Professor comments on how redefining sexual crimes affects cases

An episode on public radio program Life of the Law, titled "Redefining Rape," told the story of a New York City school teacher who was raped by an off-duty police officer. The suspect was arrested, but only charged with one count of rape because of the way New York's rape law was written. The program delved into the origin of rape laws and how some state laws have changed over the years, including dropping the name "rape" and calling it "sexual battery" or "sexual assault." Researcher and professor of criminal justice at Arizona State University Cassia Spohn was asked if changing what the crime was called resulted in more convictions.

“It’s a little hard to tease out just the change in name because so many other things accompanied it,” she said. Spohn has studied how the reform of rape law has impacted six cities around the country, which included interviewing judges and prosecutors.

“One prosecutor said that changing the name to sexual assault sugarcoated the offense,” she said. “The prosecutor felt jurors understood what rape was. They weren’t as sure what criminal sexual conduct was.”

Spohn published her study in 1991. She also looked at whether jurisdictions with strong rape law reforms had higher conviction rates and found that they did not, at least at that point in time. To read more, click on the link below.