NCJ Number
124990
Journal
International Journal of the Sociology of Law Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1990) Pages: 125-142
Date Published
1990
Length
18 pages
Annotation
The legal system, despite promoting justice in individual cases, may reinforce dominant preconceptions about women, men, and crimes of sexual violence.
Abstract
In a symbolic 1984 rape trial of six men in New Bedford (Mass), the female accuser was forced into the role of an angel who must defend her heavenly qualities after her fall from grace. From there, it was her, as well as the defendants', character that was on trial. Her female innocence was tainted by the very sexual violence for which she sought justice and further eroded by revelations about her intimate life. The trial symbolized the system's high tolerance for violence against women and its low threshold for a woman's unworthiness and suggested an inverse relationship between the two factors. It suggested that punishment of violent men is justified only to the extent that a woman is innocent. Further, any reference to the woman as an individual tended to draw blame and responsibility toward her and raised doubts about her victimization, even though portrayals of her as an everyday victim tended to draw sympathy. 6 notes, 25 references.