Symposium—Beyond Prosecution: Sexual Assault Victim’s Rights in Theory and Practice Symposium
In the context of criminal procedure protections for rape victims, the title of this symposium, Beyond Prosecution: Sexual Assault Victims Rights in Theory and Practice, is merely aspirational. It is aspirational because rape victims have not acquired much in the way of procedural rights with respect to confidentiality protections in sexual assault cases. This is true despite thirty years of rape law reform. It is time to move beyond aspirations and provide for direct victim enforcement of privacy protections. State constitutional rights of victim privacy can be utilized as a foundation. On this foundation, enabling legislation should provide for direct victim enforcement of various confidentiality laws. In this essay, the current rape shield laws serve as the vehicle for examining why victim privacy protections in general should be accompanied by direct victim enforcement. Ultimately, rape victims’ procedural rights to participate in both trial level rape shield hearings and pretrial appellate court review of adverse rulings are portable to other laws protecting crime victims’ privacy. . . .