CJ System

Just to clarify my argument in class today, I'm saying that it is not fair to blame the criminal justice system for a lack of prosecutions pertaining to rape. The system is not flawless I know but it is set up in a way that demands evidence or at least witnesses for prosecution. If it wasn't, anyone could accuse anyone of anything! I'm not comparing rape to a smashed windsheild either. I'm simply saying that a crime is a crime and they are all processed in a similar manner. If someone were to walk into the police station and say I was just mugged the police officer would say what was stolen? Do you know who the perpetrator was? What did he look like? Well if the victim does not have answers to these questions, then what are the police to do? Yeah sure they'll look into it briefly but there are plenty of other cases that have better leads that need to be followed. Unfortunately our system is one of priorities and cases with little or no evidence are pushed to the bottom. It's not fair to say that rape is treated this way as a result of no one believing women. If you looked at how far other crimes are pursued, you would see a similar pattern. It's unfortunate that these crimes do not usually yield much physical evidence and that victims are not so forthcoming but to blame the system for this is not right. Say this is a male on female rape. Why is the male any less credible than the female? If there is no evidence to point either way, how can anyone make that decision? They can't. For if they did, they would have to keep it consistent, so it's either always believe the alleged victim or never believe the alleged victim (in the absence of evidence that is). The fact that some women (albeit it not many) make false accusations, prevents the system from exclusively believing the victim. It does not matter if it is 5% or 45%, if people make false accusations, it diminishes everyone's credibility. Again, this is unfortunate but a fact of our system. I as well as anyone will advocate for change in our system, I recognize the mistakes and the unfairness of it but the fundamental principles are not in place to target any one particular gender. They are in place to ensure justice in the most efficient way possible. We have due process as the fundamental principle in order to give everyone a chance in our system but we cannot go around prosecuting people on the basis of hearsay! The Sandusky case is a rare example and we all know that the media played as much of a role in this case as anything. By blaming the system, women are buying into the rape culture. We read about "the blame game" well isn't that what we're doing if we blame the criminal justice system?? How about we look at the real issue..people who commit rape. If we can change the cultural view of rape and deter people from committing it, the criminal justice system will follow. For now we can educate women (and everyone for that matter) on what to do in the case of an assault and hopefully this will lead to more prosecutions and sebsequently, more justice.