This line of questioning in rape cases has a long and dubious history.
Why didn't she fight back? |
Why didn't she call the police? |
These are the questions that, for centuries, defense lawyers — and the public — have asked victims of sexual assault and rape. |
I've been attending the trial of Carroll v. Trump — in which E. Jean Carroll, a journalist and author, has accused the former president of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. This is a civil case (one of two, actually), so Trump doesn't face jail time. Instead, a jury of six men and three women will determine whether he is liable for causing Ms. Carroll bodily harm (using New York state's definition of battery) and defaming her by calling her a liar when she spoke about it. (Trump denied the charges.) |
The trial is in its second week, and there have been plenty of tense moments — but one that stuck out involved an extended back-and-forth about screaming. |
"I'm not a screamer," Ms. Carroll testified last week during her cross-examination, when asked by Mr. Trump's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, why she didn't cry out during the attack. "I was too much in a panic to scream. I was fighting." |
Mr. Tacopina dug in: "When you're fighting and being sexually assaulted and raped, because you are not a screamer, as you describe it, you wouldn't scream?" |
"You can't beat up on me for not screaming," Ms. Carroll replied. One of the reasons women don't come forward, she said, "is because they are always asked, 'Why didn't you scream?'" |
Today, we have ample evidence to show that not screaming during an assault is not uncommon — sometimes out of fear or because a victim may freeze. (Were one to want more explanation for why a victim might not scream, there is now a Twitter hashtag, #Ididntscream, full of people sharing their stories.) We also know that more than three quarters of victims don't report their sexual assaults to the police — in part because, in the rare instance a case goes to court (and even rarer instance that it leads to a conviction), they will probably have to endure being asked these very questions. |
Which is not to say that a person making a rape allegation should not have to answer questions about it. But we don't routinely ask victims of other violent crimes whether they screamed out — to the contrary, not screaming is considered a way to not further provoke an aggressor. So why, then, when it comes to victims of sexual violence, are these misperceptions about victim behavior so baked in? |
In an essay, I look at the history of these questions — dating back to the very first rape trial in U.S. history with a public record, in 1793 — and their fascinating persistence. We also compiled some of the more illogical questions asked of rape accusers in recent years. |
Carroll v. Trump is expected to continue all week. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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