Rape and the Legal Process

Temkin, Jennifer

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198763550.001.0001

Cited by 142 publications

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“…Across the Western world, conviction rates for rape and sexual assault are extremely low relative to victimisation rates and low in terms of the number of rapes recorded by the police (Temkin, 2002). Whilst many countries have noted considerable increases in rapes reported to the police over the last two decades, this development is not matched by corresponding increases in the number of cases in which charges are brought against a suspect and in which a conviction results (Kelly, Lovett, & Regan, 2005).…”

Section: Prospective Lawyers' Rape Stereotypes and Schematic Decisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Krahé

Temkin

Bieneck

et al. 2008

Psychology, Crime & Law

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Germany. In Study 1, 451 undergraduate law students rated rape scenarios varying with respect to defendant-complainant relationship and coercive strategy (force versus exploitation of the complainant's alcohol-induced defenselessness). Acceptance of rape myths was also measured. Permanent repository linkLikelihood of defendant liability was rated to be lower when there was a prior relationship between the parties and when the defendant exploited the complainant's defenselessness as compared to when he used force (except in the ex-partner rapes where blame was higher in the alcohol-related than in the force-related cases). Complainant blame was higher when there was a prior relationship between the parties and was higher in the alcohol-related cases than in the force-related cases, except in the ex-partner rape where the pattern was reversed. Participants with high rape myth acceptance held the defendant less liable and blamed the complainant more, especially when the two had known each other. Study 2 largely replicated these findings with 129 postgraduate trainee lawyers and showed that sentencing recommendations also varied as a function of defendant-complainant relationship and coercive strategy. Providing participants with the legal definition of rape did not reduce reliance on rape-stereotypes. there is a consensus among practitioners and researchers that stereotypical conceptions of rape shared by the public and members of the criminal justice system play an important role in this problem (Temkin & Krahé, 2008). These include the belief that women often precipitate rape through their own behavior or appearance and that accusations of rape made against a former sexual partner are likely to be fabricated (see Temkin & Krahé, 2008, Chapter 2, for a review).Despite the fact that legal decision-making is normatively defined as data-driven, i.e.relying exclusively on the facts and the evidence, there is plenty of scope for schematic conceptions about rape rooted in rape myths to infiltrate. In common law systems, a familiar strategy adopted by the defence at trial is to seek to undermine the complainant's credibility in the eyes of the jury by casting doubt on her truthfulness and reputation, e.g., by questions about Prospective Lawyers' Rape Stereotypes 4 her lifestyle and sexual conduct. This strategy is rooted in widely shared beliefs that "real rape"is an attack by a stranger on an unsuspecting victim who is overcome by force (Stewart, Dobbin, & Gatowski, 1996), and also in gender stereotypes delineating what is fit and proper behavior for women (Krahé, 1988). If such stereotypic beliefs are endorsed by legal professionals, this may assist in undermining the position of the victim in the criminal justice system and may be a causal factor underlying the high attrition rates in rape cases (Brown, Hamilton, & O'Neill, 2007). Lawyers' rape-related stereotypes also matter in countries that do n...

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Section: Prospective Lawyers' Rape Stereotypes and Schematic Decisionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Krahé

Temkin

Bieneck

et al. 2008

Psychology, Crime & Law

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The process of judging one person's word against another in a rape trial in actuality often means weighing up one person's reputation against another (Lees, 1996: 130), and as part of this process, female rape victims' previous sexual histories have frequently been used to discredit them (see for example Lees, 1996;Stevenson, 2000;Larcombe, 2002;Temkin, 2002aTemkin, , 2002bKelly, Temkin and Griffiths, 2006).…”

Section: Rape Femininity and Social Class: Issues Of Respectability mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rape and Respectability: Ideas about Sexual Violence and Social Class

Phipps

2009

Sociology

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Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. The classed division between the sexual and the feminine, drawn via the notion of respectability, is applied to these issues. This piece is intended to catalyse further research and debate, and raises a number of questions for future work on sexual violence and social class.

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“…In contemporary Nordic legislation, force and exploitation are generally the decisive criteria in the provisions concerning rape. This is in contrast to British law, for example, which focuses on the victim's will, or lack of consent (Andersson, 2001;Temkin, 2002). Thus, the elements of force or exploitation set the legal boundaries of these offences.…”

Section: The Legal Fieldmentioning

confidence: 93%

Vulnerability, Agency and the Ambivalence of Place in Narratives of Rape in Three High-Profile Swedish Cases

Andersson

Edgren

2018

NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research

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a faculty of law, lund university, lund, sweden; b faculty of culture and society, malmö university, malmö, sweden ABSTRACT For decades, the media have frequently been instrumental in framing rape cases by linking the deed with the place. This study demonstrates that law courts are not innocent of such social framing; on the contrary, they are significant agents. We argue that courts, by shaping the plot in rape cases, participate in an ongoing cultural production of meaning, although in a more subtle and ambivalent way than the media. In a narrative analysis of three contemporary rape cases in Sweden, we bring together feminist research on place with the concepts of vulnerability and agency. We argue that place is framed as ambivalent in relation to vulnerability and agency, and dependent on the positioning of plaintiff and defendant. In court narratives, geographical places are made relevant, including the locations where the alleged rapes took place. Court narratives of rape include highly ambivalent connotations with place in relation to vulnerability and agency, distinguished by different narratives and outcomes in the various instances. The legal and social implications of our work should include an awareness of the relevance of place in relation to rape.

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Rape and the Legal Process

Cited by 142 publications

References 0 publications

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Prospective lawyers’ rape stereotypes and schematic decision making about rape cases

Rape and Respectability: Ideas about Sexual Violence and Social Class

Vulnerability, Agency and the Ambivalence of Place in Narratives of Rape in Three High-Profile Swedish Cases

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