Victim Credibility on Trial: The “Perfect Victim” Stereotype in Cases of Sexual Assault

• In Event: Investigating Sexual Predators and Domestic Partner Violence

Abstract

This paper argues that Canadian criminal courts will often only produce a guilty verdict in sexual assault trials when the complainant strictly adheres to the image of the “perfect victim.” This image reduces the complexity of sexual assault into a simple collection of rape myths and stereotypical assumptions about “women and consent, including … communication, dress ... lack of resistance and delayed disclosure” (Tanovich, 2014). A primary focus is on the long-standing practice of “whacking,” the main tactic used by defence lawyers, which uses these sexist assumptions to put the victim on trial instead of the accused. Baer (2008) asserts that the North American justice system is a fundamentally masculine institution; various studies (Tang 2000, Willis 1992) have found that all players in the legal field, from juries to judges, possess these deep-rooted gendered stereotypes which condone whacking. This combined creates a hostile system wherein sexual assault survivors are forced to withstand revictimization as they attempt to maintain this perfect victim stereotype. This paper is an inquiry into why conviction rates are so low, despite the 1 in 4 rate of sexual assault in North America, using a feminist lens to assess the harm of the “perfect victim” stereotype.

Author

• Evangeline Kroon, University of Guelph