The definition of rape, as written by state law, has evolved significantly in the past century. What was originally defined as the “unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman against her will” — requiring lack of consent and evidence of resistance — has been expanded to be gender unspecific on the part of both the victim and perpetrator. Additionally, evidence of resistance is no longer required, and marital rape has been fostered into the law.
While important strides have been made in ensuring the definition of sexual assault is as expansive as possible, semantic elements of Virginia sexual assault law remain highly stigmatic. This is most visibly evidenced in the Feb. 10 charge against Jesse Matthew of “abduction with the intent to defile.” News sources used sexual assault, rape and molestation interchangeably with the word defile, saying “he had the intent, at that point, to defile, or sexually molest her.”
Etymologically, the word “defile” has a deeply religious connotation, and has been used as a value judgment for centuries. Originally derived from the French word “defouler,” in the 15th century defile meant to “desecrate or profane.” But it wasn’t until defile was used as the English translation of the Greek word “κοινοῖ,” or to “render common,” in the King James translation of the Bible that “defile” took on a moral connotation. In a time when a woman’s value derived from her virginity — a time when chastity eclipsed all other virtues in significance — to have sex was to be desecrated or profaned.
This correlation of values persisted even until the 19th century, when such nomenclature was used in Iowa’s State v. Montgomery. In 1890, Iowa resident George Montgomery was charged under criminal law with having "unlawfully and feloniously [taken] one Sophia Wheelock. . . against her will and by force and menace and duress, compelled her. . . to be defiled," with the definition of defile outlined to mean “to pollute, to corrupt the chastity of, to debauch or to violate." It was also noted that “defile” did not “connotate previous immaculateness.” At the time, state prosecutors used terms like “immaculate” to mean virginity and “defile” to mean assault.
The word “defile” appeared in Virginia legislation for the first time in 1950 with the writing of Virginia Code § 18.2-48, titled “Abduction. . . for immoral purpose.” In the law today, the word defile officially means to “corrupt the integrity of a thing” — applying to both trampled flags or to sexually assaulted people.
It is easy to disregard this definition as an unfortunate byproduct of an archaic time — a backwards reflection of historically rampant sexism. But what is impossible to reconcile is the understanding that this month, Virginia state prosecutors announced publicly, and to the family and friends of Hannah Graham, that their peer, friend, teammate and daughter had been defiled.
As a guest lecturer in Public Policy Challenges of the 21st Century at the beginning of February, Professor Anne Coughlin posed a question to the class: Imagine the difficulty of telling Hannah Graham’s parents their daughter had been abducted, murdered and likely assaulted — an unfathomable task. Now imagine telling them their daughter had been defiled. She had been violated, yes. But defiled? She was somehow less of a person — desecrated, profaned — because of the actions of another?
Hannah Graham was not defiled. Neither were Elizabeth Smart or Jaycee Lee Dugard. Yet the sentences of Smart and Dugard’s perpetrators more accurately reflect the nature of their crimes. Brian Mitchell, Smart’s kidnapper, was charged by a Utah state judge with “unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for sex,” and Phillip Garrido, Dugard’s kidnapper, was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison in California for “kidnapping and sexual assault.”
These sentences, void of value judgements, stand as examples for the Virginia legislature to consider in rewriting legal codes. State officials must understand that the law code, as it is currently written, takes survivors’ value away from them semantically and only furthers their feelings of alienation, exacerbating the trauma they have experienced.
It is critical that, amidst the passage of two bills on reformed sexual assault prosecution in the Senate and House, the Virginia legislature reconsider the rhetoric of its legal code in order to eliminate value judgments and stigmatizing semantics — changing “defiled” to what it should be aptly called: assault.
Lauren Jackson is a Viewpoint writer.
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