Contributory guilt in sexual assault cases
Hello Rabbi.
You've written quite a bit about how contributory guilt can be attributed to victims of sexual offenses who engaged in overt sexual behavior before the injury. At least that's how I understood it, please correct me if I'm wrong.
Anyway, you have a few questions about this:
What is the safest behavior, in a sexual context, from your perspective? Does a woman who dresses in a revealing manner, but does not initiate any sexual contact, and is attacked in the middle of the street have contributory guilt from your perspective? Or perhaps a low level of contributory guilt?
If so, a follow-up question – does a black man in his 50s, who is walking around a white neighborhood in the US and is attacked – also have contributory guilt, in your opinion? My point is that when moral norms are flawed and lead to physical attacks, the problem is not the victim's behavior, but the flawed moral norms.
Contributory fault is a legal term, and so I would be happy to discuss it using legal tools. Contributory fault is determined in relation to the injured party when he did not take reasonable precautions under the circumstances. Are reasonable precautions, in order to avoid sexual harassment, that is, in order to avoid unwanted touching of my body, dressing in a certain way? In my opinion, this is not reasonable. Yes, it is reasonable to expect men in human society to restrain themselves, even in the face of certain sights, of any kind. In my opinion, men can certainly be expected not to impose themselves, in any way, on other people. And if the structure of human biology makes this difficult – it must be tamed with the help of rigid social influence, not surrendered to by reducing the freedom of the injured party.
I would love to hear your opinion.
Good Saturday,
Tair
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