Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: October 23, 2001
Latest Update: December 7, 2001
jeannecurran@habermas.org

Rape and Prostitution

Journal entry by Cheryl Spear

Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Cheryl Spear: December 7, 2001.
"Fair use" encouraged.

On Wednesday, December 5, 2001, Cheryl Spear wrote:

I am doing a research paper on prostitution. I am thinking that critical race theory can be applied here when a prostitute is raped. Often the police do not pursue the case because they feel she deserves what happened. Can I apply this theory?

On Friday, December 7, 2001, jeanne responded:

Cheryl, I think you might be interested in checking out Chapter 2: Constitutive Theory Approach to Prostitution
by Lisa Sanchez
. That essay links prostitution to highly constrained agency.

Then you might want to consider the linking of dominant discourse disapproval of prostitution with the complicity of denial that we, the broader society, had anything to do with the selection of prostitution as a career.

Those of you interested in the sociology of law might want to consider the extent to which the social issue of rape of a prostitute highlights social inequality under the law. In that connection you might want to consider also Catharine MacKinnon's critique of the prosecution of rape: that the law considers only the intention of the male or rape perpetrator, and does not consider the actual experience of the female.

Does this help?

---

---