美国强奸盾牌规则的法理基础及实践效果

The Jurisprudential Basis and Practical Effects of Rape Shield Law

20世纪70年代美国强奸犯罪猖獗,其背后的重要原因就是社会对女性的性表达、性历史和言行举止存在偏见,倾向于责怪被害人,导致了强奸报案率低和定罪难。在此背景下,美国推动确立了强奸盾牌条款。分析一手的立法史料及犯罪数据有利于研究强奸盾牌条款的法理基础:打击犯罪,鼓励报案,保护被害人,完善陪审团审判制度和革新社会观念。在《联邦证据规则》的框架下分析被害人性历史的可采性可为强奸盾牌条款确立的正当性提供支持。同时,分析强奸问题背后存在的社会偏见并用女性主义视角解析,同时通过数据分析和学理分析来研究强奸盾牌条款的实践效果,可以为深入理解强奸盾牌条款提供新的路径,也为我国性侵证据规则的构建提供新思路。

Beginning in the 1970 s,rape became a far more prevalent crime in the U.S.There were biases against women’s sexual expression,sexual history and behavior.The victim-blaming attitude made rape a low-reporting crime.Under this background,the U.S.promoted rape shield law to forbid the defense to attack a victim’s sexual character.Analyzing congressional hearing reports,original legislative materials and crime statistics can uncover the true rationales and jurisprudential basis behind rape shield laws:reduce rapes,encourage reporting,protect victims’privacy,help jury trials and raise social awareness.Meanwhile,providing statistics as well as theoretical analysis of the enforcement of rape shield laws can help measure whether they are effective.Besides,analysis of victims’sexual history under Federal Rules of Evidence will justify the establishment of rape shield laws.Rape is a special crime demanding broad social attention.By revealing rape myths and by swapping genders in rape scenarios—that is by casting the male as the rape victim—this paper will give us a feminist perspective concerning rape.It will provide us with a deeper understanding of rape shield laws.In the meantime,provide new insights into the design of Chinese evidence rule concerning rape.