A second factor that might influence jurors in a rape trial is the victim’s sexual experience. In early rape trials, it was not uncommon for the victim’s sexual history to be entered in court as evidence of her credibility (Field, 1979). This was a discriminatory practice because a defendant could be treated leniently if it were found that the victim was “unchaste” (Field, 1979).
If the victim was not a virgin, the jury might think that if she consented to sexual intercourse once before, she could have consented again; she deserved the rape or was “asking for it”; and/or that her claim of rape was false (Field, 1979). If any of these beliefs were present, the defendant was likely to receive a mild sentence, if at all. Field (1979) found that
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In Cohn et al. (2009), participants were shown videos that varied victim and defendant reputation. It was found that victims with bad reputations (i.e., “hooking up” with random men) were held more responsible. In fact, they were held more responsible than the perpetrator and were believed to have consented to the sexual intercourse. In Dupuis & Clay (2013), sexual experience was defined under the broader term “respectability”, which includes: prior sexual and dating history, dressing provocatively, and acting in a seductive or “sexual manner”. It was found that less respectable victims were regarded as more responsible. An explanation for these findings is that women who are more sexually experienced are perceived to engage in “token resistance” (saying no, when they mean yes) than less sexually experienced women (Muehlenhard & Hollabaugh, …show more content…
Another common rape myth is that women deserve to be raped or “asked” to be raped if they were drinking too much alcohol beforehand (Stormo, Lang, & Stritzke, 1997). Previous literature has found that people who adhere to this rape myth are likely to believe that a rape did not occur (Beichner & Spohn, 2012; Sims et al., 2007). In their study, Stormo et al. (1997) presented undergraduate participants with an acquaintance rape scenario, in which they manipulated intoxication levels of both the victim and perpetrator. They discovered that when a victim was depicted as moderately intoxicated, she was significantly more blamed than the perpetrator. This result was the same even when the victim and perpetrator had equivalent levels of intoxication. Similarly, Sims et al. (2007) presented participants with several vignettes. In two of them, a woman was either described as being intoxicated or being sober when she was assaulted. Again, the intoxicated woman was viewed to be more responsible for the sexual assault than the perpetrator. The researchers argue one explanation for this finding, which is that women who are heavily intoxicated are believed to be sexually available. In other words, when a woman drinks heavily, men might perceive this as an indicator of her desire to have
This is often done through the use of language to direct focus away from the perpetrator of assault; in addition to accrediting rape to the victim, attributions of rape blame may be related to variables such as alcohol consumption, verbal and non-verbal miscommunication of sexual signals, and resistance (or lack thereof) used at the time of a sexual assault. This has the effect of complicating sexual assault analyses and blurring issues surrounding assault. For example, alcohol complicates discussions of consent and censure in rape trials; alcohol consumption by the perpetrator has a pardoning effect. Intoxicated perpetrators are held less responsible for their actions than sober perpetrators (Abbey et al., 2004). In this sense, perpetrators of sexual assault are able to “blame [their assault] on the a-a-alcohol”. Conversely, women who are sexually assaulted after having consumed alcohol are assessed from a victim-blaming perspective – a perspective that suggests that the woman caused her rape by suggesting her consent through her alcohol consumption (leading the man on). In
Second, the victim was no longer required to support her testimony. The third and perhaps most important area of change, known as rape shield laws, prevented defense attorney from introducing information about a victim’s prior sexual behavior. These statutes were intended to address the problem that jurors perceive a victim’s prior sexual history to be probative of a victim’s credibility, moral character, and consent. Proponents of the statutes argued that these perceptions have a prejudicial impact on the jury decision-making process.
Taylor, N. 2007. ‘Juror attitudes and biases in sexual assault cases’, Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 344. Australian Institute of Criminology.
... Cat. I am a cat. No. 4510.0, [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/2EFA897EF863196CCA2575CA00146304/$File/45100_2008.pdf, [Accessed 13 April 2011]. Taylor, N 2007, ‘Juror attitudes and biases in sexual assault cases’, Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 1 (pp. 113-117).
The complainant of a sexual offence could previously be cross-examined about being a prostitute or about indiscriminate promiscuity in order to show that she was not to be trusted. There was a tendency to explore the victim’s past sexual experience to...
Due to advances made by the American mass media, the way Americans react to and interact with rape culture has changed dramatically changed from 1960 to the present. News coverage of major rape trials, movies and books involving rape have caused the American people to change their perspectives and reshape the way trials are carried out and the way female rape victims are viewed and treated during and after trials. During the 1960’s, due to societal and religious conventions, a victim’s history, chastity, and moral character were brought to light to serve as attestation against the claimant. After the feminist movement took off in the 1970’s, laws regarding this topic began to change drastically and hard facts and witnesses began being used to determine outcomes of cases. Although news stations, movies, and novels can further new ideas and offer the American people an insight into rape law and culture reform, they often set some of the forward progress back by promoting “traditional” views of rape, rape culture, and rape myths, in which the victim is made into a provocateur. In order to prevent this heinous crime from occuring, or at least reduce the ever increasing number of incidents, Americans must take it upon themselves to become educated upon the topic of rape. This means that they must collectively decide to see only the facts presented in a case, tell the difference between truth and rape myths perpetuated by society, and understand the long term and short term effects experienced by victims before, during, and after the trial, regardless of the situation.
Cross-cultural research has shown that rape is most common in cultures that are dominated by males and violence. This means cultures in which males dominate the political decisions and cultures adhering to the male ideology of toughness, interpersonal violence and war (Groth 7). In a culture of people with more traditional or sexist gender role, attitudes are more tolerant of rape than are people with more nontraditional attitudes. Traditional men are more likely to report that they would commit rape if they knew they would not be caught; some researchers have found that a traditional man is much more likely to commit a rape than a nontraditional man is. Many attitudes in our culture perpetuate rape, for example: A husband is entitled to have sex with his wife," "A 'real man' never passes up a chance to have sex," and, "A women who 'leads a man on' deserves what she gets (Growth 7). “ Some media depictions may promote rape. Many movies make violence appear attractive and some movies convey myths about rape. Such as slasher films that make violence seem exciting, or movies suggesting that women like to be forced to have sex or that women's only value...
It is not a topic that is brought up often, especially at schools or at gatherings, yet it is crucial that everyone be educated, or at least informed on a topic that affects women every day. “Given that sexual violence continues to occur at high rates in the United States, it is vital that we understand attitudes and cultural norms that serve to minimize or foster tolerance of sexual violence” (Aosved, 481). Growing rates of sexual violence goes to prove that it is not taken seriously by many, especially when myths excuse the actions of the perpetrator and instead guilt victims into thinking they are responsible for the horrible act. Burt (1980), in her article titled, “Cultural myths and support for rape” attempts to make sense of the importance of stereotypes and myths, defined as prejudicial, stereotypes, or false beliefs about rape, rape victims and rapists- in creating a climate hostile to rape victims (Burt, 217). Examples of rape myths are such sayings as “only bad girls get raped”; “women ask for it”; “women cry rape” (Burt, 217). This only goes to prove that rape myths against women always blame and make it seem like it is the women’s fault she was raped and that she deserved it for “acting” a certain way. McMahon (2007), in her article titled, “Understanding community-specific rape myths” explains how Lonsway and Fitzgerald (1994) later described rape myths as “attitudes and beliefs that are generally
“Last year around 6.5% of alleged rapes led to conviction. Why is the conviction level for rape so low? The question this essay addresses is the difficulty, in convicting rapists and understanding why the conviction level for rape is so low. Proving a rape happened is easier said than done, there are many factors that are critical to contributing to a conviction. Why is the conviction level for rape as low as 6.5%?
Gunby, C., Carline, A., & Beynon, C. (2013). Regretting it after? Focus group perspective on alcohol consumption, nonconsensual sex and false allegations of rape. Social & Legal Studies 22(1). 87.
In some countries, a woman must prove she is pure in order to find the perpetrator guilty. Rape used to be more of a violation to the man than to the woman. It was a violation of the man’s rights if his wife or girlfriend was raped. When a woman is raped, her devotion to her family is questioned. Rape is a violent act, an act of possession, not a sexual act.
The question is unthinkable given the conditions: “Did you ever have a sexually transmitted disease?” This is one of the first questions to which a rape victim must respond. In what way does her sexual history play any role in her case against a defendant? We have “double jeopardy” to protect people from unfair prosecution, but rape victims are repeatedly put on trial over and over for crimes perpetrated against them. Prosecutors are allowed to judge rape victims in a critical light, aggressively emphasizing many factors related to her personal life, her appearance, or her action just prior to the rape that she endured. These factors are brought out to influence a jury’s perception of the victim creating doubt about whether the crime may not in fact have been the victim’s fault. Did she deserve it? Was she asking for it? There are cases in which rape victims are treated differently due to the lack of understanding and prejudice which can be brought to bear against victims. Prejudice is the act of forming an unreasonable judgment against another. These prejudgments can affect a victim’s emotional status, actually leading some victims to end up asking themselves if the transgression was their fault. Three cases will reveal the complexity of what is at stake.
Sahl, Daniel, and Jennifer Reid Keene. "The Effects Of Age, Authority, And Gender On Perceptions Of 00000 Statutory Rape Offenders." Journal Of Interpersonal Violence 27.18 (2012): 3701-3722. 00000 Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
2011). The rape myths most widely studies and acknowledged included: husbands cannot rape their wives, women enjoy rape, women ask to be raped, and women lie about being raped. Assessment of such myths through measure such as The Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (RMAS; Burt 1980) and Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMAS; Payne, Lonsway, Fitzgerald, 1994) show that not only does a portion of the population endorse them to some extent, but also that these beliefs permeate throughout media, religious, and legal domains. A troubling example of the myth that women ask to raped comes from Walklate (2008) in that 26% of polled participants thought a rape victim was partially or totally responsible if she was wearing sexy or revealing
Victims who were under the influence may feel as though their report won’t be validated since they chose to go out and chose to get drunk. Judge Lindsay Kushner made the claim that, “yes, you can drink yourself daft and you can use your body how you want, but if you do you are more likely to get raped.” But what must be noted is that the victim did not choose to get raped and the intent of rape ultimately lies with the perpetrator. This point of view emphasizes the traditional ideology of gender roles in sexual assault cases when women are the