SPEAK OUT

NEWS, LAWS & LEGISLATION SURROUNDING RAPE
A SURVIVOR'S PERSPECTIVE
FROM POLLY, CALIFORNIA, USA

I live in California, where crimes against women and children run rampant. You have read about "Polly Klass" a young 12-year old taken from her home during a slumber party as the mother slept in another room. The "Third Strike Law", which states that a felon can be imprisoned for three crimes in a row, even if the third is a misdemeanor. Although the original intent was clear at the time, it is being questioned because men are being sent to prison from 25 to life for crimes regardless of what type. And, of course, men in high offices want its constitutionality questioned. Initially laws were made solely by men. And, challenging this law, could not only bring about more violence against women and children, who vanish, are raped, or murdered on a DAILY basis.

Sacramento, is the capitol of California. Legislation is made here in the Assembly. Until about three years ago, women were being institutionalized for killing their mates in self defense, and charged with murder. The "Battered Women's Syndrome" Law could save lives of women in death row, whose cases were bungled by attorneys who took their cases so lightly, that innocent women are in prison that shouldn't be. It took years to create this law, and defeated a number of times. Women and children are violated, lost, murdered on a regular basis. When something like this happens to a woman, only another woman can experience her pain, because of how we identify with one another. Men, on the other hand, don't have the same perception