Term Paper on "Treatment of Rape Victims and Suspects Psychology"

Term Paper 8 pages (3034 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Treatment of Rape Victims and Suspects

Psychology and the Law

One of the lingering problems in the modern criminal justice system is how sexual assault is treated by people inside the criminal justice system. Victims of sexual assault are not treated in the same manner as victims of other crimes; instead, they have traditionally received much more blame for the crime than other crime victims. Traditionally, rape victims have been blamed for dressing too provocatively, engaging in sexually arousing behavior, or even for engaging in consensual sexual behavior with someone other than the assailant in an effort to mitigate the crime against them. Sexual assault advocates have tried to fight back against this by empowering the victim, but, in some instances those empowerment efforts are counterproductive in a law enforcement scenario. Victims have not been the only ones to suffer from stereotypes in the criminal justice system: suspects have been treated unfairly as well. There is tremendous racial basis in rape prosecutions. Historically, this is at least partially attributable to the fact that a white woman who had consensual sex with a black man would lose her social standing. The stereotype of the sexually predatory black male continues to influence much of modern criminal justice, even if it is no longer openly acknowledged. One can see how all of these complex psychological issues present themselves in the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode, "True Believers."

Synopsis

In "True Believers," a pianist named Sarah, a Caucasian woman, is raped in her apartment at gunpoint by a black man named Michael. The rape is portrayed on camera, so that the audience is aware that Michael did, in fact, rape Sarah. However, Sarah showers after the attack and delays reporting the assault until the next day. At the hospital, a rape crises worker informs Sarah that the shower will make it more difficult to prosecute the case and tells her that she does not have to prosecute the assault, a statement that Detective Benson finds objectionable. Benson accompanies Sarah back to her apartment. The detectives are able to identify Michael from surveillance footage in Sarah's apartment elevator, but during the investigation of the rape, Detectives Fin and Rollins apprehend other black men as suspects because of their resemblance to Michael. Sarah encounters Michael at a bar and calls the detectives, who arrest him. Michael has marijuana and a gun on him at the time of the arrest. It is revealed that Sarah is having a romantic relationship with one of her professors and that she had a one-night stand one night before her sexual assault. Defense counsel uses those facts and Sarah's friendly demeanor towards Michael in the elevator to establish reasonable doubt and Michael is acquitted of the sexual assault.

Psychological treatment of victim

Contrary to most people's perceptions, stranger rape scenarios, like the one shown in the television show, are actually not the most likely rape scenarios. People are far more likely to be acquainted with their rapist than to be raped by an unknown assailant. Furthermore, there has been a tremendous amount of public education about this factor, because many people were simply unaware of the existence of acquaintance rape. Despite this push for education, people still envision a typical female rape as being conceptualized along the stranger rape stereotype (Anderson, 2007). Sarah's rape in the television show was a stranger rape, but there were elements that took it outside of the typical stranger rape scenario and seemed to blur the lines between stranger and acquaintance rape, at least for people outside of her apartment. For example, Sarah and Michael were shown being friendly towards one another in the elevator. Rather than jumping out of a bush and raping Sarah in a park, Michael went into her apartment building and pretended to be friendly. Though he forced his way into her home at gunpoint, the image that the television jurors could see was one of the two of them interacting in a friendly manner. It would certainly have been a stretch to describe the two of them as acquaintances, since there was no indication that they knew each other prior to being in the same elevator, but the rape was far enough outside of the stereotype of stranger rape scenarios that it presented an element of doubt about consent to the jury.

The first interaction that the rape victim, Sarah, has with the criminal justice system involves interactions with the police and with a rape crises counselor. The rape crises counselor tells her that, because she has showered since the assault, it will be more difficult to prosecute her case and reminds her that she does not have to prosecute the assailant. Theoretically, the idea behind reminding victims that they do not have to prosecute sexual assault assailants is to remind them that they have control over their bodies and their actions, since the rape has represented a loss of control. Historically, victims have reported that testifying at trial has been almost as traumatic as the actual rape because they are put on trial for their behavior, particularly their prior sexual behavior. Therefore, the rape crises counselor almost certainly intended to be helpful. However, with her words she was sending a message to Sarah that, by showering, she had destroyed her chance at attaining justice in the system, and that her case may not be worth prosecuting. This is a message that real-life sexual assault victims get on a daily basis and it reinforces the idea that they are somehow to blame for what has occurred to them or less worthy of justice than another rape victim might be.

At the end of the television show, Sarah reacts with rage towards Benson because Michael was not convicted. One of the hallmarks of rape victims is that they actually respond in ways that seems illogical to the casual observer. In the television show, Benson was consistently supportive of Sarah; she did nothing to earn her rage. However, it is critical to understand that sexual assault has a number of "effects that appear to vary as a function of the type of assault and a large number of victim-specific, trauma-related, and sociocultural variables. These variable and complex impacts are of such breadth that a given disorder or symptom cluster (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD], complex PTSD, or rape trauma syndrome) is relatively unlikely to capture the overall symptomatic experience of a given victim of violence" (Briere & Jordan, 2004). In other words, there is no stereotype response for sexual assault victims, and the continuing perception that victims should respond in a certain manner leads some people to question the veracity of rape reports, because the victim is not acting like a stereotypical victim.

While the television show did not portray the jury's thought process, it did attempt to portray the information that the jury received and then presented the jury's conclusion. Of course, the viewer was aware that the rape had occurred, but the jury did not have the same evidence as the viewer. Instead, the jury had the evidence that came before it. Based on that evidence, one must wonder whether the jury made the correct conclusion about Michael's legal guilt. It is very easy to criticize a jury's decision based on individual perceptions of what occurred or evidence that would not be admissible in the courtroom, but the jury may hear a much more limited version of the case. It is important to ask: was there enough evidence to convict Michael of rape beyond a reasonable doubt?

In order to answer this question, it is important to consider what a jury does when considering a sexual assault charge. According to Olsen-Fullero and Fullero, a jury selects stories from the evidence and testimony, based on the empathy-complexity theory of story making (1997). In other words, given what they know and how empathetic the different witnesses appear, how likely does a story seem to be? What they know about Sarah is that she is having sex with a professor, which is certainly a partial societal sexual taboo. They also find out that she had a consensual one night stand with another man the night before the alleged assault. She did not report the assault immediately, but played at a recital after the assault. The story that Michael's defense counsel weaves is one where his black client has been wrongfully accused of a sexual assault and that his race is a factor in the accusation as demonstrated by the police apprehending the wrong black suspects. Moreover, defense counsel can show a video where Sarah and Michael appear to be friendly with one another. The jury is called to decide which scenario is more likely, that the friendly-looking guy in the elevator followed Sarah out of the elevator, held her at gunpoint, forced himself into her apartment, and raped her, or that Sarah, a woman who is not adverse to one night stands, invited the friendly guy from the elevator inside and had… READ MORE

How to Reference "Treatment of Rape Victims and Suspects Psychology" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Domestic Violence and Hispanic Women Research Paper

Evidence-Based Practice Protocol: Domestic Violence and Hispanic Women

Evidence-based Practice

Domestic violence (DV) accounts for about 30% of all acute injuries to women treated in emergency departments, as it currently… read more

Research Paper 30 pages (8700 words) Sources: 20 Style: APA Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

Pedophilia - Efficacy of Combination Therapy Term Paper

Pedophilia - Efficacy of Combination Therapy Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Combination with SSRIs for Treating Therapy-Resistant Pedophilic Behaviors

Pedophilia demonstrates a higher recidivism rate when compared to other sexual… read more

Term Paper 30 pages (10745 words) Sources: 20 Style: APA Topic: Psychology / Behavior / Psychiatry

---

Hate Crimes the Definition Term Paper

Hate Crimes

The definition of a hate crime, according to the United States Department of Justice (Office of Justice Programs), is a crime in which the offender is "…motivated by… read more

Term Paper 20 pages (6466 words) Sources: 10 Topic: Crime / Police / Criminal Justice

---

Child Sexual Abuse Term Paper

sexual abuse of children is among the most heinous crimes that exist. Such a crime not only affects the child at the time the abuse occurs but also well into… read more

Term Paper 11 pages (3429 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Child Development / Youth / Teens

---

What a Criminal Psychopathology Term Paper

Criminal Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the science or study of mental disorders or pathological deviation from normal or official behavior (Lexico Publishing Group LLC 2006). Criminal psychopathology thus refers to the… read more

Term Paper 7 pages (2213 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA Topic: Crime / Police / Criminal Justice

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>