Strauss-Kahn, NYPD, and How We Think About Sexual Assault

If I relied on nothing but the American criminal justice system to inform my knowledge of the myths and realities of sexual assault, I would be very surprised to learn that, in fact, very few rape and sexual assault accusations are false. Strangely, the outcomes of our sexual assault cases may lead an innocent spectator to believe precisely the opposite. Two recent high-profile sexual assault cases reveal this unfortunate discrepancy, underline the alarming way in which our legal system handles accusations of sexual assault, and, perhaps most significantly, reinforce an extremely problematic model of thought and discourse surrounding victims of sexual assault.
At the end of May, two New York City police officers were found not guilty of raping a drunk woman whom they escorted into her apartment. The officers subsequently reentered her apartment three times that night, and one officer testified that he snuggled with the woman as she wore “nothing but a bra.” He later admittedto her on tape that he had worn a condom, but continued to insist that they did not have sex and that his confession was made “to appease her,” a defense that jurors evidently believed.
Officer Moreno, as part of his defense, claimed that the woman had flirted with him and told him that “her friends were angry at her because she drank too much.” There is no question that constructing this woman as the type of woman who was “asking for it” was to the officer’s advantage; it lead jurors to believe that she was, in fact, asking for whatever she did or did not get that night. We seem to have a difficult time believing, despite overwhelming evidence, that women who flirt or drink could be telling the truth when they say that they were raped.

The Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, admittedly, is not so simple. Strauss-Kahn, a French economist and politician accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel maid, was released on July 1 after an inconsistency in the maid’s testimony and a series of discoveries about her past called her credibility into question. She originally testified that she waited in the hallway outside of Strauss-Kahn’s room after her assault, but later claimed that she first left to clean a neighboring room and then returned to clean his. That she was discredited for such an inconsequential inconsistency in her testimony is truly exasperating. It is in no way rare or astonishing that a victim of a sexual crime, shaken, terrified, and unsure how to proceed, would not give an absolutely perfect account to the police on the very day of the assault.
Also brought to attention was the woman’s connection to felons and drug dealers, her suspicious possession of multiple cell phones, and a phone conversation in which she discussed the advantages of taking her case to trial. Could that phone conversation point to the possibility that she had made a false accusation? Yes. I am not here to dismiss that possibility, and it would be senseless to claim that Strauss-Kahn is guilty beyond a doubt or even beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet that conversation, in which she weighed the benefits and drawbacks of seeking a trial, was just as likely (even more likely, in fact) prompted by the unfortunate reality that victims of sexual assault have a very low rate of success in bringing their cases to trial and a very high rate of defeat, emotional devastation, and public humiliation. The maid’s phone conversation and her dubious history certainly raise doubts about her credibility, but neither should be evidence enough to dismiss her testimony (Strauss-Kahn, incidentally, had a history that was much more relevant to this case: a history of sexually assaulting women). Jaclyn Friedman astutely writes “Has she done some sketchy things? That seems pretty likely. Are people who do sketchy things still raped sometimes? Yes.”
It is worth noting that the seriousness with which Strauss-Kahn’s accusation was initially regarded was surprising, refreshing, and sent a promising message to past and future victims of sexual assault. Yet it is all but negated by the appalling way in which that case, as well as the NYPD officers’ trial, was handled. Already, media outlets are reporting that Strauss-Kahn’s accuser may have worked as a prostitute in the past (read: defense investigators know that linking her to prostitution, truthfully or not, will mean that we are much less likely to believe her story). There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: prostitutes cannot be raped! How disheartening it is that victims of sexual assault experience such insulting, inappropriate scrutiny; if I knew that I was going to be accused of prostitution, I would not want report my assault, either. I would, just as that hotel maid did, have many serious conversations about the advantages of taking my assault to trial.
Were these tragedies inevitable? Yes and no. It is certainly true that as long as our legal system requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt to convict anyone of a sex crime, victims will, in many instances, be mistreated and criminals will, unfortunately, walk without penalty. Yet it is no coincidence that these women were unreasonably treated in a culture where most women very often have an extraordinarily difficult time convincing judges and jurors that they were victims of sexual crimes. The truth is that we don’t want to believe that women who get drunk, are imperfect, assertive, or sexually promiscuous can be assaulted. We don’t want to believe that highly regarded, seemingly normal men can be rapists. We want to believe that victims are modest and sexually inexperienced women cornered by criminals on their way home, illustrated perfectly by an investigative official who believed Strauss-Kahn’s accuser until she turned out to not be a “pious, devout Muslim woman.” And when incidents of sexual assault deviate from this narrow paradigm, we want desperately to believe the falsehood that women are in the habit of fabricating sexual assault to tarnish or rob men. In other words, be careful, men, because we are hysterical and are always looking for ways to use our sexual wiles to ruin you. Or, in other words, as one truly discerning, brilliant man put it, “the unfolding case of Dominique Strauss-Kahn just reinforces my theory that men are no picnic but women are f’ing CRAZY.”
Marina Bolotnikova ’14 is a Contributing Writer.
Photo Credit: npr.org