Letter-to-the-Editor:
The Risk of Biting an AIDS-Infected Rapist

Crime-Safety-Security Newsletter

Letter-to-the-Editor: The Risk of Biting an AIDS-Infected Rapist

(ML - I’ve condensed and clarified a lengthy e-mail thread to the following:)

-----Original Message-----
From: "River Valley Women-Safe"
To: michaelloftus @ crime-safety-security.com
Date: Thu Jun 05 12:22:58 2008

Comments: Your article at Ultimate Rape Prevention encourages the biting of a penis or tongue, yet you did not include a caution that this could subject the victim to blood-borne pathogens.

As a law enforcement chaplain who responds to emergency situations, and in my EMS training, this is something we have covered at some length.

Any time a victim fights back against a rapist, she runs the risk of fluid exchange (blood, urine, saliva, semen). Should she have a cut or other open wound that has contact with fluids, she runs an increased risk of infection or disease from either blood-borne or fluid-exchanged contaminants (including HIV/AIDS/STDs). While the risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS is relatively low (only 1% of the general populace is HIV/AIDS positive), exposure to other infectious diseases carries a slightly higher risk. Women who bite in a self defense situation should be aware there is a heightened risk of exposure to infection or disease, but that biting remains an effective, last-resort means to create an opportunity to end a confrontation.

As a women-safe consultant (and martial arts instructor), I concur with your assessment that grabbing and wrenching a rapist’s testicles or penis is a viable (and highly effective) option for a victim. I also remind women of the very real dangers they face from blood-borne pathogens and encourage biting as a last resort.

The article was well written, and you bring up several good points.

Keep up the good work.

John Terry
River Valley Women-Safe
www.RiverValleyWomenSafe.com

~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to your astute observations and input, John, I’ve retroactively added this addendum to my web pages concerning this subject:

“Any time a victim fights back against a rapist, they may cause each other to bleed, thus she risks exchanging her blood or other bodily fluids with his. But few rapists have HIV/AIDS (less than 1 percent of the general population does). Further, a woman biting a rapist with HIV/AIDS/STDs, or fighting back at all, has no more risk of becoming infected than if she’s raped by him (again, exchanging bodily fluids). Besides, the rapist may decide to murder a passive victim so she can't identify him.”

I really appreciate your help in thinking this through, John. I’d very much appreciate any more suggestions anywhere on my site.

Thanks again,

Michael

Crime-Safety-Security > Newsletter Archive > newsletter-08-Jul-08

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.