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Re: Defining 'rape'
I think I agree with Andrew. Where A forces B to have sex with C (where neither B nor C wants to) I don't think it's intuitive that A commits a rape, but rather A forces someone else to commit a rape, and perhaps is as blameworthy as a real rapist.
I don't know whether the following is in any way authoritative (I'm just thinking of the linguistic division of labour, and how the correct definition/use of a word can be told to us by the experts), but the Sexual Offences Act 2003 s. 1(1) says A commits the offence of rape iff:
a) he intentionally penetrates the vagina, anus or mouth of another person, B, with his penis;
b) B does not consent to the penetration; and
c) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.
On the legal definition, therefore, A does not commit a rape, but it seems that B does. (B would not actually be convicted because it would be a legal defence for B to claim he was under duress. Interestingly duress is never accepted as a defence for charges of murder or attempted murder).
M.
PS I think that I would apply the same reasoning with the murder case. Further, murder I think has a lack of mitigating circumstances (otherwise it'd be manslaughter) so B hasn't committed murder. He's been nevertheless coerced into unlawfully killing C (we can then discuss how blameworthy he is) whereas A has caused someone else unlawfully kill someone (and again we can then go on to discuss how A should be punished). Perhaps the question of whom the murder is is not relevant.
On 25/04/06, N Tasker <pia03nt@sheffield.ac.uk> wrote:
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I'm happy to concede that example 1 isn't a genuine case of rape. But example 2
is. What if person A holds a gun to B's head and tells B to murder C. Normally
murder is a two place relation, but you're not going to tell me that no murder
has taken place! I think I would be inclined to say that B has killed C but
that A is the murderer. By analogy, the woman in example 2 has sex with
Anthony, but the third party is the rapist.
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