Posted by deirdrehbrt on January 14, 2004, at 21:10:35
In reply to Re: Might Have Some Good Come Out of It » Susan J, posted by judy1 on January 14, 2004, at 19:36:07
Until my first hospitalization, I was a Rape Crisis Counselor. It's amazing how the victims of sexual violence are almost always subjected to completely unreasnoable intrusions into their life. The main reason, at least in my opinion, is that the defense hopes to get the victim to drop the case or to refuse to testify. They will use ANY means that they have available to discredit, cooerce, or intimidate the one who has been wronged. In a very real sense, by bringing the criminal to justice, one is tormented again.
Even in states like NH, where the crime of r*pe is a crime against the state, thereby making the survivor a witness rather than victim, the survivor will be investigated to miniscule details by the defense. Part of our job as counselors was to tell these people what they might expect should the decide to go to trial. This wasn't to discourage them, but rather to give them enough information to decide if they were ready to go through it.
It stinks. Too many people who've been severely traumatized are hurt again by a system that grants superior rights to the offenders, and renders the hurt as someone who can be re-traumatized, having fewer rights and less privacy than the offender. It hurts.
Dee.
poster:deirdrehbrt
thread:300583
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040109/msgs/300911.html