Deb from DebWire posts an anonymous list of advice for women on how to discourage and drive away a would-be rapist. The information was supposedly gleaned from convicted rapists in prison. Many of the preventative points look good, and the gist of the advice is that if a woman resists, yells, and fights back the rapist is likely to run away and look for an easier victim. I wonder if that's really true?
All the advice I've heard given to women says that their best bet for staying alive is not to put up a fight, because a hurt and enraged rapist is more likely to kill his victim. Then again, the conventional wisdom on plane hijackings pre-9/11 was also not to resist, and that didn't end up working too well.
The best piece of information in the article was that only 2% of rapists carried a weapon with them, because they knew that getting convicted of carrying a weapon while committing a rape carried a much heavier sentence than unarmed rape. This means that a woman carrying a weapon (such as pepper spray, a knife, or a gun) will probably have an advantage over her attacker.
(Via a comment by Wince and Nod, and a post by James Rummel.)
Interesting. I would think that carrying a weapon yourself would encourage a rapist ot use his weapon against you. Eh. I have no experience with this sort of thing. Thankfully.
Carrying a gun is a great idea. Carrying pepper spray is a so-so idea. Carrying anything else is asking for it.
Never heard of anyone getting hurt while resisting a rape with a weapon of some sort. Have heard of several rapist who've gotten cut up very badly by knife wielding "victims".
I've heard the same things being told to women about not resisting rape, but I've also (more recently) heard speculation that that is not the positive it was thought to be, and that not resisting does significant pyscological damage to the victim (even beyond what resisting and failing would).
Also, I've always heard that rape is more about the power than the sex, and that makes it sound like bullying, which is generally best stood up too. Your description of the rapists comments supports that.
I doubt most rapists plan it out to the point of speculating on sentance when caught. That argument just doesn't sound right, even on the rapists part it sounds more like justification after the fact than actually how they came to not have a weapon at the time of the rape. But that also offers encouragement to resist, because (apparently) there's a 98% change that the rapist is unarmed. In which case any weapon would make a difference, and even unarmed the victim would have parity, leaving it up to physique and training.
I doubt most rapists in jail are first-time offenders, and I don't doubt that many of them would be familiar with the sentencing laws. 98% is a pretty astounding figure, though. I don't expect most date-rapists would be armed (although date-rape is often a pretty nebulous crime, in my opinion).
Date rape can be a nebulous crime, absent physical evidence of exceptional violence or drugs. And I would suspect that most date rapists are first time offenders.
Probably what happened with the 98% figure was:
98% of rapists are unarmed
and
some small percentage said they were unarmed because they knew the law.
the rest just didn't carry a weapon, and didn't need one.
Items aren't weapons unless they're used as such. A gun is just a handy tool for knocking holes in cans right up until you intend to hurt someone with it. A ballpoint pen is a fine writing instrument... that can also be used to stab someone. Fingernails are great for scratching an itch... or poking eyes out, leaving deep gashes, etc. Carrying a weapon isn't a matter of what items are on or about your person, it's a state of mind.