The Courier Mail reported a man was sentenced after being “charged with two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 16, one count of having carnal knowledge with a child under 16, and one count of possessing child exploitation material”.
The article is a bit confusing. It lists the charges but not the convictions. We can infer he was convicted on at least some from the Judge’s comments (also confusingly referred to as “Mr Long”).
Even if he was convicted on all charges, none of them include the word rape. I wrote about this for Inkl this week. How do you call a rapist a rapist if he’s not convicted of rape, even though his actions fit the definition?
Some jurisdictions have replaced “rape” with “sexual assault” “carnal knowledge” or the very disturbing “maintaining a sexual relationship with a child“.
Clearly, “having carnal knowledge of a child under 16” is not “sex”. A child cannot give consent, so it’s not “sex”, it’s rape.
Removing the word “rape” from the legislation may have been well intentioned (see Inkl article) but it has unintended consequences, such as this article, where rape is called “sex”.
Rape and sex are not interchangeable terms. When we blur the line between the words we use for these two very different acts, we diminish our understanding of the thing that fills the chasm between them: the concept of consent.
I know the words used in this article are wrong, but I’m not sure what alternatives were available to the journalist. At the very least, “sexual abuse” rather than sex.
But we should be calling it what it is: it’s rape.
(If you’re reading this on social media, links are in the OP at www.patreon.com/JaneGilmore )
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1800 RESPECT
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