News Archive

A former basketball player was arrested in connection with a rape nearly seven months after the incident happened. Professor Jennifer Drobac talked with a reporter from the Indianapolis Star for a story on why the process may have taken so long.

"It's not rare, let me put it that way," Professor Drobac in the story said of the time between the alleged rape and arrest. "It depends on the case. But rape cases are historically very difficult to prove because people tend not to take women seriously when they’ve been raped. When prosecutors move forward they want to do so very carefully and, particularly these days, they want to make sure they have enough evidence so as not to have a crushing defeat." 

Professor Drobac is a widely known expert in sexual harassment law. She is an author of the textbook, Sexual Harassment Law: History, Cases and Practice, recently published by Carolina Academic Press. She co-authored the book with Professor Carrie N. Baker of Smith College and Professor Rigel C. Oliveri of the University of Missouri School of Law. Professor Drobac is at work on her next book, The Myth of Consent, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press. That work will explore the neuroscience of adult decision making and how the science should influence law reform, particularly the law of consent. She is a Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law.