evidence: If we translate these outcomes into judicial rankings of a crime’s severity, judges are sending a pretty clear message: It’s not as bad to rape someone you know. It’s a pattern that might be explained by outdated ideas of sexual assault, like the notion that "stranger rape" is serious and worth punishing whereas other kinds might not really be rape at all. Our society has, after all, registered extraordinary skepticism when it comes to the idea that men might rape people they know: Spousal rape was legal until quite recently; Minnesota only just repealed a provision that shielded spouses from prosecution for raping their spouses. And the concept of "acquaintance rape," shot through as it is with rumored "misunderstandings" and female "regret," has led to judges making all sorts of bizarre pronouncements prior to granting convicted rapists mercy. (Sexual assault seemed to be a greater threat to society—and was more quickly believed and more severely punished—when black men were being routinely accused of raping white women. The crime might not carry quite the same stigma when powerful white men are accused.)