Q&A: Rape and Contributory Fault
Rape and Contributory Fault
Question
I became aware, only very slightly, of the rape case in Eilat about a week ago, in which allegedly about 30 men raped a 16-and-a-half-year-old girl one after another. It is horrifying if it indeed happened as described, but where is the girl’s responsibility not to go into an apartment full of horny men and apparently uncouth thugs with no restraints, who presumably would try to get what they wanted? Is this called contributory fault? Or is there another term for it? The Rabbi could also elaborate on what he meant in the past when he wrote that a secular, permissive society should not stand stunned in the face of such cases, since it is logical that on the margins there would indeed be such cases in a society that sanctifies free sex. As I see it, this is a permissive society (indeed), but it does not sanctify sex without consent; it simply does not see sex as something sacred the way religious people do. Does that mean one should not be surprised when there is a case of rape? Rape is a blatant deviation from the status quo even in their eyes. Why shouldn’t they stand shocked by rape cases just like anyone else? Thank you.
Answer
I do not know the details of the case, and I assume you do not either, so I would not rush to blame her. That is also not important, because this is a private case. I wrote my principled view, and it seems you already read it. I do not see what I have to add.
Discussion on Answer
Among the Haredim there is permissiveness regarding incest, a phenomenon that hardly exists among other permissive publics…
What are we supposed to conclude from this phenomenon?
The Rabbi meant that the margins will always spread outward in a way consistent with the “center”…
If in a society there is a certain tolerance for violence, even though there is less tolerance for murder, murder is still an outgrowth of violence…
The same applies here: in a society where there is sexual permissiveness (that is, it is not something sacred, just something intimate) and there is immodesty, there will always be the beasts on the margins (30 horny, sick thugs, or just …), and proportionally there is no reason not to assume that the form of sexuality at the center today will drag along, at its margins (because of the 10% who are less good in society), a rape every so often. That, I think, is what the Rabbi meant (and it seems to me he explained it well in that post).
In a society that is less sexual at its center, its margins too presumably will not reach routine rape.
In all societies there is buying and selling and a free market, and people still get angry about theft.