position where you should know better, and where you being wrong can have real consequences, and do real damage. Honestly, the media appears to have had it right; this _is_ most likely a general youth violence issue. So either prove me wrong, or redact this article and get your facts straight, if by any chance you're reading this, or you'll be responsible for the consequences.
Well said !
Violence against girls is not a separate issue from violence against
people...little girls more often get slaughtered in a crossfire/stray bullet than gang raped...where is the outrage about those murdered angels ?
Oh, I thought this was going to be about the Franken amendment to punish defense contractors who try to hush up rape by their employees.
To prohibit the use of funds for any Federal contract with Halliburton Company, KBR, Inc., any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, or any other contracting party if such contractor or a subcontractor at any tier under such contract requires that employees or independent contractors sign mandatory arbitration clauses regarding certain claims.
We need to make sure that if these bystanders are not charged, any future ones will be.
Any teacher or school staff person will testify to the scary aspect of the gang up when fights or assaults occur with youth.
We as a nation need to act, and fast, to make sure that those who act in groups get the full and angry attention of law and courts, and those who do not do something, such as dial 911 on those myriad of cell phones teens possess, and move away from the scene, not shout "fight, fight" or "rape, rape" or whatever they shout, like a scene from Deliverance or Lord of the Flies.
We have allowed our children to turn in to monsters. It is time to get in there and restructure our schools and our youth so this type of thing will stop happening.
Charging those standing by and not doing anything to stop the crime is a start.
Young women are more vulnerable to violence than any other age group.
The statistics you cited do not demonstrate that. The statistics you linked to only refer to intimate violence and the evidence is based solely on abuse reported to the law enforcement. It does not demonstrate the actual rate of occurrence, particularly because male victims are far less likely to come forward. However, there are some recent studies that demonstrate teen boys experience the same rate of intimate partner violence as girls. In regards to violence in general, according to the Bureau of Justice's 2008 statistics "Males experienced higher victimization rates than females for all types of violent crime except rape/sexual assault. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, most murder victims were male, 78% in 2007 [...] Men were more likely than women to be the victim of a carjacking (2 men and 1 women per 10,000 persons)."
The sad fact is that boys are far more likely to be victims of random violence than girls are.
A wake up call to parents to talk to their kids?
The gangsters that do the raping and killing don't have a father and their mother can't control them.
Teachable moment?
As a public school teacher can certify that the bottom third of public schools are no longer safe for kids to attend.
Yet it is the likes of Arianna Huffington and Amy Suskind that kill vouchers/charter schools/private school tax breaks that would give these poor kids a chance to attend the same schools that their own kids do and thus escape the horror that awaits them each day in class.
This is not a sexism issue, as evidenced by the number of young men that are also beaten or shot outside their school.
As a teacher I'd also like to add that many of the author's statistics are not cited.
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