It's tricky. Nowadays, the law defines rape fairly exactly, though I don't think the legal definition exactly coincides with popular understanding. For starters, it's only possible to commit rape in a legal sense using a penis (strictly, one's own) — everything else is dealt with a few sections later under "causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent".
Rape (and indeed causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent in a peculiarly-chosen subset of circumstances) carries a mandatory life sentence, but in practice means serving something approaching a decade behind bars.
What Helen Mirren describes clearly (to me) falls within the legal definition of rape, and indeed within popular understanding. I think she's very wrong when she says Mike Tyson didn't commit rape, for example.
Do such crimes merit a life sentence with a ten-year tariff? Actually… being locked in the room inclines me to say so. But there probably are rapes which merit more lenient sentences. I note that Tyson only got six years and served three (though in the USA, obviously).
Some people seem to say there's no such thing as less serious rape; some want the definition of rape extended; some want harsher penalties for rape. It may be taboo to say so, but I think giving in to all three groups would lead to injustice.
Helen Mirren's surely right that nothing much would have happened if she'd gone to the police about such an incident in the 1960s, though?
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Date: 2008-09-02 07:22 pm (UTC)Rape (and indeed causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent in a peculiarly-chosen subset of circumstances) carries a mandatory life sentence, but in practice means serving something approaching a decade behind bars.
What Helen Mirren describes clearly (to me) falls within the legal definition of rape, and indeed within popular understanding. I think she's very wrong when she says Mike Tyson didn't commit rape, for example.
Do such crimes merit a life sentence with a ten-year tariff? Actually… being locked in the room inclines me to say so. But there probably are rapes which merit more lenient sentences. I note that Tyson only got six years and served three (though in the USA, obviously).
Some people seem to say there's no such thing as less serious rape; some want the definition of rape extended; some want harsher penalties for rape. It may be taboo to say so, but I think giving in to all three groups would lead to injustice.
Helen Mirren's surely right that nothing much would have happened if she'd gone to the police about such an incident in the 1960s, though?