Abstract
Redefining Rape builds on Professor Bryden’s earlier, book-length article, Rape in the Criminal Justice System. The 1997 piece looked backward. Relying heavily on empirical studies, Bryden and his colleague, Sonja Lengnick, examined “the first wave of rape law reforms”— mainly, evidentiary and procedural, as well as some substantive, measures. They aimed to assess the extent to which these changes, targeted at sexist rules unique to this crime, had realized the goal of improving outcomes in “simple” rape cases (commonly dubbed acquaintance or “date” rapes), which had been dogged by low rates of reporting, prosecution, and conviction. Their conclusions were mixed. As good news, they cited certain indications of modest progress: a decline in the rape rate since the Seventies; a rise in victims’
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