Juries in rape cases: essential for justice, or the root of the problem?

[major_clanger]

A follow-up to this post, in view of the following BBC story:

A majority of women believe some rape victims should take responsibility for what happened, a survey suggests.

...The survey of more than 1,000 people in London marked the 10th anniversary of the Haven service for rape victims...

...The study found that women were less forgiving of the victim than men.

The story concludes by noting that 'the findings may help explain why juries are reluctant to convict in some rape trials.' That's something of an understatement. As I pointed out in my earlier post, if three or more of the jury disbelieve the complainant it is simply not possible to obtain a conviction, because of the rule that a jury decision must be by at least a 10-2 majority.

Even all-female juries wouldn't improve the rape conviction rate. Indeed, on this evidence, such a move would worsen it.

We are very attached to trial by jury. The concept goes back centuries, and the freedom of a jury to reach its own decision was enshrined in English law as far back as 1670 (the trial of Penn and Meade). The recent decision to allow non-jury trials in certain cases has caused much disquiet and interfering in the right to by judged by one's peers is seen as a radical and extreme change to our criminal justice system. But should we tolerate a system that convicts in some 6% of rape complaints?

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

The survey that hit the headlines last year talked a lot about 'contributing factors'. It was then spun in the news as if thinking, for instance, that being drunk was a contributing factor in someone getting raped meant that the people thinking that believed the drunk person was in some way responsible for being raped. But there is a huge gap between contributing factors and responsibility. Do I think that, in the case of the woman who was gang-raped, her admitting to her online chat contact that she had gang-rape fantasies was a contributing factor to him thinking it was all right to get his mates round to have sex with her? Probably yes. Does that mean that I think she is to blame for them doing this? Absolutely not.

[andrewducker]

Total agreement.