Prosecuting Rape

We had a difficult discussion in class on Thursday about rape. It started out pretty tame, everyone discussing what a rape culture is and how women feel threatened by strange men etc, with everyone agreeing for the most part. However, the discussion really got tense when Lydia brought up the fact that women cannot just blame the system for the fact that rape cases are hard to investigate. The tenor of the conversation was very accusatory, with one side defending the legal system for doing all they can on lack of evidence and the other side saying that women who have been raped cannot be expected to act in a purely rational manner of preserving evidence, since the experience is so traumatic. We did not have the chance to discuss the matter in depth, but it brought up a very legitimate point; rape cannot be compared to other crimes in terms of prosecution. Rather than arguing over whether to tell women that they have to preserve evidence of rape, the question we must ask is how can we work to make the legal system more effective in prosecuting cases of rape when the reality of the crime is so different from other crimes. We cannot expect women to run to the police as their first reaction to a rape; this is simply unrealistic and shows a naive understanding of the psychological trauma for a rape victim. But it is impossible for judges to convict without any evidence, and I don't believe that we should move to have supposed rapists be convicted from the testimony of just one person. In order to effectively rape we really must work to eliminate rape culture, to educate women about the realities of rape and sexual violence, and make it easy for women to seek help if they are victims of rape.