NCJ Number
189998
Journal
Judicature Volume: 84 Issue: 6 Dated: May/June 2001 Pages: 328-329
Editor(s)
David Richert
Date Published
2001
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article presented a brief discussion of the unique challenges facing judges in rape cases and resources available to assist them in understanding the difference between the perceptions and reality of rape and rape victims in making appropriate sentencing decisions.
Abstract
Results from a survey revealed that rape cases were more difficult for judges to preside over from both a legal and technical standpoint, a personal and emotional standpoint, and a public scrutiny and public pressure perspective. Rape victims’ cases were seen as at a disadvantage from other cases because they did not conform to the public’s perception (i.e., stranger versus non-stranger). A judge’s lack of factual information and understanding could result in re-traumatizing a victim. In addition, inappropriate sentences may result from mistaken assumptions about who commits rape and the victim’s role. Sentences can be skewed by the system’s failure to understand or appreciate the “invisible injury” of rape. Two resources and tools were presented to aid judges in meeting the decision-making challenges involved in rape cases. First, Understanding Sexual Violence: The Judge’s Role in Stranger and Non-stranger Rape and Sexual Assault Cases is a highly regarded curriculum in a video or self-study guide version format, and Understanding Sexual Violence is a model curriculum produced by the National Judicial Education Program in 1994.