Headlines for the Week of April 7

Another week of not-so-uplifting but definitely necessary headlines to be aware of.

April Is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Rape Survivors Are Still Looking for Justice

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and that means it’s time to remind everyone that a backlog of rape kits nationwide still exists. It’s estimated that the number of untested rape kits in the U.S. is around 46,000, a decrease from 2019 estimates of 225,000. Yet even one is still too many, and Colorado is one of several states still struggling to end their backlog. This week, Colorado Public Radio reported that the wait time to process a rape kit in the state is a year and a half, with some 1,400 people still awaiting their results. 

Miranda Spencer is one of those whose cases are in limbo. After her divorce, Spencer decided to give online dating a try. She was drugged and raped by the man she went on her first date with in November 2023. She says she remembers only the first 30 minutes of their encounter, at most. She woke up the next morning in her home, naked and covered in her own vomit. A friend who had come to check on her the evening prior says he saw the perpetrator in her bedroom; she was incapacitated.

 Spencer blamed herself. “I was very embarrassed and ashamed, and I couldn't understand why I would have a stranger in my home or how I got home.”  Victim-blaming is all too common for victims of sexual assault, and sometimes, survivors blame themselves.

“There’s an undue responsibility on women to protect [themselves] from sexual assault. We don’t do that for many other crimes. When we’re questioning the victims, it detracts from the crime,” says Tasha Menaker, director of sexual violence response initiatives for the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence. 

Spencer took herself to the hospital where it was discovered she had fentanyl in her system, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. It cannot be seen, smelled or tasted when added to other substances, making it an ideal choice for rapists. She underwent a forensic exam, also called a rape kit, an invasive but voluntary process to collect evidence of sexual assault. It’s been 16 months now. She still hasn’t received the results. The man has not yet been arrested. 

Sexual abuse frequently coincides with other types of domestic violence. According to VAWnet.org, at least one third of women in the U.S. reported having “unwanted sex” with their male partners, while 10-14 percent of married women more definitively said they had been raped by their husbands. Much like domestic violence, rape is underreported, with only an estimated 25 percent of victims disclosing the crime to police. The number is thought to be even less when it’s a marital rape. While rape laws were once written to cover only sexual violence outside of one’s spouse, now all 50 states have updated their laws to make marital rape illegal.  

Source: CPR.org 

Two Months After Domestic Violence Incident, Washington Man Arrested for Child Porn

Christopher Marsh was arrested Monday in Spokane, Wash. and charged with nearly 30 counts of child sex abuse material. The arrest stems from a domestic violence incident in February in which police were called to the home, however, they were unable to determine the primary aggressor in the altercation. Marsh told police he had recorded the incident on his phone but refused to show police, claiming it might incriminate him. The officer seized Marsh’s phone and proceeded to get a warrant to search it. This led police to arrest March this week, but not for domestic violence.

According to the affidavit, the officer discovered child sex abuse material involving Marsh and extremely young children and evidence that the material was made in his home. Marsh’s partner confirmed she babysat several children in her home that Marsh would have access to. Using screenshots, the children’s parents confirmed that the children pictured were theirs. Marsh then created additional AI-generated porn using the images of the children. Marsh remains in custody with his bail set at $1 million. 

Not being able to determine the primary aggressor in February meant Marsh avoided arrest for nearly two additional months. The primary aggressor is the person who poses the most serious, ongoing threat, not necessarily the person who started the altercation in the first place. Abusers are known for trying to position themselves as victims to the police in order to evade charges, pointing to scratches or marks on their body as evidence that the survivor was violent, when what more likely happened was that the survivor was defending herself from the abuser’s attack. For the dos and don’ts when police arrive on scene, read, “How to Help Police Determine the Primary Aggressor.” 

Source: KTLY.com

A “Domestic Violence Situation” Is a Weird Way to Say Murder

In Raleigh, N.C., local police chose the term “domestic violence situation” to describe the scene of a murder Tuesday afternoon. Raleigh Police Department officials say a man shot and killed a woman who was known to him before shooting himself. The identities of the two victims have not yet been released. The man died on the scene while the woman died at the hospital the next morning. 

Lack of accountable language in describing domestic violence homicides can lead to a minimizing effect of the problem. According to Everytown for Gun Safety, 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month. Both law enforcement and the media are known for categorizing these domestic violence homicides not as “an abusive partner murdering a woman” (which is the most common scenario) but rather as a “domestic violence incident,” which can unduly place blame on both parties for one person’s choice to murder. 

Many advocates agree that the shortcut terminology likely stems from antiquated beliefs that domestic violence was a “couple’s issue” and should be handled within the home, but things have changed. We know that domestic violence is never the victim’s fault, nor her responsibility to end. Mutual abuse is rare, if not a manipulation tactic by abusers, and there is no difference in the severity of a man murdering his spouse and a man murdering a complete stranger.

“The media has an obligation to the public to help offer information that tells the truth about serious social problems. Media can help to educate society about intimate partner abuse by explaining the context of domestic violence, especially when covering a murder,” says Rose Garrity, former board president of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

For more up-to-date terminology to use when talking about domestic violence, visit “A Glossary of Domestic Violence Terms.”

Source: ABC11