Constituting Power in Sexual Assault Cases: Prosecutorial Strategies for Victim Management

Abstract

This paper examines the interactive processes through which prosecutors manage sexual assault victims during complaint filing interviews. Using ethnographic data from the post-rape-law-reform period and the micropolitics of trouble framework, I identify three strategies prosecutors use to manage complainants: displays of concern, specifying downstream possibilities, and shifting paradigms. I argue that prosecutors access to legal resources and remedies, as well as their insiders knowledge of the system severely constrain victim's power. I suggest, given current legal practices, the efficaciousness of rape law reform is questionable.

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