What’s the difference between sexual abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and rape?

Disgraced Freeholder John Curley was Censured and Reprimanded for sexual harassment.

By Sarah L. Cook, Professor & Associate Dean, Georgia State University, Lilia M. Cortina, Professor of Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Management & Organizations, University of Michigan, and Mary P. Koss, Regents’ Professor of Public Health, University of Arizona. The terms “sexual abuse,” “sexual assault,” “sexual harassment” – and even “rape” – crop up daily in the… Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

Report: Former Marlboro Mayor pleads guilty to rape charges in Delaware

Matthew V. Scannapieco

Former Marlboro Mayor Matthew V. Scannapieco admitted to Delaware authorities that he had an ongoing sexual relationship with an underage female relative between 2006 and 2008, according to a report on app.com.

Scannapieco was free, pending sentencing on federal corruption and tax evasion charges, when he had sexual contact 50-60 times with the girl, according to the timeline in the app report. He was cooperating with federal authorities on other corruption cases from 2005 when he pleaded guilty to accepting $245,000 in bribes for planning board approvals in Marlboro where he served as mayor from 1992 through 2003.  He was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in 2008 and was released in 2010.

The former mayor, 71, is now likely to spend the rest of his life in Delaware State Prison.  He faces 2 to 25 years on charges of continuous sexual contact, 15 years to life for first degree rape and  up to three years for unlawful sexual contact.  He is in custody in Delaware on $238,000 bail and will be sentenced on September 4.

• Tweet

Why the Christain Peter story matters…

…and why I wrote it

By Art Gallagher

As a political blogger, I expected that my story about former NFL player and convicted sex offender Christian Peter being on a Christie fund raising committee would be viewed in a political context.   Both Democrats and Republicans asked me, “Why are you taking a shot at Christie?”  “I’m not,” I replied, “I’m taking a shot at Peter.  I am close to a few sexual assault survivors and I am related to recovering alcoholics.  I don’t give sexual predators or addicts any slack.”  “Yeah, right,” they said, “you’re taking a shot at Christie.”  That’s they would be doing.

I confess, if I found out that Peter was on the host committee of a Menendez or Buono fundraiser, my inner partisan blogger would be inclined to make hay with that information.  But I would wait until after the fundraiser.  I would try to get photos taken at the fundraiser of Peter with the candidate and the other politicians present and then wait to use them to strike or counter-strike at the opportune time.  That’s how the game is played, as they say.   But sexual assault and the destructive wake of addiction is not a game for me.

So, my inner political blogger did my friends who will be attending the Christie fundraiser a favor.  Most that of them that I talked to before I published the story had either forgotten about or never knew of Peter’s history of violence against women, even though it was written about just four months ago in the New York Times.  Who would have guessed that my political friends don’t read the New York Times’ sports section?   Now they know about Peter’s history.  They can choose to pose for pictures with him, or have a drink with him, or not, with full knowledge of his history.

That’s part of why I wrote the story, but not the most important reason.

The story I wanted to write about Peter is a tale of how he’s turned his life around.  A tale about his triumph over his demons. About how he’s made amends to the people he has hurt. I wanted to write about how he is making a difference for battered women and how he’s training young athletes not to make the mistakes he’s made.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet

The bullshit of the abortion debate

Congressman Todd Akin’s asinine comments about “legitimate rape,” pregnancy and abortion have knocked medicare and the economy off center stage in the political debate, at least temporarily.

Akin has apologized.  Yet his comments are unforgivable because he is clueless to the hurt and damage he has caused and continues to cause.  He is clueless to how hurtful his comments are to women, particularly rape survivors.   His apology is empty because he doesn’t realize what he did.

Akin is clueless to the political damage he is causing as evidenced by the fact that he refused to resign his candidacy for U.S. Senate.  He thinks he can win.  He says his campaign is not about him, but about his message, as if he is a messiah with a unique message that no one else can deliver.  Akin is a candidate for a straight jacket and the U.S. Senate.

Republicans are losing women over the Akin gaffe because 1) they failed to get him out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race and 2) their response is too male. Empathy is missing.  The Republican response, which failed, is strategic and politically expedient.  The strategy is sound, but empathy is missing and women feel that.

Much of the empathy coming from the left is false.  It is strategic.  But at least they are trying. Thus the gender gap will expand until Republican males get empathy for women, or at least fake it as well as Democratic males do.

The sin of it all is that on a political level the abortion debate is bullshit.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Tweet