Rape Shield Law Essay

The Rape Shield Law was enacted to protect the rights of rape victims and to encourage rape victims to come forward that might not otherwise do so for fear of their past sexual history coming to light. Some of these rape victims are afraid that their private sexual history or previous sexual encounters will be brought up in court or become public knowledge. Many times the fear of exposure and shame could prevent victims of rape from coming forward and making a complaint to the police against an assailant. With the introduction of the rape shield law a reluctant victim might be more willing to come forward and file a complaint.

Prior to the enactment of the rape shield law a defendant could offer testimony of a victim that would prejudice the jury against the rape victim. Sometimes the defendant in a rape case would portray the rape victim as promiscuous or having a series of sexual relationships. The defendant would attempt to sway the jury in his favor by portraying himself as a clean cut, innocent person who is simply guilty of exercising poor judgment and engaging in sexual behavior with someone of loose moral character rather than the callous rapist

If excluding the testimony or evidence would violate the constitutional rights of the accused than an exception to the rape shield rule will be allowed and the testimony will be allowed. Furthermore when there is reason to believe that corroborative testimony could bring to light evidence of another assailant and lead to physical evidence such as DNA or other crucial evidence then the court will allow an exception to the rape shield law. Additionally when testimony is relevant to the current case such prior sexual history between the accused and the victim the testimony may be