March 30, 1995
A legal analysis of rape was the topic of a forum held Tuesday in the basement of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.
The forum, which drew an audience of about nine people, was part of a series of talks held at SF State for Rape Awareness Week.
The first speaker was SF State student Russ Quinto-Paiyou.
Recently awarded a grant by the Cesar Chavez Institute on Public Policy for his research on the effects of HIV and AIDS among Chicanas and Latinas, Quinto-Paiyou spoke about the necessity of a modified legal system.
According to Quinto-Paiyou, the current "why-do-I-bother" mentality of rape victims stems from the legal system's treatment of them.
With the current system, women end up victims of rape as well as victims of the justice system, he said.
"After being raped, a woman must wait six months until she can be tested for HIV."
According to Quinto-Paiyou, this six-month waiting period causes the woman a great deal of mental stress.
In addition, the woman must deal with the fact that she was raped and, once she is tested for HIV, she must deal with that too.
Dr. Velia Garcia, a SF State La Raza studies professor, followed Quinto-Paiyou with a discussion of rape and capitalism or, the politics of rape.
Citing statistics from a San Francisco Chronicle article, "Are falling rapes due to victim silence," Garcia suggested current beliefs that incidents of rape have decreased by 50 percent may be a result of victims' silence rather than a decrease in the number of rapes.
According to Garcia, past results have shown that members of minority groups seem to report rapes less.
"The decline in the number of reported rapes has something to do with the increasing number of minorities that are increasing in the United States," she said.
Minority women may not feel confident of their rights as citizens, therefore they are less likely to speak-up, she said.
"The act becomes a crime of racial discrimination and power," she said. "Men in positions of authority can use that authority to gain power not only over minorities but also over those who are poor as well. Rape becomes an instrument of subjugation."
The decrease of reported rapes could also be due, in part, to improved educational awareness programs and self-defense programs available to women, she said.
Rape Awareness Week continued Wednesday with a forum on stalking laws.
SF State University Police Department Investigator Jeff Woo informed those who attended about some of the facts of stalking and explained what is needed to obtain a temporary restraining order -- the first step for enacting anti-stalking laws.
"I have a real problem with laws trying to predict human actions," said the only male in an audience of five.
California was the first state to pass a stalking statute in 1990.
According to Woo, the amendment is amended every year.
"Five percent of all women will be victims of stalking at some point in their lives," he said. "Two-hundred thousand women are being stalked at any given time in the United States, and 90 percent of women murdered by boyfriends or husbands were stalked by their killers prior to their deaths."
As part of his presentation, Woo described the three elements that must be present to constitute stalking: repeated harassment of the victim, a credible verbal or written threat from the defendant to the victim and fear by the victim for the safety of his or her self and/or immediate family.
If the three elements above are present, a victim of stalking can take legal action and obtain a temporary restraining order.
Clemencia Cardenas, a student assistant at the Sexual Abuse Free Environment Place (S.A.F.E. Place), helped organize the forum as part of the center's third year of involvement in Rape Awareness Week.
"The presentation was excellent, but I am kind of disappointed that not a lot of people showed up. I found a lot of useful information," said SF State art major Leda French.
The S.A.F.E. place will finish the last day of Rape Awareness Week today with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m.
For more information: 338-2819.