(Bryden, Lengnick 74). A prior relationship may supply a motive for false accusation. It was found that 31% of acknowledged rape victims, and 76% of those who in fact were raped but did not regard it as rape, had been involved romantically with the offender (74). According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of rape victims, 28% of rapists were current or former husbands or boyfriends of the victim (75). Even if there have been no prior intimacies, a long-term dating relationship increases the popular acceptability of forced sex. In one survey of high-school students, 43% of the males (and 32 % of the females) said that it is acceptable for a man to force a woman to have sex if they have dated foe a long time (77). According to a study of college students' attitudes, if a woman has been sexually intimate with a man on ten previous occasions, a subsequent incident of forcible sex is less likely to be deemed rape than if the parties had no previous intercourse (77).In December of 1999, it was said a court ruling ordering a new trial for a former Columbia University graduate student named Oliver Jovanovic whom was convicted of sexually abusing a woman he had met on the Internet could loosen protections for rape victims and discourage sex crime victims from reporting attacks. The Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Jovanovic because it was said that his trial was unfair because the judge kept the jury from seeing four e-mail messages his accuser sent him that expressed an interest in sadomasochism. When hearing this, many women's rights groups said that the e-mail messages were not relevant because a sexual encounter should stop immediately when a woman asks, regardless of what she nay have said or done earlier (Rohde B3). President of the New York City chapter of the National Organization for women, Galen Sherwin, stated, "Because she characterizes herself as someone who enjoys submission, th...
