In 2010, William Jeffrey Dumas was arrested for allegedly raping and sodomizing a 24 year old woman with Down Syndrome. The case went to court in October 2012, and Dumas was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Last month, Appellate Judge Christopher McFadden overturned the jury’s verdict and granted a request for a new trial. In his ruling the judge wrote that the woman “did not behave like a victim when complaining about the assault the day after it occurred.”
Got that? The victim did not act appropriately victimized. The woman did not display appropriate post-rape behavior.
According to RAINN, a national anti-sexual violence organization, approximately 60% of all sexual assaults are not even reported to the police. Worse yet, only 3% (you read that right, THREE percent) of sexual assaults against people with disabilities are ever reported. Without mourning the reasons for that, let me just point out that the victim in this case is in the brave minority of those who can and do “complain” about being sexually assaulted. That alone should be considered appropriate enough.
Assuming there is a manual on how to act after you have been raped, a behavior standard if you will, who out there expects a woman who has been raised on compliance to act in accordance with it? People with intellectual disabilities spend their whole lives being trained to go with the program, to do as they are told. And when and if they complain or refuse, they are punished, cajoled, bribed, and reported. Not sure you believe me? Just ask any parent who has received a behavior notice from their child with special needs’ teacher or therapist. The gist of those notes is not just to inform us of our child’s lack of compliance but to ask us to share information on how they might be better able to make our child comply.
I don’t know all the details of this case. I grant you, it is possible that the woman let this guy (12 years her senior) vaginally and anally penetrate her with such force that she had wounds. Of course it is possible that she complied with his drunken advances; after all, resisting a persistent horny drunk can be difficult. I can attest to that. Is that still rape? I think so. Whatever the situation was, the jury thought so too.
Up to 80% of females with a disability are sexually assaulted. 4 out of 5 little girls with Down syndrome will be sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. That is your daughter or mine. That means we have to teach our children how to discern what is ok and what isn’t, how to say NO, how to resist pressure to comply with dangerous demands, and, apparently, how to act once they have been violated. These are the kinds of IEP goals that will protect our children from abusers.
If what this judge did is upsetting to you, please consider signing the petition to remove him from office.
This is on of my biggest fears. The fact that someone might take sexual advantage of her is huge worry of mine and couple that with the fact she cannot even tell me! I just cannot believe that it was overturned. . . seriously, not appropriate post-rape behavior?!?! What the hell is that? I wasn’t aware that there was a protocol on how one is supposed to behave after a rape. Seething over here.
Diane–I like what you are trying to do and you make perfect sense.
I have 3 daughters without disabilities, and I had a hard time teaching them about this topic. Even something as simple as tickling them when they were very little, I would demand that when she said “stop” that whoever was doing the tickling would stop. It was a hard concept for some older people to grasp, but my mantra was that when my girls tell someone to stop that I want them to have the expectation that it would stop. I hope I’m making sense here…
You are making absolute sense. And you are right, there are two parts to teaching about this. First we teach our kids to say “Stop!” and then we have to teach others to respect their voices. I work on this with my sons all the time. I feel like I am always saying, “Respect her/his words. Stop when you are told to stop.”
THANK YOU!! Thank you for writing this post. I am very concerned with how this whole thing is turning around to reward that rapist! It’s disgusting!