The Associated Press published:

The teenage girl's 40-year-old uncle admitted he also had sex with the 11-year-old and told police that his niece was coaching the child, the records said.

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Youth Gang Rape Reported in Milwaukee Responded to by Anastasia Webb

Dear Editor, (Newsday)

Thanks to Carrie Antlfinger for contextualizing the horrible rape of an 11-year-old with other violent crimes in Milwaukee in her article 'Youth Gang Rape Reported in Milwaukee.' This will help your readers understand the devastation of rape and not persist in lumping rape along with sexual fantasy or perversion. However, when a 40-year-old man has any kind of sexual contact with an 11-year-old child, it is sexual abuse--or, in this case, rape. Please distinguish between rape and sex always; otherwise you perpetuate the myth that rape can ever be a consensual act. Also, when writing about an 11-year-old who was orally raped by a gang of boys, it is very important to use exact language in order to dispel the notion that this was a sexual act. Again, it was rape, which is an extreme and horrific act of violence.

Finally, by raising the issue of an alleged romance between the 16-year-old girl and the 11-year-old girl without more specific knowledge of the 16-year-old's participation in the attack, the writer is further confusing the nature of the crime--redirecting the issue to that of homosexuality, which suggests the writer's prejudice, not her good reporting.

Anastasia Webb