#32: John E.B. Myers on Why the Criminal Justice System Struggles to Believe Women

In this episode of The Idealists. (formerly Grit & Grace), host and entrepreneur Melissa Kiguwa interviews the second man on the show, John E.B. Myers, an authority on child abuse and domestic violence. He has written fifteen books and more than 100 articles and chapters on child maltreatment, domestic violence, evidence, criminal law, and family law. Professor Myers’ writing has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, and nearly 200 other courts. He has given more than 400 presentations on maltreatment across America and abroad.

In this episode, John breaks down the history of the United States court system's skepticism of women and the ways in which this legacy continues.

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In the episode:

– John begins the show by describing what legal literature from 1880 to 1975 says about the rape of adult women. He breaks down the four themes the court believed as to why women were not credible victims.

– These themes were: the fear of fabricated allegations, the fear of crazy women, a preoccupation with consent where no really means yes, and that if a woman testifies in court about being sexually assaulted she should not be believed without corroborating evidence because a woman's testimony by itself is unreliable.

– He then describes how the theories of female instability by prominent psychologists influenced legal practitioners even if later these theories were debunked.

– He then shares how at one point Sigmund Freud believed the mental illness he saw in his female patients could be explained through their experience of sexual assault and rape, especially by fathers. John then explains how Freud controversially abandoned this theory and replaced it with the Oedipus complex.

– John ends the episode explaining where he thinks the court system still needs to expunge these archaic ideas about women.

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