How come sexual assault is one of hardest crime to prosecute vs every other crime?
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#1 and primarily– a lack of consent is difficult to prove. It’s easy to define, but defining it isn’t the matter here– it’s proving that it happened. Sexual activity can be proved, but the matter of consent is almost always one person’s words against another. Most crimes have a tendency to leave behind some kind of evidence, but many forms of sexual assault do not.
Beyond that, there are more factors. In no particular order:
-Unfortunately, it’s very easy to falsely accuse people of this crime, and it does happen often enough to be noted. It’s difficult to falsely accuse someone of beating you up, because law enforcement would expect to see evidence of physical assault. But it’s easy to accuse someone of sexual assault, especially if you actually did have sexual contact, because a complete lack of evidence is normal. So even though most accusations are probably true, there are enough false ones that the judicial system has to take seriously the possibility that the accusations are made up. Especially because of the consequences.
-It’s related to the evidence concern, but in a lot of cases it’s difficult for the victim to realize that they are the victim of the crime. Or to accept that truth. Many victims were too young to understand, or maybe intoxicated/drugged and don’t clearly remember what actually happened, or maybe there are circumstances that make the victim feel like it was a gray area (which it usually isn’t). So beyond the more obvious bravery required to come forward, sometimes victims don’t feel that it’s cut and dried. Also, the reputation for difficulty prosecuting makes itself even worse, as the victim may understand that it’s not likely to even be prosecuted if they don’t have evidence. They may feel like it’s a waste of their time.
-In the case of children, in some cases, it’s (arguably) better for the child to not draw excess attention to the incident. Especially with younger children who don’t fully understand the depth of what happened to them. Forcing them into the legal process and forcing them to bathe in the event may result in a bigger scar. This puts law enforcement, the judicial system, and psychologists at odds with each other– each has their own admirable goal and they are not always in sync. Is it objectively better to risk making a child’s trauma worse in order to prevent the possibility of others’ trauma? A difficult question to answer. If a plea deal can be had, it’s often the best compromise possible between everyone’s proper goals, which is one reason why sexual assault cases often plea way way down. Avoid making it worse for the victim, while still getting a shred of justice, and most importantly getting the guilt on record to act as a deterrent– it’s unfortunate that the perpetrator gets off easily in these cases, but hopefully a large % of them realize that they won’t get away with it a second time, and that’s something.
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