I have seen a lot of sexual assault cases being covered in the news. Some cases are related to domestic violence, attacks by strangers, or power differentials, to name just a few.

I came across the research of a PhD student of history at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Here is a summary of her findings regarding 28 rape trials from 800 years ago, from 1201 to 1382.

The conviction rate was about 10%.

Jumping back to relative current times, between 2009 and 2014, about 12% of sexual assault complaints reported to police resulted in convictions.

There is a bit of apples and oranges here, but you get the picture.

I was surprised to learn that courts would move from one county to another to hear cases. Women could file rape charges on their own. “They didn’t need a man. They didn’t need a father, brother or husband.” Women had a voice to speak up.

The research revealed a significant amount of victim blaming. Did she fight hard enough? She is probably lying. Her story is inconsistent.

One of the prescribed procedures a woman had to follow to report a rape was to report to the sheriff immediately, often called the “hue and cry” step. Then, she had to show her injuries to the most likely male sheriff. If he believed that something bad had occurred, she then had the opportunity to tell her story to a group of “good and honest” men. If these citizens believed that something bad had happened, then it was off to court to retell her story word for word. Any variation in her story resulted in a dismissal of the case. ”He came into the kitchen from the back door, to he came into the kitchen by the front door” was sufficient variation to dismiss.

In the context of the current religious and cultural lens of the time, notably, women were lustful, deceitful, dangerous and untrustworthy.  Jurors and judges were impacted in their thinking.

In a 2018 Australian study, 42% thought that sexual assault accusations are a way of getting back at men. And 10% thought women are probably lying about rape if they don’t report it instantly.

In Canada, there have been progressive reforms, but conviction rates remain low. “Women continue to experience sexual assault trial processes as brutal and traumatizing, and we continue to have cases in which judicial reasoning is infected by the very same types of stereotypes.”

Please give this a bit of a think. Can you think of current trends of erroneous thinking that have their roots deeply entrenched in the past? Take some time. It’s a tough ask, I know.

I am curious about your thoughts. Please comment below or send me an email with your bit of a think.

My Source Document: CBC-Ideas.

Photo by AI Request: Create an image in landscape format that shows ancient thinking that animals are for human use and modern thinking that animals have rights.

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glenn.walmsley@icloud.com