ABSTRACT
The contemporary feminist movement has been the driving force behind a number of legal reforms aimed at changing women's roles and social status. Rape-law reform was considered a highly visible place to begin to change the law and demand that women's "autonomy be protected by agents of social control". A number of case studies of rape-law reform have been conducted in various jurisdictions throughout the country. These studies allow for a partial assessment of the impact of the new legislation on the attitudes of criminal justice officials and on rape statistics. Interviews with criminal justice personnel, as well as with rape crisis center workers, suggest that officials' attitudes toward rape victims have improved and that, on the average, victims now experience less trauma during the criminal justice process. Many of the rape-law reforms have also been based on untested assumptions regarding their potential impact.
