Although a string of highly publicized sexual assaults in Chicago over the last six months has emphasized the danger of stranger attacks, rapes committed by people who know their victim is by far a bigger problem, and justice is often elusive. But Cook County is taking steps to change that this year.
An estimated 80 percent of rapes are committed by an acquaintance–a family member, co-worker, boyfriend, friend, classmate, teacher or neighbor–and advocates for victims of assault say few of these crimes are ever prosecuted.
Victims of acquaintance rape–sometimes called date rape–often are reluctant to report the crime, said Barbara Engel, an advocate for sexual assault victims, because they may feel shame or guilt or fear retribution from the person who assaulted them.
“There’s this idea that it’s easy to accuse someone of rape,” said Engel, a board member of the Illinois Criminal Justice Authority. “The truth is, it’s extremely hard to get a case into court.”
For cases that are reported to police (an estimated 10 percent to 30 percent of all assaults), it can become a “he said, she said” situation because the defendant can argue that the sex was consensual. If prosecutors don’t feel they have enough evidence to convince a judge or jury that the victim is telling the truth, the case may never go to court.
“Whether we believe it ourselves is a completely different issue,” Rubinstein said. It can be frustrating to not take a case to court, because rapists tend to commit crimes more than once.
“You feel like it’s only a matter of time before he does it again,” he said.
Rape victims, if they decide to report the crime at all, may not feel comfortable coming forward right away. And if there is a delay in reporting, any physical evidence of an attack–bruises, cuts, semen–are lost.
One initiative that may help is a new felony review panel devoted exclusively to cases of sexual assault in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
The people who conduct the felony review decide whether someone will be charged in a crime. The panel, which is planned for the spring, should be able to devote extra attention and understanding to these cases, said Shauna Boliker, chief of the sex crimes division for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Assistant State’s Atty. Jacob Rubinstein said prosecutors of acquaintance rape cases face a giant hurdle with judges and juries who may question the case’s circumstances–for example, if the victim went out with the defendant or was drinking at the time of the assault.
“There’s a very, very strong tendency among people to blame the victim,” he said.
In Cook County, the majority of assault cases handled by the sex crimes division of the state’s attorney’s office involve acquaintances.
“Those are definitely some of the most challenging cases,” said Patricia Shea, an assistant state’s attorney in Cook County who handles cases with child and adult victims. “We know we have to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that a sexual assault occurred.
Engel said victims have a tough time getting their case into court if they didn’t tell the whole story right away (they may have forgotten details or not wanted to admit to drinking or other things) or if they didn’t fight back against the attacker.
“It’s not her willingness [to go to court] that’s the issue–it’s details of the case and attitudes of the police and state’s attorneys,” Engel said.
She knows this from personal experience. As a student at the University of Chicago in the early 1970s, Engel was raped by a stranger. She reported the crime, but it never went to court, she said.
Engel said the criminal justice system is more empathetic to sex assault victims and more educated about rape now than it was then, but there’s still a long way to go before the system is a just one for victims of sexual assault.
“My hope and my belief is they will start taking cases they have shied away from in the past,” she said.
BY THE NUMBERS
80: Estimated percentage of rapes committed by someone the victim knows–a date, a classmate, a family member, a co-worker, a friend.
