PAST ARTICLES AND EDITORIAL BOARDS Volume VI, No. 1 - 1997
AMENDING THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT: CREATING A REBUTTABLE
PRESUMPTION OF GENDER ANIMUS IN RAPE CASES
Jennifer Gaffney
6 J.L. & Pol'y 247 (1997)
The Violence Against Women Act, enacted in 1994, is a measure taken by Congress to address the growing problem of violence against women in the United States. Congress recognized both the growing problem of violence against women, especially in the forms of rape and domestic violence, and the fact that much of this violence is based on discriminatory gender animus. Under the Act, however, a person who wishes to make a civil rights claim under the Act must prove that an act was committed against her (or him) which rises to the level of a felony, was committed based on gender, and contains some display of gender animus, that is, a disposition tending toward hatred of or condescension toward women as a class.

This Note argues that Congress should amend the Act such that the requirement that a plaintiff prove gender animus be replaced with a rebuttable presumption of gender animus in all cases of rape. The Act fails to recognize that sexual stereotypes and attitudes underlying the American socialization process serve to create a gender animus which is harbored within many American men, and which encourages the acts of nearly all rapists.

There should be no distinction between the stranger-rapist, the date-rapist and the husband-rapist when determining whether gender animus was, at least, a partial cause of his act. Congress should amend the Act recognizing the connection between gender animus and rape. Without this recognition, the Act will not serve its purpose of breaking down the sexual stereotypes and prejudices, and the American rape culture, that encourage violence against women.