There are many issues and difficulties for rape victims in the United States that extend far beyond the trauma from the actual rape incident. Legal scholars continue to write about ways to reform rape law in America. Some of these difficulties stem from issues concerning the reporting of the rape, while others derive from the "rape kit" which must be administered to all rape victims once the rape is reported. Yet even more of these problems come from issues at trial-including the rape law itself and the treatment of women on the stand. Rape law needs to be reformed and a recent case in the Dominican Republic is reminiscent of so many of these same issues we face in the United States.
A pastor, Miguelina Cuevas, found the 12 year old victim in the house where she lived with her mother after she had been missing for several days. When the pastor discovered her, she was naked and bleeding, with multiple bruises and bite marks on her body and a cloth in between her legs. The victim said that seven or eight men had taken turns raping her vaginally and anally for two days. The pastor took her to get cleaned and then to the report the incident. From there, she was sent to the hospital in Jimaní without receiving any medical attention. In Jimaní, a legal medical examination was ordered but not carried out until the victim fainted during what Sergia Galvan, Executive Director of the Women and Health Collective, described as a "poorly executed and confusing" interrogation by justice officials. The victim was returned to Duvergé and admitted to hospital for seven days.
Only one of the men was sent to prison. He was subsequently released without any valid explanation. Furthermore, the victim's eight-year-old sister was allegedly also sexually abused but no charges were ever filed despite the fact that Galvan's association conducted medical, psychological and psychiatric tests that clearly established sexual abuse. The victim's family and lawyers are demanding an immediate investigation by government and police officials into what they say claim were “serious faults” in the judicial process.
Rape is a horrifying enough experience for the victim, but it is even more horrifying the injustice that so many rape victims face both in the United States and throughout the world. It is time to change the system of justice for rape victims.
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