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Sexual Coercion and the Law  


Author:  Richard B.  Felson, Ph.D..


Source: Volume 03, Number 04, June/July 2002 , pp.49-54(6)




Sex Offender Law Report

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Abstract: 

A feminist approach suggests that rape tends to go unpunished because it is not reported to the police and because when it is, the legal system treats offenders leniently. (See, e.g., Allison & Wrightsman, 1993; Belknap, 2001; Searles & Berger, 1995.) Police, prosecutors, judges, and jurors are overly skeptical of testimony from women who claim they have been raped, according to this approach, and they tend to blame the women, not the offenders, for the crime. The police are reluctant to arrest, prosecutors are reluctant to prosecute, and juries and judges are reluctant to convict. The experience of rape victims with the criminal justice system is assumed to be so negative that it is sometimes described as a second victimization. (Allison & Wrightsman, 1993.)

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Affiliations:  1: Pennsylvania State University.

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