The upcoming documentary Victim/Suspect follows journalist Rae de Leon as she investigates a disturbing pattern across sexual assault cases nationwide — survivors who go to the police to report their assaults are often treated as suspects.
In de Leon’s research, which includes recordings from police interrogations, interviews with victims, and accounts from legal experts, we learn that survivors reporting their assault are sometimes charged with or even arrested for filing a false report. Victim/Suspect offers a painful look into a criminal justice system that fails its victims and emboldens a hostile environment that threatens those who speak up. This is the latest documentary from filmmaker Nancy Schwartzman, whose harrowing investigation Roll Red Roll was nominated for a Peabody.