This New Jersey man will certainly get the Worst Father of the Century award and, hopefully, will spend the rest of his life in jail. After having apocalyptic visions, he raped five of his daughters ... and impregnated three. Their babies were born at home and did not get birth certificates. When some of them died, they were buried without authorities ever knowing they existed. The father’s reign of terror lasted for more than a decade and, during that time, the girls also had to endure beatings with wooden boards and steel-toed boots and were often deprived of food.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been accused of sexual assault — again. According to the gossip blog TMZ.com, “Big Ben” and pals were out on the town drinking in Milledgeville, Georgia, on Friday night when a 20-year-old woman alleged Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her in the bathroom of the club, Capital City. A source at the Milledgeville Police Department says she was allegedly “hysterical” when she arrived with three friends to file a report. She was allegedly treated at a local hospital and released.

However, Roethlisberger hasn’t yet been charged with a crime and his agent, Ryan Tollner, told ProFootballTalk.com that they are “skeptical of motive.”

Statistics have shown that most men who commit rape or date rape are known to the victim: friends, friends-with-benefits, boyfriends, husbands, even family members, etc. But even as someone who is attuned to news stories about sexual assault, I was unaware that researchers have gathered more info in the past decade about who these men are, on the college campus, specifically.

For the past two weeks, National Public Radio and the Center for Public Integrity have aired four stories on NPR about how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses in a series called “Seeking Justice For Campus Rapes.” Their most recent story, entitled “Myths That Make It Hard To Stop Campus Rape,” absolutely blew my mind. I had no idea about a 2002 study of men on college campuses in which one in 16 admitted to behavior that meets the definition of rape or date rape and the overwhelming majority of these men were repeat offenders.

My best friend in the world was attacked. Her ex, upset and drunk one night, followed her home and up the stairs to her apartment door. Before she could close it, he’d muscled it open. She tried to force the weight of her body against it, to hold it shut. And couldn’t. He came through. He chased her through the apartment, bellowing about what she “owed him,” and knocked her down. He held her on the floor, but she got away, running down the street missing a shoe.

Here’s a statistic that shouldn’t sit right with anyone: Over 73 percent of people in a study by the Havens, a sexual assault referral center in the U.K., believe the victim should “take responsibility” for getting raped if they’ve already performed another sexual act on the rapist. Raped? Well, you’d already given him a hand job so, really, you should have expected that to happen!

“You can’t blame the locals; they have never seen such women. Foreign tourists must maintain a certain degree of modesty in their clothing. Walking on the beaches half-naked is bound to titillate the senses.”

— Pamela Mascarhenas, deputy director of tourism of Goa in India, after the alleged sexual assault of a 9-year-old Russian girl there [Global Post]

In China, an unnamed 9-year-old schoolgirl became one of the youngest mothers in the world this week when she gave birth to a 6-pound baby boy by C-section. Even though her family is refusing to speak publicly about the incident, they claim to have reported the pregnancy to authorities, who are still trying to discover the identity of the father so they can arrest him.

Lying is bad enough in the first place. But if there are two things a person should never, ever lie about, they are AIDS and rape. So we are pretty horrified by these stories that came out today. First, porn star Jackie Braxton (aka “Fame”) is probably in hiding right now after she told a real doozie. This Detroit-based 23-year-old mother placed a video on the internet announcing that she had HIV and had infected over 500 men with the virus. She later claimed that it was all a sham and that she just posted the video to raise awareness about AIDS. Oh, and to market her website. WHAT??? I can’t think of a more inappropriate attempt at shameless self-promotion. This has to be illegal, somehow.

• Perhaps inspired by the Daily Beast article on the very same subject, a male op-ed columnist for the Washington Post wondered why women don’t have sex scandals like men (um, men like Tiger Woods) do. [WaPo]
• Remember yesterday when I wrote about the 14-year-old boy in California who allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in an empty stairwell at school, while classes were going on? The one that was reported by at least one other student who witnessed the rape in progress? Mustapha Cannon, the school site supervisor for Portola Middle School, where the incident occurred, described it as a consensual act of “hormones gone wild.” Cannon used pretty typical language as far as ‘she wanted it at first but changed her mind,’ rape-apologist language goes. “They probably just took it too far and embarrassment kicked in,” he said “As far as calling it a rape, I think it’s something that they did together and it got worded the wrong way.” A spokesperson for the school district where the alleged rape occurred refused to comment on Cannon’s statements. Um, maybe this guy should STFU and stop talking to the press? [KRON.com via Feministing, UPI.com]

Doctors without Borders, the organization that goes to war zones and the forgotten ends of the earth to treat anyone who needs care, is bringing good of a different kind to the people they serve. A few years ago, NBC’s “ER” gave voices to fictional doctors and patients in Darfur, and now the real doctors are offering a voice to the people of the Congo. War has ravaged that country for nearly a decade, bringing with it poverty, cruelty, and disease. It’s been especially brutal for women, because child soldiers and career soldiers alike used rape as a weapon against the women. It was an event so big and awful, it’s been hard to see. That’s why Doctors Without Borders started Condition: Critical, a website which allows people to speak out about their experiences and for the rest of us to communicate back with our support.

Well, sort of. The director was at the center of an argument between my brother and I that started almost as soon as we sat down for Thanksgiving dinner.

[For reference: Polanski was apprehended by Swiss authorities, after he fled the United States in 1977 before he could be sentenced for having “unlawful sex with a minor,” a lesser charge than the original six, which Polanski pled guilty to. (He was originally charged with “rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.”) Polanski fled the country before sentencing upon learning that the judge was planning on giving him jail time, despite the recommendations of a probation report and psychiatric evaluation, which both indicated that Polanski should be released on time served. For the record, Polanski served only 42 days out of the initial 90 before being released and making a break for his native France.]

I just assumed my brother shared my opinion that Polanski should be locked in jail and the key thrown away. When he didn’t—and said that Polanski should be released because he wasn’t a serial predator, that the judge in the case was on a witch hunt, and that the 13-year-old girl whom Polanski had sex with had “consented” and “maybe even took the drugs on her own”—I basically lost my shizz. Was my own flesh and blood not only being a rape apologist but victim-blaming as well?

• A lawyer for one of the lacrosse players involved in an incident at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut on Sunday night said three male students didn’t actually rape an 18-year-old female student, but held her down and joked about raping her. Therefore, these three young men were charged with conspiracy to commit sexual assault. Timothy Sanders, the lacrosse player with whom the victim was having consensual sex and who held her down when his friends entered the room, has also been charged with unlawful restraint. The lawyer called it a “sophomoric prank”—understatement of the year, sir!—and said the victim of this sexually humiliating situation “deserves an apology.” Does he not see how pranking a girl that she is going to be raped goes beyond just plain douchey behavior? [Huffington Post, Newsday, Boston Herald]

I thought the ickiest things being sold on Etsy were those custom-made vagina portrait necklaces, but I was wrong. Now date rapists can get down to business in comfort and style with one of these super-snuggly Rohypnol pillows, from Etsy retailer GalacticBoutique! But, the seller warns, the pillows are not for consumption, as “they do not contain the necessary mood stablizing [sic] goodness found in controlled substances.” No matter. We’re sure she won’t care—when she wakes up. [Regretsy]

• Roman Polanski’s attorney said he has already been punished enough by serving 42 days in prison back in 1978. You know, after he gave drugs to and raped a 13-year-old girl? Forty-two days! Polanski is currently in jail in Switzerland and may be in prison for up to two years if he’s sent back to the U.S. for a trial. [L.A. Times]
• Lady buffaloes in California are being put on birth control because they’re screwing like bunnies. Sorry, folks, I just thought slutty buffaloes would make you giggle on a Friday afternoon. [L.A. Times]

• The city of Richmond, California, is struggling to deal with the horrific gang rape of a 15-year-old girl, which allegedly had up to 20 witnesses, outside a homecoming dance. For some in Richmond, this means blaming the victim and criticizing the “snitches” who put seven of the alleged rapists in jail. [NY Times]
• A study of 13,000 high school students found girls who play team sports are less likely to smoke, be depressed, and use marijuana. Unfortunately, it also says boys who play team sports are more likely to behave violently and binge drink. [ABC News]

• Six women’s bodies were found at the home of Anthony Sowell, 50, of Cleveland, Ohio, when police arrested him on a rape and felony assault warrant last Thursday. Sowell already served 15 years in prison for a 1989 rape of a 21-year-old woman. Although the bodies have not yet been identified, at least two women who lived within several blocks of Sowell went missing over the summer. [CBS News]
• Illinois’ parental notification law, which requires physicians to inform a parent or guardian when a girl under the age of 17 wants an abortion, will go into effect tomorrow. The parent or guardian will not be allowed to give consent, but he or she must be notified about the abortion. Girls can bypass notifying their parents by going before a judge, but the judge has 48 hours to rule. Parental notification also isn’t required in the case of a medical emergency or if the girl declares in writing that she is the victim of sexual abuse. [Chicago Tribune]

“Date-rape drugs are largely an urban myth used as an excuse by women who booze themselves into a stupor, it has been claimed.”

That’s the first line from an article in today’s Daily Mail, about a new study out of the University of Kent that suggests many women mistake being drunk for being drugged. Of course, there’s more to this story than the “journalists” at the Daily Mail would have you believe. For starters, it’s not that women are using “I was drugged!” as a way of excusing bad drunken behavior, but rather than they may be confusing the side effects of being intoxicated—nausea, dizziness, etc.—with those associated with being roofied. Additionally, a far more comprehensive article in the Telegraph quotes Adam Burgess, of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, as saying, “Young women appear to be displacing their anxieties about the consequences of consuming what is in the bottle on to rumors of what could be put there by someone else.”

Last week, the Huffington Post made our blood boil when they reported on a horrifying trend—that insurance companies are denying benefits for women who’ve been raped, and even dropping their coverage altogether. How can they get away with such a thing? Because, when a woman is raped and it’s unknown whether the assailant used a condom, doctors typically prescribe a month’s worth of an anti-HIV medication (which, uh, I didn’t even know existed) as a precaution. It’s extremely rare that a woman actually contracts HIV this way, but insurance companies view this as a morbid done deal. Susan Pisano, a spokeswoman for the health insurance industry’s largest trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, explains, “If you put down on a form that you are or were taking anti-HIV drugs at any time, [insurance companies] are going to understand that you are or were in treatment for HIV, period. That could be a factor in determining whether you get coverage.”

We’re definitely in the DNA age, people. You only need to tune into the paternity-testing “The Maury Show” or a crime show marathon to know that. So it’s about time New York state gives its rape testing kits, which were first introduced in emergency rooms 20 years ago, a DNA upgrade. Today, state officials are slated to reveal the new kits, which also include instructions on collecting evidence from male victims and a training video narrated by Mariska Hargitay (because her role as a detective on “Law & Order: SVU” has made her an expert). Developers from St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals in NYC say they have learned what works and what doesn’t over the years and the new kit is more comprehensive. Now, the kits provide special envelopes and swabs to collect an attacker’s bodily fluids or other evidence left behind that might contain DNA. The kits also provide information for health professionals to deal with male victims, which is a good thing since the ratio of male sexual assault victims in New York is much higher than the national ratio of one in eight. [NY Post]

I have to say I’m slightly shocked the old rape kits weren’t this comprehensive. I thought the whole point of a rape kit was to collect DNA.