Law Enforcement Victims Of Rape

ABSTRACT

Rape , a word for sexual assault—which is a horrifying crime most often done by a man to a woman force to have sex, is a constant crime in the United States . Law enforcement in the U.S needs to take rape victims stories more seriously , and they need to prosecute rape cases more effectively. The law has in some ways no importance in rape cases in which they believe takes too much time to look into or like they say they usually are a “ waste of time “ . ADD POINTS 3-4

INTRO AND THESIS :

Have you ever wondered why law enforcement do not take some rape causes to trail? or even more why they don't put their time in it to help the victim and for them to get the justice they need ? Nor why they always blame the victim and
say it's their fault whether if they have enough evidence to blame the person that has done the crime ? OR how race comes into place as well when rape cases are reported ? It’s crazy to think that the ones that are suppose to help us when things go wrong don't or we are in danger , they don't help us the victim in rape cases but help the defendant more . Law enforcement in the U.S needs to take rape victims stories more seriously , and they need to prosecute rape cases more effectively. For example in one of the cases in a college where a student named “ Brock Allen Turner “ was found guilty of three counts of sexual assaults , but was shown leniency and only sentenced to six-months in county jail and probation . In this rape case the victim felt like she had no power , no voice , and felt defenseless all because they had her memory loss against her . This is one of many cases , that shows that law enforcement are in a way more in favor of the defendant , than the victim . Many people believe that it's up to us women to change the legal systems and how women should keep reporting their rape reports but little do people know some rape cases do not go to trial or even process to be investigated .

METHOD

To answer the questions I had while writing about how law enforcement do not help victims of rape and how they deal with these type of crimes , I decided to use articles from magazines along with a professor in the law enforcement , explaining what he has seen being in theses types of situations right along with a TED Talk .
I read Chemaly Soraya’s article , written on August 16 , 2016 , "How Police Still Fail Rape Victims , to understand how policemen abuse their power . Then I read Hess, Amanda. "What Cops Are Really Thinking When a Woman Claims She Was Raped." Slate Magazine , 18 Nov. 2014 , for me to understand what policemen actually think when rapes get reported. Then I moved to watching Ladd, Jessica. "The Reporting System That Sexual Assault Survivors Want." to understand what sexual assault victims actually want from the law enforcement. Within all this reading I began to develop some wonder in what if the rapist was a “ cop “ that’s when I come to Mayton, Joseph. "When a Cop Is the Rapist." The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast Company, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2017 , speaks upon how there as been cases where policeman take advantage of their power and for exchange to not giving a woman a ticket they ask for sex and in this they take it as rape because the woman by not want to do it and they refuse but they get forced . Mayton also explains how these rapes don’t get reported after 3 weeks of the rape and not incident
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Rubenfeld, Jed. "Mishandling Rape." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2014. Web. 05 Mar. 2017. Rubenfeld brings up college cases as in a example how the department of justice had found that 10 in undergraduate women have been rape in a college campus. The reason behind this is because the low rates of arrest and convictions , the lack of confidentiality because of the fear of not getting believed

"Victims of Rape and Sexual Assault, Failed by Criminal Justice System, Increasingly Seek Civil Remedies." Rewire. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2017.

Mar. 2014. Web. 09 Mar. 2017. Sofia talks and explains how victims of sexual assault don’t get their justice because of the broken system . Sofia explains how the reasons why rape cases don’t go into trial which is because lackluster police investigations, lack of forensic evidence, a victim’s unwillingness to testify.

DISCUSSION

POINT #1

Before even engaging myself in law enforcement and how they dealt with rape cases , I've always heard some people say / etc we all have heard these things when it comes to victims that have gotten rape. I wanted to personally get into this issue and educate myself more to see how I can help others understand what actually goes on , in the justice system when rape cases come across them . Even to how policemen can be part of this “ rape culture “ that we face in our countries .

POINT 1 : “ Don’t Take Rape Cases Serious “

Most of us are familiar with rape cases and how they don’t always make it to trial or even viewed within the police department. We may sit there and ask ourselves why aren't these cases ever viewed or taken more serious to know that rape is a actual crime and not just something that happens to happen . In fact half of rapes committed in the U.S are reported but never lead to arrest , the law enforcement has a limited departmental resources, and more to the fact officers’ own assumptions about who constitutes a “real” victim always plays a big part in why the law enforcement does not take these rapes cases into further investigation. We aren't aware of what police officers believe or think when rape reports are reported to them and if these jeopardizes the cases of rape more to be able to more forward into investigation and or trail . Have you ever wondered what they thought about when rape cases are called in ? , got to decide as a department how much resources we want to put into this , well Amanda Huss ( 2014 ) she answers our question in which she interviews , cops about rape reports one cop stated “What’s the chances of this one being true, you know?” , “definitely over a third, probably approaching … 40 or 45 percent” of sexual assault reports the officer fielded were either “outright recanted by the victim” or else raised “serious questions of the veracity”, in which I believe why were they outrighted about rape cases rather they believe that one 40-45% of rapes cases that are reported arent truth HOW DO THEY KNOW THIS ? is what I’m sure everyone asks . Another cops stated , “Everybody’s gonna be different,” one officer said, and not “everybody’s gonna be distraught,” but if a woman reports a rape and is “very matter of fact about it,” she seems less credible. Incidents in which a victim has been drinking “are darn near impossible” to pursue , in those cases, “You know the bad guy’s getting away with it.” If they know this why not stop it ? and look more into the case instead of not , this shows how law enforcement lacks in this type of crime and they don’t really put as much care in it . For this reason Amanda Huss (2014) , goes more into what else do cops believe a rape is a actual rape? A different cop stated , “ a women who reports to the police without obvious signs of injury—“their clothing is ripped or bite marks, scratches”—are out of luck. Without signs of physical violence, “you gotta think about the burden of proof we have which is beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s not gonna be there,” “If there is no physical evidence and you said you got raped, did you get raped? … No.”. In other words if you have no signs of “ physical violence “ you didn't get raped and you’re making it up . From here on , its real upsetting how we are believed that law enforcement is suppssed to help us and give us the justice we deserve when this happens but they don’t believe that some rape causes are believable.

POINT #2: Blame the victim and Dont give them less time then more time in Jail .

Victims of rape , don’t report their cases and deal with the mental and emotional effects of this crime because they get blamed for something they did not want to happen to them or even more they were under the influence of alcohol and weren’t aware of what was happening to them. The law enforcement fails rape victims in which some officers say your really going to ruin his life without caring about the victims situation. In one case that had went public was the “Stanford rape “ in such where Brock Allen Turner was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault and was still shown leniency and was only sentenced six months in country jail and probation. Allens victim had to confront him in court and reada statement to him and the jury . Turners victim addressed him directly and told him “ you don't know me but you've been inside of me , and that's why we’re here today “ she started off then she explained everything that happened to her the night of January 17,2015, she explained how she woke up at a hospital and felt like everything inside of her was silenced . Allensvictim did not know what hadhappen to her until she was scrolling through her phone and came across an articleabout her and how she was found unconscious, butt naked downto her boots legs spreadapart and that's when she learned what happened to her, she also states how I had no power , I had no voice , Iwas defenseless. My memory loss would beagainstme . My testimony was weak , was incomplete