Why Rape Should Not (Always) Be A Crime, Katharine K. Baker
Dec 2014
Why Rape Should Not (Always) Be A Crime, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
The Article proceeds as follows. Part I explores the primary legal frameworks for understanding rape law over time. It traces the origins of rape as a sometimes civil, sometimes criminal, wrong—through the patriarchal view of rape as a property crime, to the feminist (and liberal) remake of rape into an individual criminal injury to autonomy. It then briefly discusses recent rejections of the liberal/feminist position. Parts II–IV explore the three major impediments to effective norm change in more detail. Part V, after explaining why the recent proposed revisions to the Model Penal Code are not likely to overcome the problems …
Legitimate Families And Equal Protection, Katharine K. Baker
Dec 2014
Legitimate Families And Equal Protection, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
Abstract: This Article questions whether and why it should be unconstitutional to treat legitimate and illegitimate children differently. It argues that legitimacy doctrine is rooted in a biological essentialism completely at odds with contemporary efforts to expand legal recognition of nontraditional parenting practices including same-sex parenting, single parenthood by choice, surrogacy, and sperm donation. The routine invocation of legitimacy doctrine by advocates purporting to help nontraditional families is thus at best ironic and at worst dangerous. Analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court’s legitimacy cases reveals that liberal Justices, in trying to dismantle marriage—a legal construct—as the arbiter of legitimate parenthood, …
Sex And Equality (Symposium), Katharine Baker
Dec 2012
Sex And Equality (Symposium), Katharine Baker
Katharine K. Baker
This essay, to be published in Boston University Law Review’s symposium on Hanna Rosin’s book, The End of Men, challenges Rosin’s suggestion that contemporary sexual norms on college campuses serve women’s interests well. Unpacking the same data that Rosin uses to defend hook-up culture on women’s behalf, the essay argues that hook-up norms facilitate rape and may help explain the high rate of sexual assault on college campuses. Hook-up norms also perpetuate the sexual double standard, disproportionately hurt lower income women who cannot compete in hook-up status games, and valorize boorish, selfish male sexual behavior. In doing so, hook-up norms …
Homogenous Rules For Heterogeneous Families: The Standardization Of Family Law When There Is No Standard Family, Katharine K. Baker
Dec 2011
Homogenous Rules For Heterogeneous Families: The Standardization Of Family Law When There Is No Standard Family, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
The article explores the ironies involved in the contemporary enforcement of family obligations. As forms of intimate partnership and parenthood become ever more varied, the law of family obligation - child support, property division and alimony - has become increasingly routine and formulaic. As scholars increasingly call for more attention to the varied ways in which different individuals and communities structure their care networks and their intimate lives, the law of family obligation has become less, not more attentive to context. This piece explains how the law’s rejection of context is an understandable reaction to the growing diversity of family …
Asking What Before We Ask Why: Taxonomy, Etiology And Rape, Katharine K. Baker
Jan 2003
Asking What Before We Ask Why: Taxonomy, Etiology And Rape, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
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 …
Gender, Genes, And Choice: A Comparative Look At Feminism, Evolution, And Economics, Katharine K. Baker
Jan 2002
Gender, Genes, And Choice: A Comparative Look At Feminism, Evolution, And Economics, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
This Article compares the methodological similarities between evolutionary biology and conventional law and economics. It shows how these methodologies diverge, in critical and parallel ways, from what has come to be known as feminist method. In doing so, the Article suggests that feminists in the legal academy should be suspicious of the parsimonious models upon which both conventional evolutionary biologists and conventional law and economics scholars rely. Biological and economic models employ analogous concepts of maximization (including theories of autonomy, choice, and measurement) and stable equilibria (usually produced by stable preferences) to make predictions and proscriptions for law. The simplicity …
What Rape Is And What It Ought Not Be, Katharine K. Baker
Jan 1999
What Rape Is And What It Ought Not Be, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
No abstract provided.
Sex, Rape And Shame, Katharine K. Baker
Jan 1999
Sex, Rape And Shame, Katharine K. Baker
Katharine K. Baker
This article explores how shame sanctions may be able to change the social meaning and decrease the prevalence of date rape. Arguing that men's tendency to date rape is fostered by social norms that treat sex as an accomplishment and, importantly, an accomplishment that enhances a man's masculinity status, the article suggests that one way to curb date rape is to curb the extent to which it is associated with masculine behavior. This strategy is necessary because the high premium society places on masculinity and the cultural confusion about when date rape is morally wrong and how it is different …
