Essay about Rape Shield Laws

Almost two-thirds of sexual assault is committed by someone known to the victim. Yet rape and sexual assault are one of the least reported crime in the united states with only 39% of attacks being reported to the police each year. Rape culture has been present throughout history in the entire world and sadly it continues to exist. Rape culture needs to be talked about more openly, so victims are not afraid to accuse their rapist or attacker. Communities should come together to create a culture of care and stop shaming men, women, and children into victim blaming. Educating society about what is right and wrong while offering victims support can potentially prevent rapes from occurring and putting the sick people who committed the crime into prison.

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,

Rape is one of the most widespread and ubiquitous violent crimes facing America, making laws regarding rape and the judicial processing of rape increasingly important. The judicial process itself deters both rape reports and rape convictions. Not only does the judicial processing or rape cases itself deter reports and convictions, but it also has a negative impact on the moral and mental well being of the victims who decide to pursue their cases.

The creation of Tennessee’s rape shield law was enacted as a response to the outdated and sexist views that women that engaged in sexual activity in their past were more than likely to have consented to have sex with an accused defendant in a rape case (Rape and Sexual Assault, 2010). Subsequently, as a result of these beliefs, many women fail to report their rapes for fear of being judged prejudicially based on their reputation, previous behaviors, thus resulting in their re-victimization in court. Additionally, the protections provided under Tennessee’s Rape Shield Law acknowledged that parts of the victim’s sexual history may be irrelevant to their current case; therefore rape shield laws limited the use of a victim’s prior sexual history

Sexual violence is a significant social and cultural problem within America and all over the world. Within the United States nearly 1 in 5 women – or nearly 22 million – have been raped in their lifetimes. Arrest rates for sexual assault cases are low as they are hard to investigate because of the effects of the trauma itself. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, approximately 12% of the 283,200 annual rape or sexual assault victimizations from year 2005-2010 resulted in an arrest at the scene or during a follow-up investigation. Findings from the same survey revealed that more than one-third of women reported experiencing a sexual assault at some point during their lifetime. Within American society, rape constitutes an experience

Recently, the general topic of rape has been widely discussed through various media platforms. Rape is the act of sexual assault of another person without their consent. With this in mind a prevailing notion is that marital rape does not occur, however, numerous cases have proven otherwise. Initially, husbands were not commonly put on trial for spousal rape. Each state now identifies rape within a marriage as an illegal act, and nearly all indict the felony in the identical style that rape within strangers would be accused for. It is apparent, however, that some states do not handle offenders of spousal rape with proper justice. Through certain faulty laws and their implementation, it has become evident that the legal system regarding marital rape may be unethical and contribute to sexism in American society.

Rape can be pervasive and a serious social problem, Sexual Violence can be used in different situations and places like at a party, after hours work or school, or even in your own home. Some people could be raped by drugs or alcohol or just by force. Even though girls and boys get rapped but mainly girls get raped more than guys because guys could get rapped in prison but girls can get rapped anywhere. In the case of law sexual violence are serious social and public health issues in the United States. Women are far less likely to report a rape or assault when they know their assailant, thus instance of sexual assaults are greatly under reported. Victims of sexual assault may not be able to give consent due to age, illness, or impairment or

From the year 1927 until 2012, the definition of “rape” did not change in federal legislation in the United States. For almost one hundred years, the federal government legally defined rape as, “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2012, p. 1). This outdated and archaic definition left many victims of sexual assault unprotected by the law. This antiquated legislation also created a stigma around the idea of rape, that the victim must be a woman. It wasn’t until 2012 that the federal definition of rape changed to, “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim” (U.S. Department of Justice, 2012, p. 1).”

In American society 1 out of 3 women deal the issue of rape and are facing double-standards surrounding victim blaming. In contrast to men, women are often blamed for being in the wrong locations, being in the wrong type of clothing and around alcohol or drugs. Experts might say that the trend of blaming victimized women for crimes committed against them represents the overall issues of hatred towards the female gender in the United States. The crime of rape has been denied in our society throughout the many crimes that have happened over time. When a rapist is denied this instills negatively into the victim causing her to feel unimportant to society. In fact, adding the additional physical and mental trauma of not validating a victim experience lends to making her feel useless and unsafe. The blaming of rape victim before, during and after the act of sex marginalizes their status in society.

Victims today are not dealt the same way they were in the past with regard to the justice system. In the past, a woman that was raped, for example, did not receive the same treatment or respect as those who are sexually assault in this day and age. Thanks to the Victim and Protection Act that was initiated over 35 years ago, men or women have the right to be treated with respect and honor when it comes to justice, privacy and protection (“History of Victims’ Rights,” 2011). Not only did men and women have the ability to be allowed to report a case of sexual abuse to the police for further investigation, but also make sure they are protected by the court system during that period without further victimization. To this date, victims’ rights

There has been a lot of discussion of rape within sociologists, criminologists, and feminist networks. In my own words, rape is someone engaging with someone else sexually without their consent. Rape is not strictly vaginal penetration, nor an exclusive heterosexual only act. If two people are in a relationship or married, there is still no justification to the perpetrator for their act. In the 21st century, although rape crimes have dropped 24.1% from 2001 to 2010, but not all rapes are reported (Eitzen, Zinn, & Smith, 2010). Curtis (1997) reported that 42% of rape victims do not tell anyone of their assaults. There may be a number of reasons why victims don’t speak out. Victims of rape typically fear their own safety and lives if they speak out on it. Men who are victims typically don’t report rapes because it’s considered demasculizing to their gender. Rape victims are traumatized for life, they live with the burden, as their perpetrators walk away free (Curtis, 1997).

Being accused of sexual assault is a very serious matter. Even if you are innocent of the crime you are accused of you may still face the very real possibility of jail time. Accordingly, it’s essential to secure the services of a qualified sexual assault attorney, such as those found at Laub and Laub Attorneys at Law. Serving Reno clients since 1965, this law firm knows the importance of a staunch criminal defense, which entails devising workable legal strategies that offer the best possible chances of a positive outcome for your case.

The following is a review of the article If a woman isn’t bruised and bleeding, will her rape be counted?, which was written by Stephanie Hallett. The article includes information concerning rape cases in America and how law enforcement has used an outdated definition to exclude many cases from formally being reported to the Uniform Crime Report of the FBI. Hallett presents many discrepancies that are apart of each rape case and how they have been used to oppress rape victims. Societal flaws are passed the blame of disintegrating respect for women and minorities

Marital rape activists have fought long and hard to ensure that the marital rape exemption was abolished and laws put into place. Domestic violence was recognized before marital rape by having new laws, shelters for battered women, hot lines to talk about the violence, and arrest policies were all in place by the 1970’s before marital rape was even discussed as a real issue (Hasday, 2000). About 14% of all married women have been a victim of marital rape and about 50% of abused women have been raped by their husbands (Ferro, Cermele, & Saltzman, 2008). Today, there are marital rape laws in all states, but they vary by each state and still have some major issues that need to be fixed. This paper will

After the 1970s the criminal justice system started to change the way in which they addressed rapes. They started to create procedures and sensitivity training