Our society's ambivalence toward acquaintance rape is based on a special permissiveness regarding male sexual aggression against female social acquaintances; this permissiveness can be called a "culture of acceptance." This culture of acceptance, together with the stereotypes that it promotes, generates the attitudes that affect jury decisions. However, the current application of the rape laws ignores this prejudice. Therefore, an active attempt is needed at all stages of a trial to neutralize this latent prejudice. This effort should include both preventive and educational measures. The preventive measures should eliminate prejudiced jurors from the jury panel. The educational measures should use phenomenological methodology to clarify for jurors any nonverbal contextual evidence. Regardless of the measures used, courts must not permit attorneys or jurors to perpetuate latent gender biases. Footnotes