MONTANA
ABA Journal
Posted Feb 18, 2014
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Justice Department sees likely gender bias in a failure by the Missoula, Mont., County Attorney’s office to prosecute nonstranger rapes.
In a letter to Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, the Justice Department says its investigation found that his office declined to prosecute “nearly every case” involving nonstranger assaults on adult women who were intoxicated, or on adult women with a mental or physical diability. Mother Jones and the Missoulian have stories, while this press release summarizes the findings.
There are “strong indications” that the charging decisions in such cases are influenced by gender bias and gender stereotyping, the letter says.
“Women consistently told us that deputy county attorneys treated them with indifference or disrespect, and frequently made statements to women victims, advocates and the public diminishing the seriousness of sexual violence and minimizing the culpability of those who commit it,” the letter said.
In one instance, a prosecutor told the mother of a 5-year-old sexual assault victim that “boys will be boys.” The adolescent perpetrator was sentenced to only two years of community service. In another case, a deputy county attorney quoted religious passages to a woman who reported a sexual assault, leading her to believe that the prosecutor judged her negatively for making the report. In yet another case, one woman says a county attorney told her, “All you want is revenge,” as they discussed the office’s decision not to prosecute her alleged assailant.
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