[Avodah] Tzeni'us and gender roles

[David Riceman]

Chana Luntz wrote:
> The only reason why the girl would have standing, is because of this
> peculiarity of halacha, which seems to link malkos to civil litigation (this
> is not the only place I have seen it, although I cannot think of where else
> off the top of my head at the moment).  Ie a plantiff can sue to get the
> defendant whipped.  Not allowed in common law legal systems of course, where
> you have to pursuade the public prosecutor to prosecute - precisely because
> it is considered that the criminal system should not be a mechanism for
> victim revenge.
You are biased by chronology; common law used to have criminal 
prosecutions initiated by private parties (not only in Colonial America 
but also in England).  See

http://law.jrank.org/pages/1863/Prosecution-History-Public-Prosecutor.html

and the pages following it.  He says that several (US) states retain 
this right, but doesn't enumerate them.

David Riceman