Response To Rape Cases

Researchers have come up with various explanations trying to explain the sexual abuse cases in the globe. Some of these explanations form a basis on psychological perspectives, biological perspectives, and criminal perspectives. Despite these differences, rape cases are considered a violation of an individual right and the traumatizing effects are reported to be similar. The paper will focus mainly on the criminological approach to rape cases (Grooth & Jean, 1979). Various criminologists’ literature will be reviewed in association to rape as an offense against the law.

Last week, the White House released a short, celebrity packed, 60-second public service announcement (PSA) on the topic of sexual assault. 1 is 2 Many addressed those who are in control of preventing sexual assault as its intended audience was those who can put a stop to sexual violence: the perpetrators or would-be offenders. Although this one minute announcement completed the task of bringing sexual assault to the forefront of discussion, it failed to encompass the central issues concerning the culture of sexual assault: societal misperceptions, the victims, and the justice system. Sexual assault is a phenomenon that has been around for centuries; the culture of sexual assault is rooted in both legal practices and societal perceptions.

Through the last few years, legislation has tried to create more funding for laboratories to analyze thousands of rape kits for the officers to solve the crime. Crime labs cannot test rape kits for they do not have the funding for it because most funding goes for other crimes that police stations view as more important. When labs do not analyze the rape kits because no one has enough funding for the requirements to be able to test the kits. Funding that “Congress passed the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act, requiring three-quarters of federal funding for sexual assault kits be used for testing or taking inventory”(Reilly). In the article written by Reilly, Congress stresses that a certain amount of federal funding will be for testing sexual assault kits. Congress passed an act so all crime labs can get all of the testing of rape kits done. Congress has passed a bill to create extra funding for backlogging of rape kits, while states are trying to raise funding for crime labs to have the ability to test rape kits. Crime labs do not have the resources to analyze thousands of rape kits, which leads to needing more funding from the state to allow them to test rape kits to solve the crime. States do not create a high enough budget for police stations to use on testing rape kits that leaves rape kits to sit in storages for years. For most police stations “ they had a backlog of 1,500 rape kits dating back more than a decade,” have rape kits that date back decades because their labs never receive enough funding for the amount of testing that needs to be done (Beitsch). Backlogging of rape kits has multiplied over decades for the lack of funding from legislation. Rape kits sit in storage because there is no money in the budget. Most victims wait for years before they find out if their rape kit was tested or thrown away. One victim, in particular, was “ led to believe that the kit was

Implementing the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting (SAFER) Act would help State and local law enforcement agencies to end both the police storage and laboratory rape kit backlogs by providing State and local governments with subsidy to conduct one-year audits of the unexamined sexual assault evidence in their possession. http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=InNews&ContentRecord_id=d005d0ed-c1ad-4971-ad7b-edf6ffb20307 .

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

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

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.

Rape, being a touchy subject for most, is definitely something that should be addressed and

There are different notions that the society has towards both Brock Turner and the victim, but whether good or bad, this case has sparked many new perspectives and conversations about situations such as this. The article proposes that this is only the first step to developing a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with cases that involve sexual assault.

Victims of sexual violence is the first population we will discuss. “On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States” (Rain.org, “Victims of Sexual Violence: Statistics,” 2016, para. 1). Criminal justice professionals will encounter rape victims and sexual assault victims. Police officers have the duty of charging and arresting the perpetrator and getting the persons assaulted to safety. Victims of rape and sexual assault have to

Another problem directly linking and contributing to the problem of the number of reported cases , is the small amount of cases that successfully prosecute the accused. In a recent report, statistics show that only 10 per cent of 7000 sexual and indecent assaults reported to the police resulted in the accused being found guilty. In another statistic, Shadow attorney-general Chris Hartcher says, “only 1 percent of offenders get a jail sentence and it puts victims off coming forward to report rape.” Through the statistics, victims can only see the law as it promoted, the unjust and the little security of a successful conviction, giving them more of a reason to not report their cases. With the little percentage of a conviction, the law shows that the situation is as it is, due to the many unattended flaws. Flaws such as the undefined meaning of consent and the laws blindness towards the experience victims have encountered. With the combination of all these factors, it is only natural that a victim does not feel the need to report their case as nothing but a more disturbing experience will be its outcome.

Law Enforcement – Officers are trained to take reports from sexual assault survivors, consciously avoid triggering any secondary victimization, and to avoid rape myths when making their report. Whether the case is pursued further by officers depends on the wishes of the survivor as well as available evidence (i.e., was the assailant identified, was a weapon used, what kind of evidence was collected).

I choose this topic because sexual assault is one of the most offensive crimes committed in our society. Not only is it a threat to the community, but it has a physically and psychologically effect on the victim in many ways. For the last couple of decades, sexual assault, rape, and child molestation has become the focal point of public concerns today. According to a 1993 National Crime Victimization Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, about 500,000 rapes or sexual assaults occur each year (Statistics, March 2010). The Department of Justice states that, “rape crimes have risen nearly three times as fast as the total crime rate”, although other studies have shown statistics that are in

Women, girls, men, and boys are vulnerable victims of sexual assaults every day in our country. While females experience much higher rates of sexual assaults than males. The problem that this country faces is the lack of being able to track rapist, in addition to the victims that chose not to report their assault of being raped to the police. Issues of under reporting comes from the victims with multiple reasons that hinders them from reporting these heinous criminal acts. Thus, the sad realization is that the perpetrator is usually some one that you know, that you would of never of thought that they could and would, and do sexually assault you.

National Institute of Justice: Rape and Sexual Violence: A brief overview of rape, sexual violence, and what victims can do to stay informed about their legal options.