ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive treatment of social and behavioral sciences and the humanities and representing the experiences of women of diverse backgrounds and lifestyles. Corroboration and force and resistance are not necessarily "neutral" factors equally likely to be found in rape and assault cases and therefore entitled to equal weight in both. Professor Susan Caringella-MacDonald's study of the treatment of sexual and nonsexual assault cases in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, between 1981 and 1983 provides empirical evidence of the differences. Consideration of the prior relationship between the victim and the accused and the circumstances of their initial contact presents the greatest problem. Prior relationship cases often result in dismissal because of the withdrawal of the complaining witness. Victim withdrawal in prior relationship cases is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy; if that is so generally, it would seem particularly true in rape cases.
