Delivery date
INTRODUCTION
Over the year’s rape victims have faced possible and serious, uncertain outcomes of their cases. This uncertainty arises from the fact that the victims are not believed mostly where women and girls are the victims. The reason being that underage girls are not taken seriously in the society and what they do or say does not count. For the older women, many passes them never to be victims of rape cases since it is assumed that just because they are old nobody would be interested in them.
Reforms have been introduced to the police forces to cater for such scenarios and ensure rapist don’t walk away scot free. These reforms included believing rape victims at first instance, unless proved otherwise by tangible evidence or reason. All rape cases should be treated like any other police case that follows the due process of investigation without bias. On the other hand, the reforms have provided that rape suspects were treated with anonymity until charged to safeguard their names. All this reform are in an effort to reduce the alarming rates of sexual crimes happening and ensuring the majority of rapist are convicted as well.
BODY
Rape cases are one of those difficult situations where proof has been misplaced. When rape victims go to the police to report their cases, they are asked to provide evidence that they were raped. They are also required to provide proof that the person they are accusing is the one that raped them, such situations are tough. The rape victims soon after the rape are usually traumatized, they thus do not have the capability to provide all the proof that is required of them to get proper assistance. When they go to the hospital for treatment other than to the police to report the incident first, the doctors send them to the police station to report the cases first and be treated later. Most do not like recalling all the bad things that happened, and they tend not to report or seek any help.
In an article by Joan Smith on the Guardian titled “Rape victims have a right to be believed by the police” She explains a lot about misplacing the burden of proof in association with rape victims (Smith, 2016). According to the article, most of the police do not believe the rape victims who come to them trying to seek help for the violation committed against them. Rather, they also doubt their validity in asking the victims to prove that they were raped. At times, they even lay the burden of proving that the person they reported is the actual person that raped them. In cases of rape, the police should arrest the accused first and then concentrate on letting him prove his innocence other that placing the burden on the victims who are usually traumatized (Smith, 2016).
One of the many reasons why police do not believe the victims, as per the article, is the way they structure the responses or the manner in which they explain what happened to them. Most of them have difficulty in recalling the incidence. It is mainly because they are traumatized and thus do not want to recall the details of what happened to them. If anything, they always want to forget and thus, the police asking them to recall and describe the whole act becomes a tough situation for them. Another reason is the fact that most rape victims do not give a chronological account of the incident. Police are trained in such a way they the cases reported should be detailed and give a clear timeframe. No gaps or time should be unaccounted for from the time the crime began to the time it ended. Rape victims are sometimes blindfolded, masked, or even drugged with some medication such that they do not realize what happens till it is too late. They, therefore, cannot give an account of everything that happened as they have difficulties recalling it.
In accordance to a survey which was published and conducted by the National Center for Prosecution of Violence Against Women, only two to eight percent of reported cases of rape are false (Lonsway, 2009) making it a large number of cases which are not reported. Most victims prefer to stay quiet other than report the incident to the police. The main reason is that, in the police station, they often feel like they are treated as suspects other than victims. Other cops may try to tell them that it is their fault that they were raped. They tend to blame the victims indicating that had they not made the choices they made; they would not have been raped.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, misplacing the burden of proof affects most of the rape victims. It is a threat to validity. Rape victims have to prove that they were assaulted. They have to recall the whole situation again and sometimes they must give a full account so that they can receive help. This should not be the case as they should first receive help. The burden of proving innocence or guilt should also not be placed on the victim. Rather, the accused should be brought in and asked to prove their innocence for the crime they are accused of having committed. It should also apply to many other cases. People who are accused should be the ones to prove their innocence other than the accusers being told to prove their guilt.
References
Smith, J. (2016). Rape victims have a right to be believed by the police | Joan Smith. the Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/11/raoe-victims-police-bernard-hogan-howed
Lonsway, D. (2009). False reports-National attorneys association (3rd ed.). Retrieved from http://www.ndaa.org/pdf/the_voice_vol_3_no_1_2009.pdf
