There were many changes done to the rape statutes hence increasing chances of conviction during the 1970s (Schulhofer, 2017). Some of the most pronounced and famous changes done included the elimination of the requirement of evidence to corroborate victim testimony of rape. Therefore, the current position of the requirement of corroborative testimony by a victim is that it is now not existent. A victim of rape cases is now not required to give evidence that is corroborated. This particular requirement was eliminated because it acted as a major hindrance to the conviction of many offenders and perpetrators of these heinous acts.
This specific position is quite different from the early common law where there was a statute providing the corroborative evidence by the victim of the case. Under this common law, the rape prosecution demanded evidence of the use of force by the defendant to penetrate the victim (Schulhofer, 2017). There was also requirement of evidence showing that the victim did exert some extreme resistance. Moreover, this early common recognized as the forcible sexual intercourse. It is a law that made it quite hard for victims of cases of rape to find justice through the courts (Spohn & Horney, 2013). It was quite difficult to proof the use of force and forceful resistance.
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Therefore, this change to eliminate the requirement of corroborative victim evidence was necessitated by the need to make conviction easy and possible in such cases. Many young could not proof some of this forceful sexual intercourse even it had really happened. Therefore, under the common law, a lot of the rape case prosecutions remained futile and always dead on arrival in to the courts.
References
Schulhofer, S. J. (2017). Reforming the Law of Rape. Law & Ineq. , 35 , 335.
Spohn, C., & Horney, J. (2013). Rape law reform: A grassroots revolution and its impact . Springer Science & Business Media.
