No More Excuses: How Police and Prosecutors have Failed Non-stranger Rape Victims

• In Event: Gender Based Violence

Abstract

Many studies have noted the problem with the “dark figures of crime” when it comes to rape in American society. Studies have also consistently found that rape is a crime committed most often against somebody the perpetrator knows, referred to as non-stranger rape by academics. This study presents an examination of estimates of rape victimization in the U.S. in comparison to arrest and prosecution data. An examination of this data reveals a huge gap in the estimated number of rape victims and the actual arrest and prosecution of these offenders, especially when the perpetrator is not a stranger to the victim. A feminist analysis of this criminal justice system failure to arrest and prosecute non-stranger rapists suggests that patriarchy, mass criminal justice professional ignorance of rape facts, research, and trends, and commonly believed “rape myths” are the main causes of the criminal justice system’s disappointing performance in arrests and prosecutions for this crime.

Author

• Carolyn Field, Edgewood College