Explain The Limitations Of Sexual Assault

Welcome to the world of the Bill Cosby rape scandal. Here are some facts about rape, and rape victims. About one-third of all rape victims have been romantically involved with their offenders. Nine states require sexual assault or rape victims to come forward within three years after the crime that has been committed upon them. More than half of rapes that happen in the world go unreported. I will tell you about some of the women accusing Bill Cosby of rape, and how many colleges and universities have revoked him of his honorary degrees.

An American is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds, and every 8 minutes, that victim is a child. Only 310 out of 1,000 assaults are reported, but only 6 out of 1,000 perpetrators end up in prison (RAINN). Although sexual assault is egregious, these perpetrators are less likely to end up in prison than other criminals. The reason that is seems to be that victims do not report their cases. So why are sexual assault victims afraid to share their stories? Victims often do not report their assault because of many reasons, including the fear of reprisal, the belief that the police could not and would not do anything about the case, or because they simply did not know how to approach an official.

Guidelines and definitions are generally not too different from one state to another. Some states classify sexual crimes depending on the sexual act, while others classify them as one single category. Sexual assault is always charged as a serious felony. Federal punishment for sexual assault crimes depend on a number of factors. The offender’s criminal history, acceptance of responsibility, severity of the crime, and several other factors are considered when a sentence is imposed. “The federal law criminalizing sexual assault sets a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and also provides for fines. In addition, federal law provides that those convicted of sexual assault must compensate their victims for any expenses directly related to the crime. This can include costs for medical care, physical or occupational therapy, attorney's fees, and other related expenses.” (FindLaw,

Unfortunately, the universal connotation of sexual assault is negative. Females often don’t want to be associated with sexual assault because they might be considered weak, shameful, or

Start blaming the system, not the victim. Sexual assault is a crime that is very common, yet the punishment perpetrators receive is not as harsh as it needs to be to reduce the occurrence of these crimes. Laws concerning sexual crimes have been edited over decades to be stricter however, sex offenders typically receive little or no punishment. Sexual Assault is defined as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient (“Sexual Assault”). Victims of sexual assault are often blamed as the reason for the crime being committed while the blame is taken away from the offender. Harsher punishment must be enacted on sex offenders because the victims suffer conflict from the crime throughout their

In 1978 Bennett Barbour was accused of a sexual assault of a 19 year old William and Mary college student. He was picked out a line up by the victim despite the fact he didn’t match the discerption given by the rape victim. Bennett Barbour was a 22 year old handy man at the time of these charges, close to his arrest he and his wife was expecting a new born child. Bennett Barbour served 5 years in prison before making parole. Even though all the evidences showed that Mr. Barbour couldn’t have committed this crime he was still convicted. In May 2012 Mr. Barbour was formally cleared of the rape charges but has not yet been compensated for it. Bennett

Many cases throughout time have not resulted in a conviction being made, for the sole reason that the charges exceeded the statute of limitations. The statue of limitations is defined as “the maximum amount of time allowed for a party to initiate legal proceedings”(Legal dictionary, 2016). Present day, every state is entitled to their own statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault. 34 States currently have a statutes of limitations on rape/sexual assault. Some of these states have a statute of limitations but there is a DNA exemption rule, ruling that if a DNA match is made later than the statute then that case will be exempt from the statute of limitations. Only 16 states have no statute of limitations for rape and sexual assault (Filipovic, 2016, p .A23).

During the trial, the defense questioned the victims ' credibility during cross-examination because of their criminal records. Yet again, rape culture has surfaced. A woman does not deserve to get raped no matter her criminal record. No person deserves or asks to get raped. Rape cases are always fought back by blaming the victim and making the victim seem like a bad person and that is why there will always be

Judge Aaron Persky, a Stanford alum, made an inexcusable decision in this ruling, and does not deserve his title. There is a lost sense of security and trust in the law due to his action. Worst of all is the reality that while the victims of sexual assault will always carry the memory and shame accompanied with it, men can get away with it with a "light" sentence and walk away.

Frustratingly, these days, some people still treat sexual assault as an “okay” thing, making comments such as “she was asking for it” and that she was “equally responsible” for the situation. This is exactly the sort of mindset that is contributing to the startling statistics today.

In the United States every two minutes there is someone that is sexually assaulted. In the state of Texas, every 2 in 5 women and every 1 in 5 men have been sexually assaulted. According to TAASA.org, it is reported that “6.3 million Texans have experienced some form of sexual assault in their lifetime.” In 2011, Senate Bill 1636 was passed in Texas where it was required for rape kits to be sent to labs within 30 days. Before Senate Bill 1636, there was no law in the state of Texas that required kits to to be tested within a certain time frame. When bill 1636 was passed it was also required that there be a count on the backlog of rape kits, and it was found that there were 20,000 kits that had not been tested. After seeing that there was a

Rule 412 which is the state of Tennessee’s version of the rape shield law, is designed to protect the victims of rapes and sexual assaults. The protection offered by laws of this nature was to prevent the victims of these heinous assaults from being re-traumatized on the witness stand during cross examination from the alleged perpetrators (Brody & Acker, 2010). Although I am an avid supporter of the right to a fair trial, I feel compelled to be the voice for those who are often subjected to constant criticism from fellow peers, courts, news and now social media. Rule 412, although sound in premise behind its development, lacks concession with the changing times. There are far too many loopholes in our own rape shield law which begs the question if other state’s rape shield laws truly offer the protection that they were designed to employ. Capers (2013, p. 827) reports that the ongoing issue with rape victims today is the fear of having their past history put on trial and not the event that took place. It was because of this, that many rapes go unreported. In the early 70’s, legislatures and courts began to rethink allowing an alleged victim’s past sexual history admissible in court. This prompted questions as to whether that prior information was actually useful in a current case. The second question that arose was to whether the courts were actually trying the victim during the trial rather than the alleged perpetrator. This is how rape shield laws came about. Then,

Currently in the United States there are no federal laws relating to sexual assault. This is due to the court ruling of US v. Morrison which overturned the clauses in the Violence Against Women Act which allowed women to sue their attackers in a Federal court. The Supreme Court justified overturning these articles in the VAWA by saying that allowing women to sue in Federal court whether there was a conviction or not was an over reach on the part of the Federal government and the commerce clause. By doing this the Supreme Court limited the commerce clause in order to overturn the articles, which was one of the first time that the commerce clause had been limited since its

“They are all innocent until proven guilty. But not me. I am a liar until I am proven honest.” Louise O’Neill. Rape has become a widely recognized issue in recent decades, however, an estimated 63 percent of assaults are never reported to the police. Differences in 1930’s issues compared to present day include: false rape accusations centered around racial prejudice, but now skirt the main issue of rape itself; victims still face many obstacles but now feel more supported; development of rape kits helped solve many suits but make survivors wearisome; and today’s trials are not based on accusations, but are based on evidence.

As reported by, feminist criminologists, their perspective of rape and sexual assault differ between liberal and radical feminists. Liberal feminists’ viewpoint in regards of rape as a gender-neutral assault on a persons’ autonomy and mainly focusing on the harm that rape can do to an individual. In contrast, radical feminists describe rape as a subject to be recognised and understood as a major pillar of patriarchy; a social system in which men claim the positions of dominance and control of the central norms and values that are linked with masculinity (Johnson, 2005: p. 4-15). The radical feminists believe that rape is a patriarchal structure within male power, thus displaying the harms that rape can do to an individual and as a group of women. Furthermore, the radical feminists approach view rape as male have the control and authority over the use of women’s bodies, which involves the sexual and reproductive. Hence, this is the core element of patriarchy, Radical feminist believe that rape is one of many forms that connects men’s sexual exploitation and violence, as well as, reinforcing women’s oppression (Whisnant, 2013).