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Sexual Assault And The Doctrine Of Chances In The Courtroom, Ryan Wallentine
Sexual Assault And The Doctrine Of Chances In The Courtroom, Ryan Wallentine
Research on Capitol Hill
Sexual assault can have devastating and long-lasting effects on victims, but many assailants get away with their crime without being prosecuted.
The doctrine of chances is a rule of evidence allowing evidences of past crimes, wrongs, or acts to show it is unlikely a defendant would be repeatedly and innocently involved in similar, suspicious circumstances.
Given that about 63.3% of assailants are repeat offenders, the doctrine of chances could effectively be used in sexual assault cases.
The main objective is to determine a precise probabilistic threshold for allowing the use of the doctrine of chances in sexual assault cases such …