Campus rape isn’t the problem it’s been portrayed as in the mainstream media; the average campus is a safer place for women than the real world. Though even one case, anywhere, is far too many.
Law professor Wendy Murphy thinks she has a solution to the fake campus rape problem:
In many states, it is considered self-defense to kill a rapist. Women don’t know this about their rights. They need to be educated & trained. If campus victims knew they had a right to kill, schools would FINALLY do a good job preventing rape, to avoid all the dead bodies. #MeToo https://t.co/QdhA8oTwoL
— Wendy Murphy (@WMurphyLaw) July 12, 2018
As a personal defense enthusiast and writer, part of me wants to applaud this.
The problem, of course, is that campuses have mucked up the definitions. They include things as rape or sexual assault that do not match legal definitions. For example, consenting women who later regret the sex have made “rape” accusations on campus, and punishments have indeed been given in such situations.
Murphy wasn’t done, though. After some mentioned the issues with her statement, she doubled down:
Self-defense laws apply on campus bc crimes on campus are prosecutable in real world. Crimes are also “student misconduct” offenses under civil rights laws on campus under #TitleIV & #TitleIX So you might get expelled for killing in self-defense, but you won’t go to jail.
— Wendy Murphy (@WMurphyLaw) July 12, 2018
Well, that clears up nothing. Most people would indeed do everything in their power to defend a woman who kills an attacker in the process of attempted rape. However, we’ve seen far too many men falsely accused of rape on campus because the definition has been manipulated to where anything but male celibacy is a potential Title IX investigation.
Does she envision self-defense shootings happening in. say, an awkward, drunken encounter such as the one a woman publicized after having with Aziz Ansari?
As The College Fix notes, Murphy has a history of making statements that have little basis in reality. Most famously, she did so during the Duke lacrosse team rape trial as a cable news guest.
Unfortunately, I fear the damage has already been done. Someone is going to take Murphy’s advice, kill a guy in a case that isn’t actually self-defense, and then go to prison because she listened to the wrong person.
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