Sidelights | Does the law only protect the bad guys? Sexual assault victims' rights in the justice system

In this lecture, we invited Attorney Chiung-Chia Lin as the keynote speaker and Ying-Chiu Tu, Executive Director of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation, as the discussant. In the first half, Attorney Ch'en approached the topic from the perspective of social workers, sharing the procedures that require attention and the omissions that must be avoided during case handling by protective agencies such as medical institutions, police departments, courts, and sexual assault prevention centers.
In the second half, Executive Director Tu spoke from the victims' standpoint, explaining the physical and mental impacts of sexual assault on victims, subverting the idealized notion of the "perfect victim" under a patriarchal society, and helping us understand victims' reactions during and after the incident to dispel common myths surrounding sexual assault cases.

Judicial judgments and the punishment of perpetrators are immensely important to victims who bravely step into the courtroom; they not only serve a punitive function but also provide comfort to the victims' hearts. However, in the current justice system, an idealized image of sexual violence victims is adversely affecting the processes and outcomes of investigations and adjudications.

"In my own service experience, I've found that quite a few victims want to use the legal system to prove the fact that they were violated. Whether the justice system can restore my honor and prove that I am telling the truth is a matter of utmost importance to victims."—Ying-Chiu Tu, Executive Director of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation

When a sexual assault occurs, victims' reactions vary from person to person. Yet, when seeking external help or defending their rights, they encounter the same predicament: being questioned—and even beginning to self-doubt—because they do not fit the idealized image of a victim.
Why wasn't your reaction "typical"? Why was your attire "immodest"? These societal questions and biases lead victims to remain silent after an incident, too afraid to seek help because they fear being blamed or have already been blamed.

Victims who weather the storm of condemnation and enter the legal process often think they can achieve justice through the judicial system, only to find themselves still trapped in the thick fog of the "idealized victim image under patriarchy." They are repeatedly battered by giant waves throughout the investigation and trial process. Judges' and prosecutors' considerations of the factual circumstances of the incident, subsequent reactions, and motives for filing charges may all be influenced by the "idealized victim image," resulting in unsatisfactory litigation outcomes.

"When looking at an incident, one must investigate from the context of the incident and the victim's situation, rather than merely looking at the incident itself or its outcome."—Ying-Chiu Tu, Executive Director of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation

Moreover, voices blaming the victim or the shattering of expectations regarding litigation cause victims to plunge into remorse and self-blame, ultimately driving them back into the predicament of silence and forming a harmful cycle. Supreme Court Judgment No. 107-Tai-Shang-887 explicitly points out: "The so-called idealized victim image exists only in the imagination of the patriarchal system." Such gendered imaginations have a profound impact on litigation outcomes as well as the physical, psychological, and life impacts on victims.

Beliefs and judgments influenced by the "idealized victim image" not only deepen the psychological pain of victims but may also give perpetrators an opportunity to exploit the system. Attorney Lin pointed out that sexual assault perpetrators absolutely never commit the crime just once, nor do they target only one person. Sexual assault has the highest recidivism rate and therefore should never be condoned.
Dispelling the idealized image of sexual violence victims not only safeguards victims' rights and serves as a remedy to heal inner trauma, but it can also uphold justice and prevent perpetrators from reaching out to harm the next victim.

The public holds preconceived notions about sexual assault cases, many of which need to be adjusted on a case-by-case basis. The "idealized victim image" shapes our imagination of these cases—for instance, regarding the perpetrator's image, most people assume that only unemployed individuals at the bottom of society become perpetrators, which is actually not the case. The vast majority of physical sexual violence perpetrators are acquaintances, often committing violations progressively, covertly, and through power dynamics. Perpetrators may believe they have the right to control the victim or abuse the victim's admiration and trust to commit sexual violence. The location of the incident is also frequently misperceived as mostly public places, whereas sexual crimes are typically carried out in more secluded locations, creating difficulties in evidence collection.

A victim's reactions during and after the incident are where misunderstandings most easily arise. At the time of the incident, a victim may fall into a state of dissociation due to fear, resulting in an inability to escape the scene or stand up, which may then be misinterpreted as a lack of resistance. In Executive Director Tu's practical experience, many people lack the courage to refuse at the moment, but silence never equals consent. After the incident, many victims may destroy evidence out of self-blame or panic at the time, leading to subsequent difficulties in gathering evidence, which may result in non-prosecution due to insufficient evidence.

"Because her chest was touched, the victim felt her clothes were dirty and disgusting, and she immediately took them off and washed them—washing them numerous times because she felt they were dirty and could never be washed clean. After going to the police to report the incident, the police asked if she could bring the clothes in for testing, but after being washed so many times, testing was no longer possible, making it very difficult to obtain evidence."—Ying-Chiu Tu, Executive Director of the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation

Victims' post-incident reactions are also frequently questioned. For example, failing to cut off contact with the perpetrator might actually be due to work obligations that make severance impossible; inconsistent statements may stem from memory confusion caused by traumatic events; and failing to report to the police immediately is very likely constrained by outside perceptions or a failure to recover from shock and fear. When these victims fail to display the "typical" reactions expected of them, they are frequently treated with suspicion.

Once they decide to step into the courtroom, victims' motives for filing charges are scrutinized even further. Executive Director Tu has encountered skeptical questions in her practical experience such as: using the sexual assault case to influence the other party's election, promotion, or custody battles. We must remember that from the victim's perspective, there is no reason to sacrifice one's own physical and mental well-being simply to influence others.

These "idealized victim images" obstruct litigation and subject victims to doubt and distrust throughout the legal process of seeking justice, sometimes ultimately leading to unsatisfactory litigation outcomes and severe secondary victimization. To improve this situation, those of us who are non-parties must remember not to judge victims' reactions and actions from a subjective perspective, but rather to enter into the context of the incident to make judgments, thereby protecting victims to the greatest extent possible.

Once a trial is initiated, from reporting the crime and undergoing medical examinations to testifying in court, the involvement of the accused is necessary. How to protect victims during this process is a direction we can strive toward. Having to repeatedly recount the experience of the incident during the investigation is yet another trauma for the victim. To avoid the repeated recounting of trauma, an application can be made for a social worker's assessment to provide one-stop services, where a social worker accompanies the victim to the hospital for examinations, and prosecutors and police also conduct interrogations at the hospital, thereby reducing secondary victimization of the victim.
In the courtroom or during questioning, judges and prosecutors frequently pose skeptical questions to victims: "Why didn't you resist?" "Why didn't you call for help?" If judicial personnel can adopt a friendly and warm attitude when questioning victims during this stage, even if the final litigation outcome is less than ideal, it can still mitigate secondary victimization and even give them the strength to pick themselves up again.

In recent years, with the rapid development of technology, the popularity of anonymous platforms and online dating has introduced digital sexual violence into the forms of sexual violence, making it a cross-national sexual assault issue that cannot be ignored. It serves as a reminder for us to remain vigilant and cautious in romantic relationships and online dating to protect ourselves.
Executive Director Ying-Chiu Tu stated that over the past six or seven years, the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation has served a total of 655 victims of digital sexual violence, finding that perpetrators of digital sexual violence have expanded from romantic partners and ex-partners to online acquaintances.

Couples in intimate relationships obtain sexually intimate images of their partners through consent, covert filming, or secret photography, and then use them to threaten, intimidate, or directly disseminate them across borderless networks, causing tremendous harm to victims. In recent years, online acquaintances have also obtained others' sexually intimate images through specific rhetoric and deception; if disseminated on websites with a higher domestic user base, this likewise inflicts massive harm upon victims.

The "comfort women" grandmothers are survivors of the military sexual slavery system. Initially, these grandmothers may have been deceived by job opportunities such as odd jobs, believing they could improve their family finances, and voluntarily traveled overseas to work. However, upon arriving at local destinations where they were in unfamiliar and isolated environments without support, the Japanese military dropped its pretense, stripped the grandmothers of their freedom and dignity, and forced them to engage in sexual acts.

Yet in the days that followed, because they initially volunteered to go abroad, the grandmothers were assumed to have experienced everything entirely voluntarily, suffering societal incomprehension and cold treatment from others. Under such circumstances, however, we ought to judge matters from the context of the events: the grandmothers' experiences were virtually identical to modern-day human trafficking, and the initial willingness to board a ship and sign a contract cannot be superimposed onto the entire process. Furthermore, their reactions and willingness during and after the incident were heavily impacted by the war and the threats and control of the Japanese military.
Through judicial adjudication, we also hope to fight for justice for the grandmothers, allowing this tragic history to be squarely faced and transformed into momentum for moving forward.

After the lecture, apart from learning about the rescue channels and procedures for sexual assault cases, my imagination regarding such cases was subverted. I also realized that while society's preconceptions about sexual violence cannot be eradicated overnight, what I can do is refrain from viewing every case through my own subjective lens when someone around me suffers victimization, but instead display understanding, companionship, and active listening to avoid deepening their trauma. Through care and acceptance, we can gradually dissipate the thick fog of the "idealized victim image under patriarchy," prevent unfortunate victims from falling into the predicament of staying silent, and break the cycle filled with pain.