The Federal Rules of Evidence give guidelines for when evidence about a person's character may be considered admissible in court.

1) What do you think the purpose for having guidelines about the admissibility of character evidence is?

2) Give 3 examples of a situation where character evidence is inadmissible in a criminal trial. The admissibility of character evidence of a victim of rape at the trial of the alleged rapist is a controversial topic.

3) Discuss reasons why a judge might or might not admit character evidence about a rape victim at trial.