California Sexual Assault Case Study

Sexual Assault in California’s Legal System

The state of California operates under a retributive justice system. All crimes that are brought to the system are assigned a quantitative value, and then a punishment is decided on. In the case of sexual assault or rape, typically a team of police, lawyers, and courts will assign a monetary value or length of imprisonment to a crime and then enforce the punishment. The victim is largely separate from the process—and non-quantifiable aspects of the crime like emotions or needs are scarcely, if ever, mentioned in court. The established legal system of California does not meet the needs of victims of sexual assault both by its design and implementation. I will explain why this is the case and suggest

The old definition stated that rape was “the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” The new definition of rape (which went into effect January 1, 2013) is a three-part statement that includes offenses such as the ones names above, date rape, spousal rape, and rape of males. I will describe the old definition of rape, and the mindset and cultural stereotypes that accompany it as “traditional”. In this “traditional rape” stereotype, the victim is typically a woman, typically attacked by a male who is a stranger to her. This situation leaves very little room for victim blaming. This situation also occurs much less often than what I will describe as “realistic” sexual assault. “Realistic” cases are those that involve some sort of altered consciousness (recreational drugs, alcohol, or date rape drugs), a perpetrator known to the victim, a sleeping, passed out, or unconscious victim, etc. I call these cases realistic because they are the bulk of rape cases. In fact, the National Institute of Justice states on its website that ninety percent of college rapes are carried by an attacker known to the victim. Californian society and legislature chooses to acknowledge only the traditional breed of sex crimes—crimes that fall into the realistic category are largely bypassed both by media and in courts. Traditional rape (and society’s view of it) perpetuates an archaic, disempowering stereotype of victims—in short, it doesn’t allow for victim blaming because a woman was fulfilling the traditionally feminine “damsel-in-distress” role. With “realistic” rape cases, a victim (not necessarily female) may have been partaking in an activity not considered demure or feminine: partying, drinking, or taking drugs. Societal gender stereotypes of what is acceptable behavior for victims come into play. This can be true even for sexual assault cases that do