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THE REDISCOVERY OF MORE VICTIMS OF RAPES AND SEXUAL ASSAULTS Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assaults During the 1990s, drug researchers and advocates who assisted rape victims began to receive anecdotal reports about drug-facilitated acquaintance rapes. The charge was that certain predatory men were escalating their aggressive tactics and going beyond weakening their prey by plying them with […]

CRISIS CENTERS: PROVIDING EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE No matter how poorly (or how well) the criminal justice system handles rape cases in the long run, sexual assault victims need immediate aid. Starting in 1972, feminist activists began to provide emergency assistance to women who had just been raped. The first crisis centers, also known as distress or

Rape Victims and Prosecutors To increase the conviction rate, some district attor- neys have established sex crimes prosecution units with specially trained lawyers. Traditionally, prose- cutors whose performance was judged on the basis of their won/lost records preferred offering lenient pleas rather than risking defeat by going to trial. Prosecutors prefer to negotiate an out-of-court

Rape Victims and the Police: Reporting Rates and Solution Rates In order for a crime to be solved and processed by the justice system, it must first be brought to the attention of the police. But during most years, less than half of all rapes are not reported, according to the annual findings from the

The Need for Corroboration In the past, one aspect of the law in most states that made rape charges very difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt was the corroboration require- ment, which demanded that the prosecution dis- cover independent evidence to back up the key elements of the complainant’s account. Derived V I C

Issues Surrounding Force and Resistance In the not-so-distant past, in order to convict a rapist, a woman had to convince a jury that she forcefully resisted to her utmost and ceased strug- gling only because she feared she would be killed or seriously injured. The justification cited for requir- ing such proof of fierce resistance

Rape Shield Laws During the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, the anti- rape movement successfully convinced legislatures in almost every state to pass laws prohibiting improper cross-examinations. Generally, shield laws stipulate that the defense cannot introduce evidence about an accuser’s past sexual conduct unless the woman has been convicted of prostitu- tion, has had consensual sex

Unwanted Publicity and Negative Media Portrayals A high-profile case is often tried in the court of public opinion, based on selective leaks of “eviden- ce”presented in media accounts, long before the accused and the accuser actually appear before a judge (see Chancer, 2005). Fears about intrusive press coverage, unwanted publicity, and victim blaming discourage some

The Accuser Versus the Accused Rape prosecutions directly pit the rights of the accused male against the rights of the female com- plainant. He has the Sixth Amendment right to wage a vigorous defense through his attorney. She has a right to be taken seriously and treated with respect on and off the witness stand,

The Controversy over Unfounded Accusations Rape always has been in a class by itself in one peculiar way: The complainant immediately con- fronts a credibility issue. For hundreds of years, it has been asserted that spiteful women “cry rape” to get revenge against men who spurned them. Deep concerns about the danger of false accusations