Is rape a hate crime?

Regulation & Order: SVU Season 23 Episode 15 argued that it’s, not less than in some circumstances.

There was little question that the Bishop Membership focused girls due to their gender and engaged in misogynistic assaults. However was the trial that stemmed from their habits lifelike?

Whereas undoubtedly fraternities filled with boys this disgusting exist, I had my doubts about them being so express about their intention to remove girls’s proper to consent.

That very properly could have been exactly what the boys hoped to do. And there was little question that the boys have been entitled and boastful. However I would assume they’d cover their intentions underneath one thing extra benign-sounding than that track and provides themselves believable deniability.

In spite of everything, how may their lawyer argue that Annabelle’s sexual encounter with them was consensual when they’re on tape singing a made-up track about how raping girls is a part of their membership creed?

That is the kind of factor that makes some conservatives dismiss SVU as woke nonsense as a result of it appears so outlandish that it is virtually a parody of what the present stands for.

If you happen to appeared previous that, although, the fundamental premise of the episode was fascinating.

This wasn’t the primary time SVU had tangled with the administration at Hudson College, and it definitely wasn’t the primary time Benson and McGrath had butted heads both.

What is that this? I loosen the reins and also you go galloping out of the parking zone?

McGrath

It appeared that each McGrath and the President of Hudson College have been extra involved with being given a heads up than anything. They did not like being blindsided by Benson’s quest for justice, most likely as a result of it did not give them an opportunity to get forward of the optics.

I used to be on Benson’s facet with this one. McGrath instructed her to not use her place to make political statements, but it surely appeared like he was speaking about himself.

He was the yet another involved with optics than with justice, in any case.

As for the President, her demand that there be no extra arrests after the boys attacked Mia and her group was ridiculous.

If the police promise to not arrest a sure group of individuals it doesn’t matter what, then they’re now not working for the general public curiosity. They’re beholden to particular pursuits, often known as being corrupt.

It would not do the police’s public picture a lot good to be within the pocket of an elitist establishment. Nor would it not do Hudson College a lot good if Mia or different activists leaked this association to the press, which I’ve little question they might have carried out had SVU gone together with it.

That mentioned, I am unsure how I really feel in regards to the concept of rape being labeled as a hate crime.

On this case, the boys engaged in misogynistic slurs and focused ladies they thought have been simple marks. Carisi’s argument for a hate crime enchantment there was ok for the decide, and it made some sense.

However I am unsure that every one rapes might be categorized equally. For one factor, not all sexual assault survivors are feminine or female-identified. What occurs to male or non-binary survivors underneath this reclassification?

In some circumstances, these rapes may also be labeled as hate crimes  — e.g., if a homophobic individual engaged in “corrective rape” or in any other case sexually assaulted a homosexual or transgender individual — however would that work for all such assaults too?

The very last thing this statute ought to do is erase non-female survivors, and there is a threat it may do this.

The hate crime query wasn’t the story’s central level regardless of what the promos mentioned. In the end, this was just like different tales SVU has carried out with college-age survivors.

There have been a number of such tales through the years, all involving feminine college students who had little to no recourse in opposition to entitled male college students. As in different circumstances of this nature, the perps have been rich white boys whose mother and father did not appear excited by holding them accountable for his or her habits.

And on this case, Benson was decided to get justice for a freshman woman whether or not or not her faculty or the boys’ mother and father preferred it.

SVU is at its strongest when it is about Benson advocating for victims who in any other case would not have an opportunity in hell at getting justice.

Mia: Thanks for listening to us. You do not know how a lot it means to us to be heard.
Benson: Truly, I do.

The hate crime query may not have been lifelike or thought by means of significantly properly, but it surely was a automobile for permitting Benson to present Mia and Annabelle a voice.

Ultimately, the brand new President of Hudson turned out to be higher than her predecessors in any case. Perhaps it was as a result of she did not need the cops consistently arresting college students, however she shut down the Bishop Membership.

That was a step in the precise path, and it made Mia really feel heard in a means she hadn’t earlier than.

I used to be curious as to Mia’s backstory. She mentioned she got here again to Hudson to make a distinction and appreciated Benson listening to her.

However it was Annabelle who had been raped, not her. I puzzled if she had been abused up to now.

Anyway, I hope we see extra of her and Carisi’s household generally.

That brief dinner scene at the start of the hour wasn’t sufficient. Let’s have extra of Carisi’s opinionated mom and his idealistic niece!

Your flip, SVU fanatics! Hit the massive, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us what you thought.

You possibly can watch Regulation & Order: SVU on-line proper right here on TV Fanatic for those who missed it. Remember to come back again to remark afterward!

Regulation & Order: SVU airs on NBC on Thursdays at 9 PM EST / PST.

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