Introduction and Overview

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Matthew Barry Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Acquaintance Rape ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Child Sexual Assault ◽  
Criminal Offenses

The Introduction and Overview provides an overview of the chapters and the approach in examining wrongful conviction in sexual assault. It identifies both rape and wrongful conviction as damaging and traumatic outcomes. Drawing from a public health perspective, it presents a link between rape and wrongful conviction illustrated by disaggregating wrongful conviction in stranger rape, from acquaintance rape, and intrafamilial child sexual assault, thus highlighting the concentration of wrongful convictions among stranger rapes. The Introduction and Overview also discusses the frequency of wrongful conviction and points out the significance of classifying sexual assaults together rather than relying on the prosecution approach of classifying criminal offenses by the highest charge, which obscures the relation of sexual assault to wrongful conviction.

Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault: Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, and Intra-Familial Child Sexual Assaults

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 708-712
Author(s):  
Marina Sorochinski
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Acquaintance Rape ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Unique Combination ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
Sexual Crime ◽  
Crime Investigation

This article reviews the recently published book by M. B. Johnson— Wrongful conviction in sexual assault: Stranger rape, acquaintance rape, and intra-familial child sexual assaults. The focus of the book is on the unique combination of factors specifically within sexual crime investigation and legislation that lead to the overrepresentation of this type of crimes within wrongful convictions. The book presents a detailed analysis of social context, and historical backdrop specific to wrongful convictions in sexual crimes. It is a highly informative and well-written book.

scholarly journals The Consequences of Child Sexual Assault

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arif Rohman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Child Sexual Assault ◽  
Physical Injuries ◽  
Patriarchal Culture

<p><i>The understanding of the origin and nature of child sexual assault and its</i><i> </i><i>consequences is urgent. It benefits to child victims and helping institutions</i><i> </i><i>and the professionals who working in it. This </i><i>article</i><i> shows that child sexual</i><i> </i><i>assault basically was the product of patriarchal culture and sexist society</i><i> </i><i>which tend to marginalise the women and children’s position, by creating</i><i> </i><i>some myths to legitimise male sexual violence. The occurrence of child</i><i> </i><i>sexual assaults has many consequences on children including physical and</i><i> </i><i>mental health. Another consequence is they may have to involve</i><i> </i><i>themselves in a prosecution process. Therefore, it is very important to</i><i> </i><i>understand the victim’s problem. Understanding and giving sympathy to</i><i> </i><i>them during the making of reports to the police, during recovery from</i><i> </i><i>physical injuries and trauma, and during a prosecution process can help</i><i> </i><i>them to reach integration level and stability. The good coordination and</i><i> </i><i>collaboration between agencies and professionals can lead to the friendly</i><i> </i><i>services to the victims. Furthermore, children will not alone facing their</i><i> </i><i>problem during the recovery.</i><i></i></p>

Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Barry Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
National Registry ◽  
Acquaintance Rape ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Dna Evidence ◽  
Sexual Offenses ◽  
Investigation Methods

Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault: Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, and Intra-Familial Child Sexual Assaults examines the phenomenon of innocent defendants who are convicted of rape and related sexual offenses. It presents findings that indicate sexual offenses are highly overrepresented among confirmed wrongful convictions. Drawing from Innocence Project and National Registry of Exoneration data and supplemented by social science and historical sources, the investigation explores various processes that led to wrongful conviction, distinguishing the differential risk of wrongful conviction among stranger rape, acquaintance rape, and intra-familial child sexual assault. The book includes reference to established research on false confessions, eyewitness misidentification, erroneous expert and informant testimony, DNA evidence, racial bias, and “manufactured” evidence. The work also introduces new terms and concepts (such as “black box” investigation methods, the stranger rape thesis, the moral outrage–moral correction process, “spontaneous misidentification,” victim status paths, the differential investigation challenge related to capable vs. incapacitated rape victims, and the role of serial sexual offending in wrongful conviction) to clarify and illustrate unique aspects of wrongful conviction in sexual assault.

scholarly journals The gendered embodiment of shame: Intersections of acquaintance rape, trauma and self-blame in Pompidou posse by Sarah Lotz

Literator ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Murray
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Acquaintance Rape ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Self Blame ◽  
Sexually Assaulted ◽  
Social Messages

This article offers a feminist literary analysis of the gendered embodiment of shame in Pompidou posse by Sarah Lotz. In this novel, Lotz depicts female characters who are sexually assaulted by acquaintances and the resultant shame and trauma reside in their bodies. I will demonstrate that the embodied shame of these characters is distinctly gendered and that this shapes their attempts to cope with the aftermath of the sexual assaults. A close reading of the text reveals that the characters are exposed to overwhelming social messages of female culpability in a larger context that is rife with misogyny. As a result, they anticipate blame to such an extent that they blame themselves and internalise this blame as shame. By focusing on the bodies of the survivors, Lotz demonstrates the embodiment of shame, but she also suggests a corporeal challenge to silencing. The bodies of these characters speak loudly, albeit sometimes in the halting language of trauma, and they function to alert them to danger, to help them excavate memories that are made inaccessible and to testify to traumatic sexual assault.

The Social Roots of Sexual Violence

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-73
Author(s):  
Kelsey J. Drotning
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Public Health Perspective ◽  
Campus Sexual Assault ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Landmark Study ◽  
Ecological Public Health

In their book, Sexual Citizens: A Landmark Study of Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus, Jennifer S. Hirsch and Shamus Khan seek to understand why campus sexual assault happens and what can be done to prevent it in the future by identifying its social roots. The book approaches sexual assault from an ecological public health perspective, but I think at its core, I think it is also an argument for dismantling power disparities within institutions.

Rape and Wrongful Conviction

2020 ◽  
pp. 19-56
Author(s):  
Matthew Barry Johnson
Keyword(s):  
National Registry ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Acquaintance Rape ◽  
Moral Outrage ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Victim Status ◽  
Investigation Methods ◽  
Innocence Project

This chapter focuses on the concentration of rape cases among confirmed wrongful convictions. How stranger rape differs from date and acquaintance rape with regard to the risk of wrongful conviction is presented. Innocence Project and National Registry of Exonerations data are examined as well as case illustrations. The chapter examines the pressures on law enforcement authorities and the role of primary evidence, secondary evidence, black box investigation methods, the continuum of intentionality, and victim status in stranger rape. In addition, a stranger rape thesis is presented to distinguish the unique challenges faced in the investigation of “stranger rape. The moral outrage associated with stranger rape produces a great demand on police for arrests and convictions yet reliable identification of the perpetrator is compromised in stranger rape.

Serial Rapists and Wrongful Conviction

2020 ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Matthew Barry Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Wrongful Conviction ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
Offender Profiling ◽  
Scene Investigation ◽  
The Law ◽  
Serial Rapists

This chapter describes a common pattern where innocent defendants are tried and convicted of crimes committed by serial rapists. These cases account for a significant portion not only of the wrongful convictions in sexual assaults, but also of all confirmed wrongful convictions. The chapter presents 67 defendants wrongfully convicted with this set of case facts. This chapter identifies the difficulty encountered by law enforcement in the investigation of “stranger rapes” despite the expanding literature on crime scene investigation and offender profiling. This chapter also highlights the law enforcement focus on ruling out false rape charges, while less attention is paid to the matter of unreliable identification.

scholarly journals The Consequences of Child Sexual Assault

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arif Rohman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Sexual Assaults ◽  
Child Sexual Assault ◽  
Physical Injuries ◽  
Patriarchal Culture

<p><i>The understanding of the origin and nature of child sexual assault and its</i><i> </i><i>consequences is urgent. It benefits to child victims and helping institutions</i><i> </i><i>and the professionals who working in it. This </i><i>article</i><i> shows that child sexual</i><i> </i><i>assault basically was the product of patriarchal culture and sexist society</i><i> </i><i>which tend to marginalise the women and children’s position, by creating</i><i> </i><i>some myths to legitimise male sexual violence. The occurrence of child</i><i> </i><i>sexual assaults has many consequences on children including physical and</i><i> </i><i>mental health. Another consequence is they may have to involve</i><i> </i><i>themselves in a prosecution process. Therefore, it is very important to</i><i> </i><i>understand the victim’s problem. Understanding and giving sympathy to</i><i> </i><i>them during the making of reports to the police, during recovery from</i><i> </i><i>physical injuries and trauma, and during a prosecution process can help</i><i> </i><i>them to reach integration level and stability. The good coordination and</i><i> </i><i>collaboration between agencies and professionals can lead to the friendly</i><i> </i><i>services to the victims. Furthermore, children will not alone facing their</i><i> </i><i>problem during the recovery.</i><i></i></p>

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