Alleged Gang Rape in Texas Reminds Us of the Importance of Sharing Important Information with Our Children

8Mar/1116

Alleged Gang Rape in Texas Reminds Us of the Importance of Sharing Important Information with Our Children

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action

Eighteen men (thirteen adults, five juveniles) have been charged in the rape of a young girl in Texas, according to CNN. Darrell Broussard, the assistant police chief in Cleveland, Texas told CNN that "There have been leads during our investigation that have alerted us to other possible persons of interest. The investigation is ongoing."

The men being charged are between 18 and 27 years old and the victim is age 11. Many of the men are reportedly students at Cleveland High School. The incident allegedly occurred last year and has led to a racial divide in the community. Those who were arrested are being charged with first-degree felony sexual abuse of a child and face 25-to life if convicted.

I am not one to say whether or not these men are guilty of the crime for which they are being accused (seeing their joint mug shot makes me sick to my stomach, since I’m sure the racist Texas Republicans are having a field day with this), I’ll let the courts handle that. I do worry about whether a state like Texas, which incarcerates and executes more black men than any state in America, has the ability to provide a fair trial. At the same time, I feel an incredible amount of sympathy for the young girl if she was indeed harmed in this way. Even if the sex was consensual, none of these men should have been having sex with an 11-year old girl. There is also the question of whether or not every one of these men were involved in the rape. They should not all be lumped into the same group during the trial.

I had a friend who was gang raped at the age of 11. She said that she and a female friend were going out to "play," and her friend lured her into a situation where she was raped by several older boys. I was later shocked to find out how many of my female friends had been raped or sexually abused at an early age. The amount of sexual abuse that takes place in our country is unacceptable, and even less acceptable is our nation's sense of apathy.

Hearing about these incidents made me realize that it’s critically important that young girls be taught about the dangers of being alone with men. So many young women meet males they believe they can trust (pastors, police officers, friends) and later find out that some of these men have an insatiable sexual appetite that they are willing to break the law in order to fulfill. The trauma can last a lifetime, which is why we must protect our young girls.

Even beyond the victims of these horrible crimes, there are sometimes boys who put themselves into situations where they are either following the crowd, under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or simply standing as silent witnesses to horrific atrocities. Boys must also be educated to understand a) that sexual assault and other forms of violence against women are unacceptable under any circumstances, b) to stay away from drugs and perhaps even alcohol, since you are not always in control of your choices and actions (quite a few college students die or are sexually assaulted from alcohol-related incidents every year), c) there is no excuse for having sex with a minor, and d) if your friends are breaking the law, leave the situation and immediately report the incident to the police. I have personally seen otherwise well-mannered young men go to jail because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our kids must be taught to make good choices.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

Tagged as: cleveland, gang rape, texas Leave a comment

Comments (16) Trackbacks (1) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Deborrah
March 8th, 2011 - 16:09

Your suggestions for young men are key here. The gang mentality… the need for approval by others in the group, the desire to not be viewed as different, the need to be accepted and to be one of the boyz is what is often at work. Young men need to be taught to be leaders, not followers and to have the courage to stand alone and make decisions that they’ve thought through… decisions that are in their own best interest. Had even one of the young men had the courage to say “We shouldn’t be doing this man. This is wrong. I’m not trying to go to prison. I’m out!” I’m sure several others would have snapped out of their fugue state and followed him out. The bravado and back slapping and egging on they get when they are in these group situations disappears the second the handcuffs go on. Then they feel the shame and realization that they’ve made a grave error. But by then its too late and their lives, their family’s lives and the life of the victim and her family are all ruined forever.

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wannabwriter
March 9th, 2011 - 18:18

You are so right in much of what you say in this. My only exception is:

“Even if the sex was consensual, none of these men should have been having sex with an 11-year old girl.”

To my mind there is no way an 11-year old girl can give consent to having sex. Regardless of her seeming maturity or so-called past experience.

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ICDATRUTH
March 10th, 2011 - 19:26

WTF were they thinking? Unfortunately I hope that they get what they gave to that little girl in prison (which more than likely will happen). That child will carry that event in her mind for the rest of her life and will proably have profound effects on her future relationships. I pray that she will overcome this and lead a normal life

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Eugene Rhodes
March 10th, 2011 - 21:58

A ‘life’ has been destroyed through this needless ‘gang type’ act! The parents of this 11 year old girl has the ‘burden’ or feeling ‘they did not protect their daughter’ and must live with that! ‘That’ cold result in a ‘Suicide by Police’ after the parents sought revenge directed towards the ‘gang or group’ of young men! This is a crime against ‘Mankind’!

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Carol J
March 10th, 2011 - 22:06

Dear Dr. Watkins,
You are usually on point with your assessments but in this instance you are way off base. All the young and old men in this group need to go to jail for the full 25 years! Yes, we need to talk more to all ours kids, boys and girls, about “ganglike” behavior and following the crowd. I know it is so very tough out here for our young men, but at the ages of 17-27 then ALL knew better. This was a deliberate, disgusting crime against a baby and I hope they all go to jail.
Also, your mention of it possibly being consensual….come on. That was an 11 year old girl. Those were grown ass men. My heart aches for all involved. I will pray for that little girl who will remember that horrible event for the rest of her life. I will also pray all the men/boys involved get exactly what they deserve.

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Kim
March 11th, 2011 - 01:00

Dr. Watkins,

Are you serious? Even if the sex was consensual? I am told that an 11 year old can never consent to sex. If my information is wrong, please let me know. I would love to know where were the parents. I know many of you are saying, “what does that have to do with anything?” It has everything to do with it. An 11 year old still has to be strictly supervised, especially in this day & time.

Parents watch your children.

My heart goes out to this child.

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Katja
March 11th, 2011 - 01:44

Dr. Watkins,

I’m sorry to inform you that you are part of the problem. Yes, you. You appear to have a misogynist attitude toward females in that you automatically see them as suspicious, lying schemers. This is evident in the fact that you assume there is the possibility for consensual sex – with multiple men all at once – in the mind of an ELEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL!!!!

Although adult women generally consent to sex, they don’t generally consent to group sex with multiple men all at once. Despite the hip-hop fantasy, that doesn’t happen often in real life. The odds of an 11 year old consenting to such activity is LESS THAN ZERO. They don’t do that. Eleven year old girls barely know what sex is, even if they seem grown up. They might understand the parts and where they go if they are in an abusive environment that allows them this information. The do not have sex drives yet so they don’t desire it. They don’t understand the emotional implications of it. They don’t understand the consequences of it. And I’m pretty sure that it’s painful as hell at that age so even if they are tricked into saying yes to something they don’t understand, that “consent” which really isn’t, is going to be withdrawn loudly and frighteningly. That is why the law says that 11 year olds cannot consent to sex. You have to understand fully what sex is in order to consent to it. When an adult (or adults) trick a child into doing something that hurts the child but benefits the adult, it is called ABUSE. There is no other explanation. Period.

Furthermore, other stories about this girl include the information that the men threatened to beat her up if she didn’t comply, and there were multiple days that she was raped. Essentially, after they assured themselves of her silence through threats, they felt safe enough to grab her and rape her whenever they felt like it. For months. They are worse than scum and they deserve worse than prison.

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Jackie r.
March 11th, 2011 - 07:09

My thing is The young men should not have done this for reason,but these days most young mothers are raising there children and do know to teach them about the things that could happen to them in the world that we live in today. Our daughters are having babies when they or babies themself. The young girls are wearing clothes to mature for them and the children are not being taught right from wrong anymore. The Black people haters have not only encorraged not spanking your own child but they have put all kind of drugs not only on the streets but in our food in drinks, Blacks Fathers & Mothers teach your to not have sex until he or she is old enought to think and hopeful get married and have a father & mother in the home at one time to teach the Girls how to be respected by boys and or men and teach the Boys to be more respectful of all girls and women. Now we know why the Bible say to” Train-up a in the way that It should go and when it get old it will not depart ” I Love all of my people believe it or not, I see little girls walking around with clothes like only a hooker wears what in hell do you expect and the enemy put all of that in our naborhood but they just they will get it back.because “So you sea so shell you wreep”!!!!!!!!!!!! ….

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Jackie R.
March 11th, 2011 - 07:10

My thing is The young men should not have done this for reason,but these days most young mothers are raising there children and do know to teach them about the things that could happen to them in the world that we live in today. Our daughters are having babies when they or babies themself. The young girls are wearing clothes to mature for them and the children are not being taught right from wrong anymore. The Black people haters have not only encorraged not spanking your own child but they have put all kind of drugs not only on the streets but in our food in drinks, Blacks Fathers & Mothers teach your to not have sex until he or she is old enought to think and hopeful get married and have a father & mother in the home at one time to teach the Girls how to be respected by boys and or men and teach the Boys to be more respectful of all girls and women. Now we know why the Bible say to” Train-up a in the way that It should go and when it get old it will not depart ” I Love all of my people believe it or not, I see little girls walking around with clothes like only a hooker wears what in hell do you expect and the enemy put all of that in our naborhood but they just they will get it back.because “So you sea so shell you wreep”!!!!!!!!!!!! …. Jackie R.

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millie
March 11th, 2011 - 15:54

This could have been their sister. Would they had take a part in this? This is a child. They all need to serve some jail time. I hope they never bend over to pick up their soap when they are taking a shower in jail.

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Jean F
March 13th, 2011 - 07:59

I assume all of the facts are not in yet. However, if any of these charges are accurate all involved should face jail time. I shudder to think about a child of mine participating in such a heartless act. Will there be a lifelong impact for this young lady? I am not sure, I would venture to say that by the time this awful incident happened, she had already experienced horrific events.
I think you were so right. We need to talk more to our children. We need to talk to boys and girls about self-worth and being an individule. We need to somehow teach them to stand up for what the believe to be right. And, we all need to speak up and not stand for this woman-degrading; African-American degrading music and videos that glorifying these offenders.

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Warren G
March 14th, 2011 - 14:38

Peace and blessings. This is an example of misguided young African boys and men who have grown to become predators in our communities. They have lost moral and spiritual values and think and live at a very animalist level. I place money that many if not all do not have a father in their lives, many if not all have very low grades in school or even just come to school to find prey. I have stated before that until African people deal with this mentality in our communities worldwide, we will never get to a balance spiritual existence needed to solve our many challenges. If you look all over the world where African people are a majority, we have allowed the predators to run things. These guys must pay for this fully.
We must do more programs in the schools and outside the schools educating and informing about the consequences of crime and crime acts. We have to start at the elementary level especially for African American boys.

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Sandra
March 15th, 2011 - 17:54

One thing that is spot on in this article is the rightfull questioning of the ability of the State of Texas to provide a fair trial to the accused, specially with it’s infamous record of black men that are incarcerated. That being said this crime is not the standard act of violence. No matter how drunk or high they were, they could have been doing dozen differnt stupid things that are done when under influence yet somehow they ended up in trailer raping 11 yearold girl. This didn’t happen in a spure of the moment, the act was premaditated. So l wouldn’t rely on substance abuse, not even as an attemt for exuse or any kind of explenation or justification for what happened. And as for onether thing that Professor Watkins was mantioning, the question to which hopefully a just trial will give answer is how many of those men were active paricipants. Were they all commiting the crime of rape or were there some who were”bystanders”?But no matter what the nature of their involvment in this crime is, they are still involved in it. And as for me, wheather they just stood there or acctually did the rape of that girl, there shouldn’t be much difference between their sentences.lf you were there, you ARE guilty! We are talking about the group of 18! against 11 yearold. l don’t care how “mature ” the girl looked and wheather she was acting her age or older. 18-28 year old guys have no business being with an 11 year old in a trailer, let alone being involved in a horror in which they were involved in. And let me remind those who tend to go with the potential “cosentual” sex or the girls behaviour as a possible explination for what happend, the body of 11 year old girl is a body of a child, this is not even the body of an adolescent girl. Any man who finds that sexualy stimulating is a pedophile,period! A person could be doing billion differnt things, wheather bored or drunk. And still someone decides that he will participate in a rape of a child. Anyone capable of that is a criminal of the worst kind and should be convicted as such…………………..What scares me more than this story is the fact that this is only one that we know of.What about all the others that go unnoticed and unpunished?

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Barb
March 20th, 2011 - 14:43

I AM A 65 YEAR OLD WOMEN, IT SICKEN ME TO THINK THAT THIS BEHAVIOR WITH OUR BLACK MEN IS GETTING WORSE. YOU MAY DECREASE YOUR TESTRONE LEVEL BY PLAYING SOME SORT OF SPORTS TOGETHER.

I HAD 2 FRIENDS THAT WERE RAPED DURING THE 1970′S THEY ARE 2 MENTALLY ILL OLD WOMEN. ALSO THEY HAVE HAD DIFFICULY WITH ALL RELATIONSHIP.

IF I HAD 1 REQUEST YO ALL YOUNG BLACK MEN. PLEASE STOP THIS ABNORMAL, AMINALLISTIC BEHAVIOR. SEX IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD NOT BE FORCED ON ANY ONE.

IF YOU DID IT YOU SHOULD GET LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE. BOTH MY FRIENDS HAS BEEN LIVING AS IF THEY HAVE THIS TYPE OF VERDICT. NO MEDICAL OR PSYCHOLOGIC HELP, HAS HELPED THEM. THEY SHALL NEVER BE FREE, THEY SHALL TAKE THIS WITH THEN TO THEIR GRAVE.

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maria kline
March 20th, 2011 - 16:44

Where is the dna and where was the 11 years at and who was she with when this took places. The answer is and should be did it really take places or is this another play to put more of our black brothers behind the walls of no return!!

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Richard H
October 10th, 2011 - 02:51

Christ it blows me away that all they seem to be worried about is the Black Man, I dont care what colour you are if you rape a child you are SICK not black white or yellow. The men who done this to a child deserve the penalties they receive. This girl was 11 thus making her a child the men were adults that would have known better but took advantage anyway. As for whether they were high or not, who cares drugs are a personal choice in so far as you choose to use them no one rams it up ya nose and I know people are going to argue this but i have personally used drugs in my past yet never raped a child. It is about time the world starts making people accountable for their choices instead of making excuses. There is no excuses acceptable for raping a child at all. I hope if the justice system that WILL fail the victim that the good lord doesnt.

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Alleged Gang Rape in Texas Reminds Us of the Importance of Sharing Important Information with Our Children

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