Why Do Police Have False Rape Injustices?

The criminal justice system is known for having an open mind while on the job. These people are supposed to “‘check their personal attitudes at the door’ when coming to work” (Rich, & Seffrin, 2012). Most of the time law enforcement and other members of the criminal justice system are able to be professional and not bring personal biases into the job. There are times; however, where law enforce bring their objectives to the job. This can be seen when there is a rape case. Some officers have accepted the myths that are spread about rape victims. The myths they hear can be different from what the general public hears. These myths revolve around issues relating to false rape accusations (Mennicke et al., 2014). The officers do not want to spend …show more content…
The victim feels as if their story will not be heard, or that the police will not believe the claims. The victim is scared and reluctant to disclose sensitive information (Greeson, Campbell, & Fehler-Cabral, 2014). Along with having training on how to interview victims and not accepting rape myths, there are some other ways that the police can comfort the victim and gain meaningful information. This can happen by the officers being personal with the victims (Greeson et al., 2014). A tactic that the victims appreciate the detectives doing is to take time gathering the information about the rape, and to take into account the emotions of the victims. Research has found “survivors want the police to acknowledge their emotions, let them take their time to answer questions, ask for rather than demand information, and talk about other things first before asking questions about the assault” (Greeson et al., 2014). The victims want to feel like humans and not as an object. The rape myths can make the victims feel as if they are less than because of the traumatic experience that happened. When the officers are able to put their personal beliefs away and focus on the victims, they are able to provide emotional support. The victims want their emotions to be noticed and want to have time to answer questions. They might be confused after the event took place and not be able to answer questions effectively if the detective is not allowing the victim to have a chance to understand the question. The victims want to feel as if the officer understood why the incident occurred. One study that looked at adolescent victims said, “this included assuring them that they could tell them anything and let them know that they understood what it was like to be a teenager. Many of the girls in our sample were afraid of how the police would react to their stories, particularly when they had engaged in behaviors that would be