Liberating Discretion: The Effect of Rape Myth Factors on Prosecutors’ Decisions to Charge Suspects in Penetrative and Non-Penetrative Sex Offenses

Abstract

In sexual assault cases, prosecutorial charging decisions may be influenced by legal factors like offense seriousness and convictability and extralegal rape myths. We use data on sexual assaults in Los Angeles, to test for the effects of victim behavior, victim credibility, and “real rape” stereotypes on the decision to file charges. We also test the liberation hypothesis, examining whether rape myths influence the charge decision more in less serious nonpenetrative cases then in penetrative cases. Results show that victim credibility and behavior, but not consistency with real rape stereotypes, affect charging decisions, even after controlling for legally relevant factors, and they influence prosecutors’ charging decisions equally in penetrative and nonpenetrative cases. Rape myths also influence the charging decision indirectly via victim cooperation. We conclude that rape myths are incorporated into the criminal justice system’s definition of and response to sexual violence, so cannot be addressed by changing case screening policies.     

Legislation Targeting Sex Offenders: Are Recent Policies Effective in Reducing Rape?

In recent years, several pieces of state and federal legislation have imposed new restrictions on convicted sex offenders, including registration with law enforcement agencies, community notification provisions, and sexually violent predator designations permitting civil commitment following a prison sentence. This paper uses panel data for the American states for the years 1970–2002 to assess the impact of these policies on the rate at which rapes occur. Our research finds no evidence that our current policies reduce the incidence of rape.     

对有关妇女性侵害法律和政策的社会性别分析——以强奸为例

本研究使用文献研究的方法,搜集了1979-2004年与强奸有关的法律和政策以及近十年来的执行情况,从社会性别的视角,对国际人权标准中消除强奸的规定与中国大陆法律和政策文本及执行情况进行了比较。     

"奸淫幼女"行为罪名之再确定--以现行相关司法解释的尴尬为视角

首先分析了“奸淫幼女”行为现行相关司法解释在适用法律上的尴尬 ,继而认为应将奸淫幼女行为的罪名重新确定为强奸罪 ,“奸淫幼女”只是强奸罪的从重情节     

耦合权利义务说:婚内强奸立论的理论原点

笔者提出的“耦合权利义务说”认为,夫妻性权利义务关系是民事法律关系中合同关系的一种,虽然一方之权利即另一方之义务,丈夫行使性权利具有该当性,妻子履行性义务也具有该当性,但是,当义务主体拒绝履行义务时,权利主体并不当然取得采用违法甚至犯罪手段强制其履行义务之资格。当代中国从计划经济体制向市场经济体制的转型,正在推动着社会法思想由社会本位走向权利本位的转型。在我国目前市场经济体制逐步完善的背景下,社会结构已经开始从一元的政治国家向政治国家和市民社会二元分野的转型,个体权利意识逐渐深入人心,特别是在权利规范从社会本位走向权利本位之后,人权保障功能和提供社会公正功能将是任何一项法律制度所不可或缺的功能。这种理念反映在对婚内强奸问题的认识上,即是冲破婚姻关系对妇女性权利保护的羁绊,走出“只要夫妻正常婚姻关系存续,即足以阻却婚内强奸行为成立犯罪”的误区,实现“告诉乃论”为前提之婚内强奸犯罪化立论。     

Speaking ‘unspeakable things’: documenting digital feminist responses to rape culture

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which girls and women are using digital media platforms to challenge the rape culture they experience in their everyday lives; including street harassment, sexual assault, and the policing of the body and clothing in school settings. Focusing on three international cases, including the anti-street harassment site Hollaback!, the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported, and interviews with teenage Twitter activists, the paper asks: What experiences of harassment, misogyny and rape culture are girls and women responding to? How are girls and women using digital media technologies to document experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and sexism? And, why are girls and women choosing to mobilize digital media technologies in such a way? Employing an approach that includes ethnographic methods such as semi-structured interviews, content analysis, discursive textual analysis, and affect theories, we detail a range of ways that women and girls are using social media platforms to speak about, and thus make visible, experiences of rape culture. We argue that this digital mediation enables new connections previously unavailable to girls and women, allowing them to redraw the boundaries between themselves and others.     

‘I get together with my friends and try to change it’. Young feminist students resist ‘laddism’, ‘rape culture’ and ‘everyday sexism’

Abstract

Contemporary alarm about ‘laddism’ reveals what feminist research and activism has long-recognised; universities, like other social institutions, can be dangerous places for women. Research in the US and, more recently, the UK reveals alarming rates of violence, against women, the cultural and institutional norms which support violence and gaps in institutional responses. In the midst of this contemporary alarm about the university as a hotbed of laddism, there is a risk that the university – a site of potential empowerment and liberation for women (and men) – becomes re-positioned as a danger zone. The limited focus on danger and safety belies the potential of universities to enhance human freedoms through intellectual endeavour. We argue this progressive potential should remain centre-stage, as should university-based resistance to everyday sexism and laddism. This paper analyses accounts of young women feminists (n = 33) in UK and US universities. It explores their use of feminism and features of the university environment to resist and challenge oppressive cultures and practices. It argues that, despite encroaching neoliberalism and enduring sexism, universities continue to provide environments for engagements with feminism, enabling young women students to use feminism to resist and challenge sexism and to envision their feminist futures.     

Estimating Crime Laboratory Efficiency in the Testing of Sexual Assault Kits,

Over the past decade, the large numbers of untested sexual assault kits (SAKs) have been highlighted as a systematic problem that jeopardizes or delays justice for victims. Considering the benefits of testing SAKs, researchers have worked to shed light on why sexual assault evidence has not been effectively submitted to and processed by crime laboratories. Missing from this discourse has been an understanding of the types of practices or qualities that encourage efficiency in the testing of SAKs in crime laboratories. We analyzed results of a national survey administered to all publicly funded state and local crime laboratories (N = 132 respondents) to provide critical information about (i) the extent to which laboratories are testing all of the SAKs possible given the resources they have available; and (ii) the impact that staffing, equipment, policies, and other practices have on SAK testing efficiency. We find that the average laboratory tests only about 69% of the SAKs possible given the resources available to them. However, although technical inefficiencies explain a large proportion of the number of untested SAKs, the accumulation of untested SAKs must also be attributed to laboratories having insufficient resources (e.g., too few forensic analysts). Moreover, results from stochastic frontier models show that doubling the number of forensic analysts in the typical laboratory would allow them to expand their SAK testing capacity by nearly 50%. Implications of these findings are discussed as they relate to the prioritization of resources for crime laboratories, which often operate under strict budgetary realities.     

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。