Assignment

You have decided to speak with the prosecutor, Mary, on behalf of Maureen, the college student who was a victim of date rape. You want to convince Mary to support a change in the prosecutor's policy of not prosecuting date rape cases when drugs or alcohol are involved. Maureen has a strict policy: when someone wants to speak with her about changing an established policy, she wants the person to submit a paper of 3-5 pages containing topic bullets outlining his or her argument for the policy change prior to meeting her. She feels this way, she is not blind-sided, and she has an opportunity to research the topic prior to the meeting.

You follow her policy and write a paper using bullets only, hoping that you can persuade Mary and the chief prosecutor to change their policy or, at a minimum, meet with you for a discussion about changing the policy. Maureen knows other young women are being attacked and that very often, date rape drugs are being used.

Mary has agreed to review your policy change letter if you write it. You write the policy change paper in which where you have the following two goals:

• Educate Mary about date rape using statistics and information about date rape and date rape drugs to show her that Maureen is one of the types of victims who perpetrators take advantage of in these situations.

• Explain why not prosecuting the cases is the wrong public and social policy. Of course, you are also hopeful that the victim, Maureen, also receives help in her case.

To organize your efforts before your meeting, create a detailed outline in bullet form that contains information for the following 5 topics:

• List Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) reported crime statistics relating to rape and the strengths and weaknesses of each type of reporting.

• Define the term date rape (or acquaintance rape-the terms are interchangeable) and how date rape (acquaintance rape) is distinguished from stranger rape, statutory rape, and spousal rape.

• List the types and uses of date rape drugs.

• Describe the victim-offender relationship, including the following:

o How victims are viewed by perpetrators of date rape
o The special problems of date rape prosecutions
o How society and jurors may view date rape (blaming the victim based on the perceived precipitation, facilitation, or provocation of the victim)

• What is your position on this issue, and what action do you think would impact this social policy?