For victims of sexual assault, the judicial process can sometimes be an uphill battle — even when they know the identity of their attacker.

Many victims can face scrutiny from their peers, society and sometimes from the people tasked with assisting them, MSU Sexual Assault Program Coordinator Shari Murgittroyd said.

Murgittroyd said victims reporting sexual assault often are met with skepticism when reporting their assault to law enforcement officials and throughout the investigative process — particularly in acquaintance rape situations where alcohol is involved.

“We live in a culture that really does blame victims of sex crimes,” she said. “It’s a very interesting nuance because we don’t do that for other crimes like auto theft or breaking and entering. It’s extremely difficult for victims to come forward because they are met with skepticism … people believe that they were asking for it.”

This skepticism is lower for stranger assaults — such as the reported assault on an 18-year-old female student, which allegedly occurred this past Saturday in Armstrong Hall — than those committed by acquaintances. But only about 20 percent of all rape victims actually report the incident to police, Murgittroyd said.

She also said one of the biggest misconceptions about victims is that some — even those who report the incident to police — do not want to press charges against their assailant. Often this is out of their control.

For the victims who do come forward about their attacks, the judicial process begins with reporting the incident to local law enforcement, such as the MSU or East Lansing police departments.

If the department feels they have substantial evidence, the case is moved on to the prosecutor’s office.

Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said upon receiving any case, including those involving criminal sexual conduct, his office will evaluate the evidence and decide if there is enough information to go to trial or if the case must go back to the police for further investigation.

The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office has two assistant prosecuting attorneys designated specifically for criminal sexual conduct, or CSC, cases. The two specialists review the cases to decide which ones most warrant their expertise, the rest are handed over to other assistant prosecutors within the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office, Dunnings said.

Dunnings said the willingness of victims to cooperate in the investigation varies case to case and victim to victim — not all are willing to openly discuss these types of incidents.

“I would say the first thing (to consider) is how does the alleged victim feel about it,” he said.

“There have been times when young ladies come in and say they are reluctant or don’t want talk about what happened. But there are alleged victims who will say they are ready to go.”

Political theory and constitutional democracy senior Annie Norris and comparative cultures and politics senior Chelsea Yondo conducted a study on the process of sexual assaults being dealt with at MSU and in Ingham County for a class during the spring 2011 semester.

Norris and Yondo said their research found many resources at MSU, such as the Sexual Assault Program and MSU Safe Place, that help victims deal with the mental, physical and emotional ramifications of sexual assault or abuse, but they said they would like more of these assaults to see trial.

But Yondo said the blame cannot be put solely on the police, the prosecution or even jury members. The misconceptions about sexual assault are a cultural misunderstanding.

“There’s hesitancy to push the prosecutor’s office too much or call them out in particular, because it’s understood that this is a social misunderstanding,” Yondo said. “This is a social phenomenon that misunderstands sexual assault.”