Constituting power in sexual assault cases: Prosecutorial strategies for victim management

This paper examines the interactive processes through which prosecutors manage sexual assault victims during complaint filing interviews. Using ethnographic data from the post-rape-law-reform period and the micropolitics of trouble framework, I identify three strategies prosecutors use to manage complainants: displays of con cern, specifying downstream possibilities, and shifting paradigms. I argue that prosecutors access to legal resources and remedies, as well as their insiders knowledge of the the system severely constrain victim's power. suggest, given current legal practices, the efficaciousness of rape law reform is questionable.