Katharine K. Baker

Asking What Before We Ask Why: Taxonomy, Etiology and Rape

Abstract: This article presents a spectrum of sexual coersion. By looking at the social meaning of the different acts of coercion along the spectrum, the author suggests that most acts of sexual coercion can be classified as either rape (a sexual act with intent to do harm to the victim) or sex (a sexual act engaged in without any intent to harm the victim). Ironically, though, the author suggests that the most and least egregious acts of sexual aggression, that is, the acts we most readily identify as rape and the acts we are most reluctant to label rape are the ones that most easily evade explanation as either rape or sex.

Consorting With the Forests: Rethinking Our Relationships to Natural Resources and How We Should Value Their Loss

Introduction ...................................... 677 I. The Cause of Action ...................................... 683 A. Who Sues and for What Do They Sue? ... ............ 683 B. Limitations of the Property Rights Paradigm .......... 688 II. The Nature of the Harm .................................. 693 A. A Connection to Nature .............................. .693 B. The Loss of Connection ............................... 697 C. Why Compensate for This Loss? ..... ................. 700 III. When Are We Hurt? .......... ............................ 703 A . The Violation ......................................... 703 B. The Ecosystemic Whole ............................... 705 C. Nonuse Value: Recovery Implications ................. 707 1. Theory ............................................. 707 2. R egulations ........................................ 711 IV. Why Contingent Valuation? ....... ........................ 714 A. A Response to CVs Critics ........................... 715 B. A Positive Endorsement .............................. 720 1. Education ......................................... 720 2. Participation ....................................... 723 3. D ata ............................................... 724 C onclusion ..................................................... 727

Contracting for Security: Paying Married Women What They've Earned

Divorce is an economic disaster for women.2 The latest census figures reveal that only 15 percent of divorced women in this country are awarded any alimony or maintenance payments. Of that 15 percent, only a small percentage receive any of the awarded money. The mean annual alimony income for those who do receive money is only

Women’s Sexual Agency and the Law of Rape in the 21st Century

3,733.3 A recent California study found that the standard of living for men increases 42 percent after divorce, while the standard of living for women decreases by 73 percent.4 A similar study in Vermont showed mens per capita income rising by 120 percent and womens decreasing by 33 percent.5 Divorce always has

Once a Rapist? Motivational Evidence and Relevancy in Rape Law

Abstract This paper evaluates the modern baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault (rape) cases in light of different theories of sexuality (feminism on the one hand and sex positivism/queer theory on the other) and in light of how sexuality manifests itself in the lives of contemporary young women. The authors analyze social science literature on contemporary heterosexual practices such as sexting and hook-ups, as well as contemporary media imagery, to inform a contemporary understanding of the ways in which young people perceive and experience sex. Using this evidence as a foundation, the authors reconsider the ongoing utility of a baseline presumption of nonconsent in sexual assault cases. This paper demonstrates the complex relationship between women’s sexual autonomy, the contemporary culture’s encouragement of women’s celebration of their own sexual objectification and the persistence of high rates of unwanted sex. In the end, it demonstrates why a legal presumption against consent may neither reduce the rate of nonconsensual sex, nor raise the rate of reported rapes. At the same time, it shows how the presumption itself is unlikely to generate harmful consequences: if it deters anything, it likely deters unwanted sex, whether consented to or not.