Judges Can Do More to Help Juries Understand Rape Cases, Professor Schneider Tells the Times
06/21/2017
Professor Elizabeth Schneider was quoted in a New York Times story about the rape case against Bill Cosby that recently ended in a mistrial.
In “A Post-Cosby-Trial Question: Is the System Stacked Against Women?” Schneider explains how the judicial and cultural understanding of rape has changed over the years and how jurors might be questioned about their understanding of the crime in future cases.
In the Cosby case, she says, the judge could have educated jurors about “how rape and sexual assault victims often behave; the vagaries of memory… and the fact that it’s not unusual for a woman to continue contact with someone who assaulted her, particularly when the man could influence her career.”