Word: raped
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
What to do about these attacks of violence? Spurred by police statistics and women's rights groups, some state legislatures are now rewriting their rape laws. To convict a rapist, most states require evidence to support the victim's claim: cuts, bruises or torn clothing, a medical report stating physical penetration and sometimes even an eyewitness who can identify the assailant. Believing that such rules were making it too tough to get convictions, Connecticut and New York recently repealed them...
Women's groups generally applaud the change, but in a new book, The Charge Is Rape, Journalist Gerald Astor warns that repeal of corroboration laws may not help. "The law can say what it pleases the legislators to have it say, but the jury will decide whom to believe...
Some legal experts believe that lightening the sentence for rape will help increase the conviction rate. They say that a jury is much less likely to avoid convictions if the penalty is only a few years than if there is a possible sentence of death or life imprisonment.* Yet in some states the laws have been too soft; women in Indiana have pushed through a bill prohibiting suspended sentences for convicted rapists...
...rape victim with a reputation for promiscuity has often had a difficult tune in court. Iowa and California have recently passed laws barring defense lawyers from making courtroom inquiries into a woman's past sexual conduct, and in Florida such questions must first be screened in the judge's chambers. The principle, insisted upon by the rape task force of the National Organization for Women: a victim's activities with men other than the accused are irrelevant. "Previously," explains Ralph Brown, a lawyer and member of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women, "a lawyer could...
...making special efforts to deter rapists and to help their victims. The Los Angeles police department helped produce a widely distributed film, Lady Beware, that shows where rapists may lurk and teaches that women in danger should scream. In Washington, D.C., the police department has put out pamphlets for rape victims urging them to bring sex offenders to court. In New York City, St. Louis, Albuquerque and Chicago, special police rape squads brief victims on what to expect during medical examinations and how to file charges...