On an overcast Friday morning in February, three lawyers gathered at their office in Washington, D.C., to discuss a particularly difficult sexual assault case. The public has many misconceptions about how sexual assault survivors should act — misconceptions that trained legal professionals and jurors bring into the courtroom every day. They don’t just learn to litigate these complex cases, they come face-to-face with their own biases about sexual assault victims. Wilkinson himself used to be terse with sexual assault victims before he understood how trauma affects their behavior. [Being] raped is not a consequence of getting drunk ― that’s a consequence of a rapist being around when you’re vulnerable.

Source: Huffington Post April 29, 2018 00:11 UTC