An Epistemic Critique of Rape Fact-Finding

Rape is not some figment of our imagination. Yet, criminal systems often fail to acknowledge the facts of the matter in rape cases. Only 1.3% of the recorded rape offences in England and Wales ended in a charge or summons (House of Commons Committee, 2022). Evidentiary systems are equipped to consider, e.g., the value of a suspect's fingerprints on a murder weapon as evidence of their guilt. However, evidence-based accounts of rape often seem distorted. The project aims to explore rape fact-finding. I intend to propose a novel epistemic theory that can assess evidence-collection procedures in rape cases.