Challenges faced by Sexual Abuse Survivors
The cases relating to sexual assault such as rape have been decriminalized in the society and this is attributed to a variety of reasons. Such reasons entail, the poor treatment of the survivors, the non-conviction of the different perpetrators and also the lenient sentencing of the individuals who commit such crimes in the community. According to recent statistics, it was found out that most of the victims of sexual assault have had an adverse experience of the criminal justice system. A bigger percentage of the sexual assault cases are never reported against the perpetrators and a study conducted indicated that over 70 percent of the victims fail to report some of the nasty experiences to the police (Venema, 2016). There are several reasons attributed to the non-reporting of such experiences.One of the reasons is fear among the victims. There is often the fear of being let down by the criminal justice system, of disbelief, of re-traumatisation and that of the unjustified blame. Most of the time, the criminal justice system tend to assume the nasty part of the minds of the sexual assault victims since such victims do not want to go through the different stages involved in providing justice.
The other challenge which a variety of sexual assault victims experience in relation to the criminal justice system occurs during the trials of the case. Often the cross-examination part of the trial tends to result in re-traumatisation (Smith, 2015). The victims also provide evidence by providing a testimony and this is typically the primary center of focus of attack by the defense team. The credibility and reliability of the evidence tabled by the victim can be undermined through accusations of fabrications and lies. Such a detailed questioning of the evidence of the particular victim could result in terror and powerlessness of the initial assault and such a situation is referred to as the secondary victimization. The secondary victimization can lead to negative consequences on the victims’ well-being and also mental health.
Also, in the courts during the trials, the victims of sexual assault are often compelled to provide details of the event which transpired and this has had psychological outcomes such as the post-traumatic stress disorder (Goody, 2017). The post-traumatic stress disorder entails certain features such as negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself, feelings of blame and also certain difficulties with the memory. The defenses in the court who act on behalf of the sexual assault perpetrators use such psychological outcomes of the sexual violence in undermining the claims provided by the victims and this makes it difficult to prosecute the criminal offenders.
The other reasons attributed to the fact that the sexual assault victims are often victimized by the criminal justice system is based on the first contact of the survivors and the police. A study which was conducted in the last two years indicated that the first encounter of the victims with the police was often bad and thus most of them became reluctant to look for more help in relation to the prosecution of the sexual assault perpetrators. Most of the police officers have been accused of treating the victims with a lot of sensitivity.
Fear among Victims
The criminal justice system also often victimize the victims twice and this is based on the type of treatment given to the survivors of sexual assault such that they are treated as liars based on the details they provide until proven in a court of law (Koss, 2018). Further, during the trials regarding the cases of sexual assault on the particular victims, the survivors undergo through a lot of breach of their privacy and this has deeply affected their self-esteem. The criminal justice system therefore only victimize the victims instead of helping them and hence no trust in the criminal justice system.
According to Stanko (2017), most of the victims of sexual assault have also said that they do not report such cases of sexual assault to the police because of the particular structure of the criminal justice system. Such a structural justice system makes the whole prosecution process lengthy which has made it difficult for the victims to endure. The criminal justice system also bullies the victims by the delays in handling such matters and therefore it is a let down to the sexual assault victims all over the world.
The reconceptualization of sexual abuse has been reflected in significant changes in the treatment of victims in a variety of ways. For example, there have been reforms which have been made in the criminal justice system with a lot of focus on the enhancing its effectiveness rather than making certain increases in the sensitivity of the variant needs of the victims (Day, 2016). Based on such reforms, the victims are now being given attention and hence listened to in order to establish their specific needs and also some of the changes the sexual assault victims should be made in the legal system.
Sexual abuse has been considered a serious matter which should not be taken for granted when a case relating to it has been reported to the criminal justice system. This is unlike in the past where such matters were taken lightly because a section of the victims was considered to be lying and thus providing false information. The sexual abuse has also been reconceptualised in the sense that the various victims of sexual abuse are being provided with both advocacy and psychological support (DeSorcy, Olver & Wormith, 2016). All the victims are now given a separate legal representation during the court trials thus raising their level of satisfaction with the whole process which leads in the prosecution of the particular perpetrators. Such an advocacy support, therefore, ensures that the key victims do not undergo negative treatment by the police. Additionally, they can easily access medical care after such a malicious ordeal of sexual abuse.
There are also certain organizations which have been formed by both the government and non-governmental organizations whose primary aim is to help the survivors of sexual abuse to get justice. Such an initiative was taken upon the realization that the current criminal justice system had no capacity to help convict the different suspects who had committed criminal offenses relating to sexual abuse (Messerschmidt & Tomsen, 2018).
Apart from the reforms being made, the sexual abuse has been reconceptualised such that certain systems have been introduced to aid in the prosecution of the perpetrators of sexual abuse. A key system is the establishment of an inquisitorial system which entails the investigation of the sexual abuse event including the key perpetrators of the crime (Pflugradt, Allen & Marshall, 2018). Such a system has helped in the determination of the truth about the event of sexual abuse which had transpired. The other system is referred to as the adversarial system which was established with the intention of attaining justice for the accused individual and not the particular victim (Schultz, 2018). The above system was developed since there are certain individuals who never the crime of sexual abuse but failed to receive justice and ends up being imprisoned for offenses they never committed.
Conclusion
In summary, sexual abuse victims are often victimized again by the Criminal Justice System and this is due to a number of reasons. Some of the reasons entail, the poor treatment of the survivors, the non-conviction of the different perpetrators and also the lenient sentencing of the individuals who commit such crimes in the community. Sexual abuse has also been reconceptualised such that certain reforms have been made including the establishment of a certain system to aid in the provision of justice.
References
Day, D. (2016). Program Analysis of an Adult Sex Offender (ASO) Treatment Group.
DeSorcy, D. R., Olver, M. E., & Wormith, J. S. (2016). Working alliance and its relationship with treatment outcome in a sample of aboriginal and non-aboriginal sexual offenders. Sexual Abuse, 28(4), 291-313.
Goody, J. (2017). Boys don’t cry: Masculinities, fear of crime and fearlessness. In The Fear of Crime (pp. 59-76). Routledge.
Koss, M. P. (2018). Hidden rape: Sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of students in higher education. In Rape and society (pp. 35-49). Routledge.
Messerschmidt, J. W., & Tomsen, S. (2018). Masculinities and crime. In Routledge Handbook of Critical Criminology (pp. 83-95). Routledge.
Pflugradt, D. M., Allen, B. P., & Marshall, W. L. (2018). A gendered strength-based treatment model for female sexual offenders. Aggression and Violent Behavior.
Schultz, V. (2018). Reconceptualizing Sexual Harassment, Again.
Smith, A. (2015). Conquest: sexual violence and American Indian genocide. Duke University Press.
Stanko, S. (2017). Assault on men: Masculinity and male victimization. In Crime, Criminal Justice and Masculinities (pp. 133-148). Routledge.
Venema, R. M. (2016). Police officer schema of sexual assault reports: Real rape, ambiguous cases, and false reports. Journal of interpersonal violence, 31(5), 872-899.
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