Sara Rufael

Mcmennamy
Capstone-Period 5
October 21, 2016
The Legal Aftermath Of Sexual Assault
The prosecution of rape is often considered just as much, if not more, of an ordeal as the incident
itself. Victims are put through an intense period of increased scrutiny and emotional pressure. In
the past century, certain laws and programs have been put in place to ensure the safety and
comfort of victims, However, not all judicial and police procedures for processing and
prosecuting rape cases have caught up with modern times.
Initial encounters with police officers and nurses can greatly affect the likelihood of a
survivor to continue their case. Most survivors are first taken to a medical facility for a rape kit.
One of the most recent protocols for the increased comfort of women are SANE (Sexual Assault
Nurse Examiner) programs. SANE programs focus on providing compassionate and expert
medical treatment to victims of rape, including encouraging women to obtain kits for DNA
analysis (Telsavaara, Arrigo). This goes a step beyond normal medical procedure as it is aimed
to provide survivors with both medical treatments and emotional support. The SANE nurses are
also a key measure in getting victims to report and prosecute. Two National Institute of Justice
studies have found that the prosecution rates of communities have increased drastically after the
implementation of SANE programs (Campbell, et al.). However, problems persist on the side of
law enforcement. Many believe that officers often allow personal bias to disrupt how they handle
a case. The findings of several studies conducted on East German officers suggested that
characteristics of the victim help define what officers consider to be rape( Campbell, Johnson).

Women who wear revealing clothing or do not appear visibly shaken often lose credibility with
officers who subscribe to dated ideas of how a rape victim should look and act.
These findings are so troubling because the initial doubt of an officer can immediately dissuade a
victim from pursuing justice. And as survivors have more experiences with police, their trust in
the justice system begins to fade dramatically. Often law enforcement find complainants who
have already experienced another incident of sexual assault to be particularly suspicious, despite
the fact that Such deductions fly in the face of an accumulating body of research evidence that
documents high incidences of repeat rape victimization (Jordan). Despite our expectation of
objective professionalism from our police officers, undeniable bias persists the same as in any
other career field.
Another problem in the litigation of rape cases is the backlog of rape kits piling in storage
facilities across the nation. Rape kits are contaminated and lost everyday while their cases may
remain open. However, many of the problems created by the backlog of rape kits are not just
caused by stalling prosecution. SANE workers are now facing difficulties in convincing women
to pursue cases because they are aware of the probability of their kit actually being processed.
Estimate: more than 400,000 untested rape kits across nation, no way to get real #
Backlogged: hasnt been tested within 30 days of receipt.
This becomes even more complicated when we understand that Crime labs today are an
arm of law enforcement (DiFonzo). This means that if the police have doubts about the validity
of a rape case, whether based or not, they can choose not to press the issue and allow the rape kit
to lay untouched for years. Congress aimed to address this issue by creating the Debbie Smith or
Justice For All Act, passed in November 2004. The legislation was created to address the
mounting backlog of unexamined rape kits in crime labs around the country (Telsavaara, Arrigo).

The legislation was considered highly effective in its mission of delivering monetary resources to
jurisdictions in need of rape kit processing. However, many critics are questioning the
implementation of the program, due to the fact that it may require a massive retraining lower
officers and lower courts.
This issue of practical application of reforms is the root of most of the cases which . In
cases where state and federal law has been reformed, local police and courts struggle to keep up.
Even after we make large strides toward justice in our legal codes, remnants of the past laws
remain in the opinions and morals of the individuals in our justice system. Wife rape, for
example, was exempt from ordinary rape laws until the 1970s, yet instances of marital rape are
almost impossible to prosecute due to the unwillingness of both law enforcement and the
prosecuting attorneys to move forward with the cases (Jordan). To combat this persistent
prejudice, many states are mandating sexual assault training for some higher levels of law
enforcement. This measure would be more effective if training expanded to lower officers, who
are more likely to be interacting with victims on a case basis. As reforms change the way our
legal system views survivors and their cases, it is important to ensure that the enforcers of these
changes are adequately trained so they can be of most help to victims. ( Campbell, Johnson).
We must understand the top-down nature of reform and consider our effort to achieve justice for
rape survivors a work in progress.

Works Cited
Campbell, Rebecca, and Camille R. Johnson. "Police Officers' Perceptions of Rape Is There

Consistency Between State Law and Individual Beliefs?."Journal of Interpersonal

Violence 12.2 (1997): 255-274.

Campbell, R., et al. "Systems change analysis of SANE programs: identifying the
mediating mechanisms of criminal justice system impact (No. 226497)." (2008).

DiFonzo, J. Herbie. "Crimes of Crime Labs, The." Hofstra L. Rev. 34 (2005): 1.

Jordan, Jan. "Beyond belief? Police, rape and womens credibility." Criminal Justice 4.1 (2004):
29-59.

Telsavaara, Terhi VT, and Bruce A. Arrigo. "DNA Evidence in Rape Cases and The Debbie
Smith Act Forensic Practice and Criminal Justice Implications." International journal of
offender therapy and comparative criminology 50.5 (2006): 487-505.