Statute of Limitations on Rape

The case of Rita is a sad one. She works as an employee of a resort. She's never really been in a serious relationship. She has dated but nothing got past that point. Anyhow, she encounters a male acquaintance of a coworker. The man was to take Rita home but he instead takes her to a remote area and assaults her. She did not want her family to know what happened but she did notify an agency about what did occur. They collected forensic evidence and treated her for any potential sexually transmitted diseases she might have been exposed to. They also gave her emergency contraception. While she eventually gets the courage to report the rape to her family and the proper authorities, it is too late to make use of the forensic evidence that was collected.

The one obvious thing that should be changed is the 90-day window that ostensibly elapsed and thus precluded further action from being taken against the alleged rapist. While it is not terribly unreasonable to expect a rape victim to report a crime against them in a timely manner, using a window of 90 days is entirely too short and truncated. It should be more like six months to a year. It is fairly established fact that many rape victims, for whatever reason, do not report crimes against them right away, assuming they report them at all. Rita's case is proof of why it is important to give rape victims a more elongated window. In the case of Rita, she knows she was a victim but she was so concerned about what her family would think about the event happening. Even though she was simply catching a ride home and even though she made no sexual advances or engaged in voluntary sexual behavior with the man, she felt shame. That is a rather startling cultural and societal flaw, although its genesis would be hard to pinpoint without more information. Regardless, the fact that she felt shame despite the fact that she was clearly the victim is rather startling to say the least (Dedel, 2017).

Even with the fact that she shied away from filing charges, forensic evidence was indeed collected within the proper window. However, the apparent rule is that if a crime is not reported within 90 days, the evidence kit is destroyed. Why that would be done other than perhaps to save space in a warehouse is without explanation. The emotional and physical trauma to Rita is surely extensive as shown in the narrative. She had guilt, shame and emotional shock. She was powerless and had a number of acute stress symptoms including outrage. The shame of the incident and not reporting the incident to her family seemingly stems from the fact that she accepted a ride from someone that she did not know well. However, the man was a friend of her coworker and she should not have to expect anything other than the ride she had asked for. To suggest that it is her fault that she was raped because she did not know the man very well is just an instance of blaming the victim. There is perhaps some credence to a time limit and the destroying of evidence if nothing is reported to the police. After all, the chances of a conviction after a certain amount of time is very unlikely, crime or not. Even so, a proper window must be given to the victim of a sexual assault. Also, it must be made abundantly clear to the victim that they should report a crime right away and certainly within the required window (RAINN, 2017).