NCJ Number
99146
Journal
Victimology Volume: 9 Issue: 3-4 Dated: (1984) Pages: 415-425
Date Published
1984
Length
11 pages
Annotation
In a mail survey of prosecutors in the eleven states in which no legal distinction exists between rapes occurring within and outside of marriage, response to hypothetical rape cases containing corroborative evidence indicated that prosecutors were significantly less likely to believe that maximum charges would be filed in marital rape cases than in rape cases involving strangers, particularly where no serious injury occurred.
Abstract
However, approximately two-thirds of the prosecutors indicated that they would file maximum charges against husbands in these cases when the wife received only minor physical injury, and ninety percent indicated they would file such charges if she were seriously injured. The results also suggest that marital rape cases are not only susceptible to problems often present in cases involving either rapes against strangers or domestic violence, but that the prosecutor must additionally convince the jury that a person committing such an act deserves to be convicted. (Author abstract)