Sex offenses and rape claims

 Sex offenses and rape claims are some of the most highly controversial cases an investigator will be called to task on during his or her career. While we have discussed a criminal investigator’s responsibility in legally collecting evidence of guilt in all cases, they have an equal, and often more important, role in exonerating or eliminating suspects due to false allegations so as the innocent can be saved from unfounded and unnecessary prosecutions. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Report (Links to an external site.), false allegations of rapes account for a rate that is 300 percent higher than the rate of false allegations for all other index crimes in the United States. Based upon this duty to also investigate and exonerate when appropriate, select a completed and adjudicated case (e.g., Duke rape case, Tawana Brawley rape allegations, the McMartin preschool trial, etc.) and develop an essay that discusses the specific facts of the case available through an Internet search. The goal of this review is to identify a focused set of identified tasks and responsibilities that are required but were not adhered to in the specific incident