Emotions and testimony
If there's a "typical" rape trial, are victims steered to testify about the pain and feelings that they experienced? Or do prosecutors tend to downplay the emotional aspects?
I'm observing a trial in Cincinnati. The victims were minors, ages 7-10 at the time, 2 girls and 2 boys. In their testimony, they said little about their emotions -- and the prosecutor didn't asked them about it IIRC.
Perhaps with an adult victim of rape, the prosecutor has to show a lack of consent and thus might focus more on emotional and physical pain?
Whereas when the victims are children, would the prosecution downplay emotions because they assume that jurors would imagine the worse, or would already see rape of children as intrinsically monstrous enough?
Or because they want to (appear to) protect the survivors' from undue trauma? Or because a child's capability to testify is fragile, so they keep to the basic observable facts?
Well, the social workers also did not go into the pain or suffering from the abuse and rapes. So perhaps emotions are seen as irrelevant, distracting, and immaterial to the case?
Note: this was my FB post. There were numerous comments about the law, personal experiences on a jury, personal experiences of abuse, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/hcgray/posts/10161754508855335
If there's a "typical" rape trial, are victims steered to testify about the pain and feelings that they experienced? Or do prosecutors tend to downplay the emotional aspects?
I'm observing a trial in Cincinnati. The victims were minors, ages 7-10 at the time, 2 girls and 2 boys. In their testimony, they said little about their emotions -- and the prosecutor didn't asked them about it IIRC.
Perhaps with an adult victim of rape, the prosecutor has to show a lack of consent and thus might focus more on emotional and physical pain?
Whereas when the victims are children, would the prosecution downplay emotions because they assume that jurors would imagine the worse, or would already see rape of children as intrinsically monstrous enough?
Or because they want to (appear to) protect the survivors' from undue trauma? Or because a child's capability to testify is fragile, so they keep to the basic observable facts?
Well, the social workers also did not go into the pain or suffering from the abuse and rapes. So perhaps emotions are seen as irrelevant, distracting, and immaterial to the case?
Note: this was my FB post. There were numerous comments about the law, personal experiences on a jury, personal experiences of abuse, etc.
https://www.facebook.com/hcgray/posts/10161754508855335
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