U.S. Police Forces Receive New Federal Guidance On Gender Bias in Sexual Assault Cases

On December 10, Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw was convicted on 18 counts of rape and assault after over a dozen African-American women reported that he sexually abused them under threat of arrest. Speaking with The Oklahoman newspaper after the verdict, Oklahoma City Police Chief Bill Citty said that his biggest takeaway from the trial was that “the system does work.”

Perhaps he was referencing that particular court trial, but it’s not clear that the criminal justice system works for everyone. There were 18 counts of rape or assault of five of the women that Holtzclaw was cleared of, and attorneys for the women say there were other victims who were afraid to come forward. Almost all of the women had been arrested in the past on drug or prostitution offenses, which prosecutors in the case argued was the reason Holtzclaw preyed on them: No one would believe the words of women with criminal records.