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There is no ethical dilemma here. No DNA evidence collected from a victim to prosecute a sexual assault crime should ever be used to criminally prosecute that v
by abduhl 4y ago
There is no ethical dilemma here. No DNA evidence collected from a victim to prosecute a sexual assault crime should ever be used to criminally prosecute that victim. To even suggest otherwise undermines the overall goals of our criminal justice system because it erodes confidence in the system overall and specifically for victims. A shoplifter (or arsonist or murderer or warrant dodger) that gets raped is not less of a rape victim, and the fear of being caught for the former should not scare them away from helping catch someone who did the latter. Your past sins should have no bearing on your access to justice.
- samatman 4y agoNo, there is, until legislation is passed. This isn't something which should be left to police discretion, it's clearly a valid search under the law. It needs to be placed in the category of evidence inadmissible in other crimes, because it's not there right now.
- abduhl 4y agoLegislation has been passed per the article at two levels of government (local and federal, with state coming) at this point, so society at large has already condemned the practice. And it is not clearly a valid search, otherwise this lawsuit would have been tossed. There is no ethical dilemma here, and there never was. There was a LEGAL dilemma here, and that has been solved via legislation. The ethics have always been clear, just like how there was no ethical dilemma about a woman raping a man being wrong even though the old laws confined rape to penetration.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]