Rape Victim Advocates' Knowledge and Insight on Rape Laws

Abstract

Although previous literature details the successes and failures of reforms of rape laws designed to better support and protect victims, there is a lack of research on rape victim advocates' knowledge of and views about rape laws. It is essential that we understand advocates' level of legal knowledge because they may be the first or only source of legal information for victims. Based on analysis of interviews with 58 rape victim advocates serving six rape crisis centers in four East coast states, this article explores advocates' knowledge about rape laws, possible reasons for limited knowledge, and perceptions about various laws that aim to protect rape victims. This research suggests that although advocates have a somewhat limited grasp of laws intended to aid rape victims, they have an overall negative view of the legal system.     

Rape Without Consent

This article is a defence of a differentiated offence of rape.A differentiated offence is an offence which can be completedin a number of different ways that cannot be captured in a simpledefinition. It is argued that such an offence would meet severalconcerns that have been expressed in the feminist literatureabout the law of rape. It would assist certainty, it would reducethe extent to which the offence focuses on the conduct of thecomplainant, it would allow the law to express that violenceis central to the offence of rape where violence is present,but it would also allow convictions of rape where there is noviolence. The argument is developed through critical engagementwith the law of rape as set out in the Sexual Offences Act 2003.The Sexual Offences Act, it is argued, fails adequately to meetthe concerns outlined above.     

Rape and the Reasonable Man

Standards of reasonability play an important role in some of the most difficult cases of rape. In recent years, the notion of the reasonable person has supplanted the historical concept of the reasonable man as the test of reasonability. Contemporary feminist critics like Catharine MacKinnon and Kim Lane Scheppele have challenged the notion of the reasonable person on the grounds that reasonability standards are gendered to the ground and so, in practice, the reasonable person is just the reasonable man in a gender neutral guise. These critics call for the explicit employment of a reasonable woman standard for application to the actions of female victims of rape. But the arguments for abandoning a gender-neutral standard are double-edged and the employment of gendered standards of reasonability is likely to have implications that are neither foreseen by, nor acceptable to, advocates of such standards. Reasonable agent standards can be dropped, in favor of appeals to the notion of a reasonable demand (or expectation) by the law. However, if reasonable agent standards are to be retained, gendered versions of such standards are not preferable to gender-neutral ones.     

强奸罪研究二题

传统观念认为 ,女子仅可成为强奸罪的教唆犯、帮助犯或间接正犯 (间接实行犯 )。从法理学的角度看 ,女子不仅能成为该罪共同犯罪的实行犯 ,还能成为该罪单独犯罪的直接实行犯。对于乘机奸淫妇女行为 ,由于立法的原因 ,在司法解释和司法实践中都将其作为强奸罪处理 ,但这与强奸罪的行为理论不符 ,违背了罪责刑相适原则 ,有悖罪名概括性和准确性的要求 ,也忽视了我国司法资源现实状况。鉴于此 ,建议把乘机奸淫妇女行为从强奸罪中分离出来 ,设立乘机奸淫罪。     

Rape and the devalued victim

Numerous jurisdictions have made changes in their rape statutes in recent years. Five modifications that have commonly appeared in the amended rape legislations are aboulition of capital punishment as a sanction for rape, lowered sentence structure, a graduated continuum of offenses and penalties for rape, the reformulation of rape statutes to a sex-neutral definition of participants, and a change in terminology away from rape to such nomenclature as criminal sexual conduct. While the intent of the legal reforms was to insure fairness, we contend that the unintended effect of many of these changes is to trivialize the offense of rape and to devalue the victim.     

Rape trials and jurors' decisions

Recently, many writers have argued that equal protection for victims of rape is not presently offered in the courts since the outcomes of rape trials are frequently influenced by certain victim, defendant, and rape case characteristics. By systematically manipulating the factors of defendant and victim race, victim physical attractiveness, victim sexual experience, strength of evidence presented, and type of rape committed in a legal rape case, the present study sought to examine the effects of these factors on jurors' verdicts. Data collected from a sample of 896 citizens serving as mock jurors for the rape case indicated that these extraevidential factors had significant effects. Furthermore, it was found that the factors did not act independently as a number of significant interactions were identified. These interactions suggested that the impact of extraevidential factors on jurors' decisions is far more complex than what some writers and law reformers have thought. Implications of the findings are discussed in terms of discriminatory treatment of plaintiffs and defendants in rape cases and the role of juror selection in introducing fairness in rape trials.     

Rape: Wife vs Husband

The general law on rape, with particular attention to the component parts of gender of victim, employment of force, absence of consent and penetration, is reviewed. The historical attitude to wife rape in this context is described. Recent changes in US state legislation conferring rights, of varying degrees, on the wife in rape by husband are detailed and discussed.     

Juror common understanding and the admissibility of rape trauma syndrome evidence in court

Expert testimony on rape trauma syndrome has been used in sexual assault cases to corroborate the victim's complaint and to educate the jury. One of the primary arguments against the admissibility of this testimony is that it is not helpful because most jurors are adequately informed about rape and rape victim behavior. To test this assumption, a Sexual Assault Questionnaire (SAQ) was administered to experts on rape and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and two nonexpert comparison groups. Results indicated that the nonexperts were not well informed on many rape-related issues and were significantly less knowledgeable than the expert groups. The data also showed considerable consensus among the experts about the current scientific database on rape trauma. The implications of these results for the use of expert psychological testimony on rape trauma syndrome in court are discussed.     

The Impact of Psychological Consequences of Rape on Rape Case Attrition: The Police Perspective

This paper examines whether the psychological sequelae of rape relate to rape case attrition by leading police to see the victim as less reliable. A mixed methods approach with two linked studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, was used. In Study 1, the qualitative study, interviews with 12 specialist police officers were analysed using Framework Analysis. In Study 2, the quantitative study, 76 specialist officers completed an online questionnaire to assess the generalisability of Study 1’s findings. In Study 1, officers’ perceptions of victims clustered into three stereotypes, which we label “the real victim”, “the mad discloser”, and “the bad discloser”. Victims who exhibited signs of shame, self-blame, and post-traumatic stress reactions which impeded their ability to give a coherent account of the rape were perceived as less reliable “mad” or “bad” victims. The findings of Study 2 supported these results. Although police interview strategies have improved in recent years, there is evidence that signs of trauma and shame in the victim are sometimes misinterpreted as signs of lying. This may affect attrition by impacting on victim-officer relationships. Further training on recognising trauma and understanding its consequences is recommended both for specialist officers and front-line staff.     

Rape myths and rape by juveniles

Rape committed during adolescence is a vital indicator for predicting the propensity of committing rape in adulthood. Moreover, although numerous studies related juvenile rape have been proposed in Western countries, most of these studies have focused on the impact of personal factors, and have neglected to examine the impact of rape myths. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the relationship between rape myths and male juvenile rape. This study used an anonymous self-report questionnaire to collect data. Participants included 466 male middle- and high-school students in Taiwan. The results showed that rape myths are associated with juvenile rape. Furthermore, rape victim myths were the myth category relating to juvenile rape, rather than rape perpetrator myths. Among the rape victim myths, the dimension, women secretly wish to be raped, had the strongest association. Discussions pertaining to implications, applications, limitations, and future research are included in the present study.     

356例强奸案资料的回顾性研究

本文收集法医物证检验确证强奸案３５６例。统计分析表明，强奸的动机不仅在于用武力强迫的方式达到性乐满足，而且在于用诱骗的方式达到某种权利或优越感的满足；其诱因既来自罪犯，也来自受害人的文化道德素质，性知识和法制观念，以及环境因素等；罪犯与受害人ＡＢＯ血型表型及基因型与相应普通人群比较无统计学差异。     

强奸罪立法的反思与重构

传统的强奸罪只将犯罪对象限定为女性,由于时代的不断发展,在强奸犯罪的领域出现了女性强奸等各种不同的新情况,而我国强奸罪的现行立法面对这些新情况则没有回应。本文通过对强奸罪的女性主体、男性犯罪对象、婚内强奸以及强奸罪的"自诉"化等问题进行探讨,指出:女性可以成为强奸罪的主体;强奸罪的犯罪对象也可以是男性;对未成年人应特别保护;强奸罪的一些情况可以纳入"自诉"案件的范围。     

对行政法发展的"范式转换论"之商榷

"范式转换论"研究方法的缺陷是:将适用于自然科学领域的"范式"方法用来分析中国行政法发展的理论问题,将行政法发展视为是一个"革命"的过程;它提出行政法的基本问题应以问题为定向,以公共利益为主导.行政法学研究应以公共利益为分析视角等观点是不符合行政法历史和现实发展趋势的.它仅仅对行政法本体论方面做些转变,就认为中国行政法体系实现了从国家行政范式向公共行政范式转换,显得过于草率和仓促.     

Rape,burglary, and opportunity

Following on the recent development of opportunity theory in criminology, we apply an opportunity approach to rape. Although rape is commonly viewed as a street crime, a substantial proportion of rape occurs inside homes following an unlawful entry of the residence. Drawing on this observation, we argue that rape and burglary, because they share a common locus in the home, should exhibit similar opportunity structures. That is, characteristics that place particular types of homes and householders at greater risk of burglary should also place (female) residents at greater risk of rape. An analysis of UCR rates and censusderived opportunity variables for 155 SMSAs in 1980 supports this position. We conclude that home-intrusion rape (rape following an unlawful entry of the home) is a violent crime with the opportunity structure of a property crime.     

婚内强奸定性研究－婚内强奸在我国应构成强奸罪

婚内强奸是古今中外都存在的客观社会现象.在父权制社会中,妻子在性生活中仅是丈夫性行为的客体,毫无性权利可言.因此西方刑法认为婚内强奸不构成强奸罪.随着女性的逐步解放与独立,从尊重女性的性自主权出发,在刑法典中肯定婚内强奸,目前在西方已渐成潮流.当前我国刑法学界对婚内强奸基本上持否定态度.本文认为婚内强奸构成强奸罪有其充足的刑法学理由;当前如果发生婚内强奸案件,可以对行为人直接以强奸罪论处;婚内强奸案件有其特殊性,需要进一步加以立法完善.