Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies Volume 9 Article 1 1-1-2000 Duty to Rescue Through the Lens of Multiple-Party Sexual Assault Renu Mandhane Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/djls This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Recommended Citation Renu Mandhane, "Duty to Rescue Through the Lens of Multiple-Party Sexual Assault" (2000) 9 Dal J Leg Stud 1. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Schulich Law Scholars. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies by an authorized editor of Schulich Law Scholars. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. DUTY TO RESCUE ... I DUTY TO RESCUE THROUGH THE LENS OF MULTIPLE-PARTY SEXUAL ASSAULT RENU MANDHANEt In 1983, a woman in a Massachusetts bar was hoisted onto a pool table and sexually assaulted by several men for over an hour. Patrons of the bar did not offer assistance to the woman. Many people simply watched as she was degraded while others yelled encouragement to the people assaulting her. 1 While incidents of multiple-party sexual assault (or "gang rape") are shocking, they are not anomalous. Essentially, multiple-party sexual assault is an extreme manifestation of the widespread gender-specific violence that appears to be overlooked and perpetuated in our society. For example, statistics suggest that thirty- nine percent of women in Canada experience some fonn of sexual assault during their lifetime, while only six percent of sexual assaults are ever reported to the police.2 Indeed, gender-specific violence is a harsh reality in Canadian society.