Sex Crime Cases Still Leave Women Waiting for Justice, Despite #MeToo

While the #MeToo movement has had an enormous cultural impact, prosecuting sexual assault cases far from Hollywood leaves too many victims feeling unheard, discriminated against, and bereft of justice, a webinar on the justice system’s response to crimes of sexual violence was told this week.

“The movement has not been as swift as people imagine,” said panelist Kim Foxx, state’s attorney of Cook County, Illinois.

Speakers at the online panel discussion, sponsored by the Institute for Innovation in  Prosecution at John Jay College, included Foxx; defense attorney Lara Bazelon, professor at the University of San Francisco School of Law; and Michelle Dempsey, Harold Reuschlein Scholar Chair and professor at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. The panel was moderated by Harvard Law Professor and writer Jeannie Suk Gersen.

One of the questions the panelists addressed was the conflict between the #MeToo tenet “Believe all Women” and constitutionally protected due process of law.

Dempsey said that under the current system, what is most crucial is to “start by believing the victim.”  When an accusation is made, “Police should start with belief and pursue an investigation,” she said. “Process the rape kit, interview the accused.”

But, she added, “Police are by and large abysmal at investigating these cases.”

Foxx pointed out that “When a man says he was robbed, we start by believing he was robbed.”

While rape cases are “inherently difficult,” Foxx said police must go forward: collect DNA, get hospital records, look at camera footage, examine photos and text messages.

“We need to educate survivors, acknowledge the trauma and make them an active partner,” said Foxx.

The panelists agree that too few cases make it to the courtroom.

Nationwide, 81 percent of women and 43 percent of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime, according to the National Sexual Violence Research Center.

The difference between such numbers, showing the prevalence of assault, and discussions about the criminal justice role in prosecuting cases is stark.

In Austin, Tx., home to the University of Texas, about 1,000 sexual assaults are reported in Travis County each year,  and of those complaints, perhaps 25 cases are investigated by police, according to The Appeal.

Kim Foxx

A class-action lawsuit was filed by four women saying the legal system had failed them. The lawsuit blasts the Austin district attorney’s office for “systematically refus[ing] to investigate sex crimes against women based on biased assumptions about their gender.”

Foxx, 48, said that early in her career she was told by someone instructing attorneys that they had to be very cautious in pursuing rape prosecutions because, the instructor said, “There’s nothing worse in life than being falsely accused of rape.”

Foxx, who said she is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, was offended because, as she said, “I can tell you that there are worse things than that.”

A victim who adheres to “Believe all women” is possibly going to be traumatized by enduring a prosecution for rape because of the assumption that a defendant is innocent until proven guilty. Cross-examination is not going to be pleasant.

“I do take the position that ‘Believe all victims’ is in tension with due process,” said Bazelon. “Should the case go into a courtroom, juries are instructed that there must be proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Victims can feel ill-treated or ill-prepared as their story feels like it is taken from them.”

Four years into #MeToo, questions are being raised about how much the furor surrounding Harvey Weinstein and other famous accused men is improving the lives and ensuring the safety of ordinary women.

The collapse of the organization #timesup, whose leaders helped New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo smear an accuser, is painful for many.

With women feeling that there are too few investigations into sexual assault complaints and too few convictions in court, the defund-th- police movement and the decarceration movement also complicate priorities.

“Rapes are not being over-prosecuted,” said Dempsey.

Several panelists said that alternatives to criminal prosecution should be emphasized, such as restorative justice proceedings.

Bazelon said research shows that survivors who go through restorative justice have shown “higher satisfaction” than those at the conclusion of a court case.

Assault victims should evaluate their goals, the panelists said.

Is it accountability and the relief that the rapist will not be able to do this to anyone else? Or is it to be made whole again?

Within the college system, Title IX and Title VII can bring survivors a sense of  justice, Dempsey said.

“The broader range of options we have for survivors, the better,” said Dempsey.

Two areas that are in urgent need of change are the statutes of limitations on rape prosecutions and the racism and discrimination against LGBTQ complainants.

Foxx said she had had “a difficult couple of weeks” because the person who sexually abused her just died. “It was 40 years ago and it felt like it happened an hour ago,” she said.

Eight states currently have no statute of limitation on serious sexual assault. Depending on the nature of the offense, the statute can range from 10 to 20 years after the offense to no limitation.

The many years it sometimes takes for victims of abuse by Catholic clergy to come forward is a “powerful example” of why the system needs decades, said the panel.

“Victims and survivors of color get short shrift,” said Foxx. “And if someone is involved in the sex trade, yes they can be raped and assaulted. It’s wrong to say they are not capable of being a victim.”

Foxx said that during the R. Kelly trial she was dismayed to see the “adultification” of some of the underage girls who had sex with Kelly. It was Foxx’s office that charged Kelly with multiple counts of sex abuse in 2019.

“It was as if she was complicit in her own rape,” Foxx said of one of the victims.

Nancy Bilyeau is deputy editor of The Crime Report.