Legal rape and the lack of action: A call for basic reason in Oklahoma courts

An Oklahoma court recently ruled that oral sexual assault of an unconscious victim is not rape. As advocates of victims go up in arms over the ruling, a potentially greater issue becomes apparent: How can such a great gap exist between archaic laws and societal attitudes?

The ruling is, of course, medieval, and sets up a dangerous precedent for abuse of loopholes – for example, only allowing prosecution of sexual assault of an unconscious drunk person if the sex was vaginal. The ruling, and subsequent dismissal of the appeal on March 24, ignores the change in social mores that have occurred over the last half century. Sexual autonomy – not sexual morality – should be that which the laws protect and support.

Some of the greatest (and most disastrous) impacts this could have would be those on college students. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college. Already, 90 percent of sexual assaults in college go unreported, and the likelihood of a decrease in reports is unfortunately high as word of the new ruling spreads.

The law’s phrasing regarding intoxication is also important, as drinking in college is seen almost as a rite of passage. Parties with alcohol are commonplace, and consumption in moderation is only moderately common.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Almost 60 percent of college students between the ages of 18 to 22 drank alcohol in the past month, and almost two out of three of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe…about 97,000 students … report experiencing alcohol related sexual assault or date rape.”

Ninety seven thousand sexual assaults (though the number of those drunk enough to have passed out is almost certainly lower) could plausibly be legal – if only technically.

The disconnect between outdated laws full of readily abusable loopholes and the wholly reasonable expectation of legal prosecution following rape is frankly frightening, and action must be taken. Residents of Oklahoma should call for an examination and revision of laws written for an archaic society they no longer reflect.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes once wrote that the purpose of government is to prevent and illegitimize behavior that worsens society. To have glaring legislative flaws that endanger the lives of students and citizens renders the entire purpose of government null. We must incentivize unified morals and fix this gross error.