House Bill 1176, Elements of Rape, must become law
From the desk of Sohyoung Choo Ward, a Women4Change Indiana Board Member and Public Policy Committee Member.
House Bill 1176, Elements of Rape, is in the Indiana Senate and must pass to bring Indiana a step closer to clarity and justice in rape cases.
Many Hoosiers do not necessarily pay close attention to criminal law around violent crimes. I myself, who practiced law at the time, had extremely limited knowledge of New York law around rape, even though I lived my entire single adulthood in New York City. Having moved to Indianapolis two years ago, I learned about an important piece of legislation in Indiana that will add clarity and justice to our state’s penal code.
In the U.S. as of 2020, roughly 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men have experienced an attempted or completed rape as a child or an adult. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center estimates that 734,630 people were raped (threatened, attempted or completed) in the U.S. in 2018. Indiana ranks 4th highest in the country for reported rapes of high school girls. Yet, the word “consent,” although used in statutes, is not expressly defined in the majority of the U.S. states, including Indiana. In the absence of an express statutory definition of consent, a glaring loophole recently surfaced in Indiana, because sex without consent is not a crime under Indiana law, unless there is force, threat of force or incapacitation. Such a loophole makes it impossible to prosecute what is known as “rape by fraud” cases.
Just a few short years ago, a college student at a prominent university in our state had sex with a man, whom she thought was her boyfriend. He approached her from the back in a dark room, where she was sleeping in the boyfriend’s bed, and had sex with her knowing that she thought he was her boyfriend. Even though the victim was clearly wronged and prosecution had the confession of the perpetrator’s knowledge that the victim was deceived, the perpetrator was never convicted for the two counts of rape charges he faced, because there was no force, threat of force or incapacitation.
House Bill 1176 must be enacted to add clarity to Indiana law by closing a loophole around “rape by fraud.” Sex induced through fraud, deception or impersonation must constitute rape and be punishable by law. As a society, we aim not only to deter and punish criminal activities through criminal law, but also to provide clear boundaries and guidelines for acceptable behavior. In that sense, the law reflects our morals and defines who we are on a collective level. Since the aforementioned rape case, there have been numerous efforts by a number of lawmakers to clarify the issues of consent and rape, to no avail thus far. We must do better and more to protect all Hoosier children, women and men by enacting a more comprehensive legislation around the definition of “consent” to criminalize a broader set of cases involving sex without consent. House Bill 1176 closes only one loophole in rape by fraud cases. However, it has passed in the Indiana House and is now in the Indiana Senate. Our senators must put an end to any more acquittals of rapists by fraud in Indiana. It is a necessary first step to bring justice to rape victims and better delineate what constitutes rape in Indiana.
To take concrete action, please use this form to urge your State Senator to support House Bill 1176.