Why do victims of violent crimes have to testify in front of their attacker?

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I watch a lot of true crime shows and there appears to be a lot of cases where victims decide not to follow through with testifying against their attackers, merely because of their fear of being in the room with them. This seems to be particularly common in cases of sexual assault. Can’t they just not have the accused attacker not appear in court when the victim testifies?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

From a practical standpoint, if the victim of that violent crime is the only one saying that it happened, then how is anyone supposed to know it happened if they don’t testify?

To reframe it, let’s say I want to be a jerk to you and tell everyone you punched me in the head. Then court happens, the court just reads my statement about punching you, you never see me (and maybe never even met me) then the jury renders a verdict on the case. It would be a pretty unfair justice system if you never got to even see the person who was accusing you.

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