Rape by proxy

Rape by proxy is a type of rape where an attacker makes use of another individual to physically assault the victim.^[1]

Types

Coercing someone to have sex with a third party

See also: Marry-your-rapist law

In September 2007 a Utah woman raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints brought to court a rape by proxy case against the church leader Warren Jeffs whom she claims coerced her to marry her 19-year-old cousin and have sex with him when she was 14 years old.^[2] Jeffs was convicted on the charge.^[3]

Rapist under duress

Persons being forced to rape is a phenomenon researched in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where cases of forced incestuous assaults have been attested to by victims of rape during war times, these events mainly happen after a gang rape and entail fathers being forced to assault their daughters and sons forced to assault their mothers.^[4] Among acts of sexual violence in the Tigray War in Ethiopia and Eritrea has been reported cases of men and boys being forced to rape their family members under threats of violence or death.^[5][6]

Rapist misled

In 2014 in Prince George's County, Maryland, a woman and her daughters were the victim of several attempted assaults by men who were contacted by fake social media contacts posing to be the woman asking them to come to her home to engage in rape fantasies. An investigation revealed that it was the woman's ex-husband who had orchestrated the events. Brian Frosh and Kathleen Dumais of The Baltimore Sun noted that "though her ex-husband was eventually brought to justice, prosecutors were forced to cobble together a lengthy list of charges to accumulate a sentence that would fit this novel crime" and that the phenomenon is not unique and needs new legislation to handle. They also state that rape by proxy by misleading solicitations online is a unique type of conspiracy as "the recruiters and recruits never meet, never exchange anything of value and may never even communicate directly at all".^[7] As a result of this case the state senate passed a bill outlawing "posting information about another person advertising that they would welcome being sexually assaulted".^[8]

See also

• Outline of sexual ethics
• Forced prostitution

References

1. "Understanding What Is Rape by Proxy: Unmasking the Complex Issue". Mausner Graham Injury Law PLLC. February 4, 2024. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
2. Staff (September 13, 2007). "Polygamist's rape-by-proxy trial begins". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
3. Staff (September 25, 2007). "Sect leader convicted on rape-by-proxy charges". NBC News. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
4. Brown, Carly (2012). "Rape as a weapon of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo" (PDF). Torture. 22 (1): 25–37 – via corteidh.or.cr.
5. Patten, Pramila (2021-01-21). "United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Pramila Patten, urges all parties to prohibit the use of sexual violence and cease hostilities in the Tigray region of Ethiopia". United Nations. Archived from the original on 2021-01-31. Retrieved 2021-02-01.
6. Nichols, Michelle (March 26, 2021). "Men forced to rape family members in Ethiopia's Tigray, U.N. says". Reuters. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
7. Frosh, Brian; Dumais, Kathleen (February 3, 2014). "Bill targets 'rape by proxy'". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on 5 April 2021. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
8. Vann, Amanda (2014). "Maryland Senate Outlaws "Rape by Proxy"". Andalman & Flynn. Retrieved 2024-04-03.

Further reading

• Mardorossian, Carine M. (May 13, 2014). "5. Rape by Proxy in Contemporary Diasporic Women's Fiction". Framing the Rape Victim. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813566047.
• McCann, Fiona (2009). "Writing Rape: The Politics of Resistance in Yvonne Vera's Novels". Feminism, Literature and Rape Narratives (1st ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9780203479735.
• LetterToTheEditor (February 9, 2012). "Rape by proxy". The Virginian-Pilot. Retrieved 2024-04-03.