Rape by Deception (or "Caveat Amator!")

In the wake of an Israeli court's finding an Arab man guilty of "rape by deception" for lying to a Jewish woman to get her to have sex with him, I look at the concept of rape by fraud or deception and contend that it's not unreasonable--problems with the Israeli case notwithstanding. (I am NOT defending the Israeli court's decision.) The law tends to afford people's money and property more protection than their bodily integrity and sexual autonomy.

Links:

1. Blog entry on the Israeli "rape by deception" case, which includes reference to the conviction of an Israeli Jew for the same crime.

http://volokh.com/2010/07/21/an-inter...

2. Article 130 of New York's Penal Law ("Sex Offenses")

http://law.onecle.com/new-york/penal/...

3. Patricia J. Falk's article "Rape by Fraud and Rape by Coercion." In the paper, Falk provides a veritable catalogue of cases pertaining to this issue. For those interested in more examples of cases (including "tough" cases), Falk's article is quite useful.

http://www.justdetention.org/pdf/Rape...

4. Larceny by false pretenses in Massachusetts. One does well to keep in mind that not just any false statement of fact will suffice for criminal liability. The statement must go to a material, significant matter. Moreover, statements that can reasonably be construed as mere opinion or statements that are, as they say, nothing more than "puffing" (think padded bra or a used car salesperson saying "this car is the best one on the lot") are insufficient for criminal liability.

http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandj...

5. Tennessee Criminal Code (rape is defined in Title 39, Chapter 13, Part 5)

http://www.michie.com/tennessee/lpext...

6. "Adult Impersonation: Rape by Fraud as a Defense to Statutory Rape" from the Northwestern University Law Review (among other things, it has a nice overview of the law with respect to rape by fraud or deception)

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/lawre...

7. OGJimbo's video on the Israeli case

   • Muslim Rape of Israeli Women  

8. Bewarethelizards42's video on the Israeli case

   • Видео  

9. Unfortunately, Susan Estrich's Yale Law Journal article "Rape" is not generally available online. However, if you have access to JSTOR, you can get the full text of the article here:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/796522