The Pros And Cons Of Rape Shield Laws

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Saunders states that Rape Shield laws are in place to protect victims of sexual assaults and rapes during a criminal trial. They prevent defendants to bring fourth evidence of the victim’s sexual history, orientation or past relationships (Saunders, 2014). Rape can be a very emotional and embarrassing ordeal; it’s very private and personal and can be hard to deal with for years to come. As with many victims of crime especially sexual offenses there are advantages and disadvantages to each new law that is implemented. This paper is designed to analyze the advantages and disadvantage of the Rape Shield Laws.
Rape shield laws were implemented to protect rape victims. For years and still in today’s society there is hesitation to report these …show more content…

(NCVS, 2000.) This means that in over half of rape cases the victim knows their assailant. This becomes a major disadvantage when looking at rape shield laws the shield does not prevent from the courts to engage in questioning in previous sexual contact with the defendant. This implies that in over half of rape cases the victim’s sexual history will in fact be heard in court, due to the victim’s knowledge or previous relationship with the defendant. If a victim of rape has been convicted of a prostitution offense within the last three years, their sexual history is considered to be admissible in court. (Muldoon, 2012).This exception can also render problematic due to the simple fact that just because the individual was once engaging in illegal sexual activity does not mean that in the particular event the victim was not in fact raped. Rape Shield laws are also very vague and have many different exceptions and each state has different rules they go by, which can therefore produce what evidence and the protection of the victim to be different in each case.
In conclusion, Rape Shield laws are in place to protect the victims, sometimes it works and at other times the victim can be ridiculed and their past can be advertised, due to many holes and ways around the

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