There is a name that often resonates in courtrooms and frequently appears in police reports or US judicial news. This is Jane Doe, the pseudonym par excellence used to protect victims of sexual violence. Famous in the Anglo-Saxon legal world, nowadays this name is used to identify a woman whose identity is unknown or must remain secret for security reasons. A term that over the years has become a truly fundamental pillar for guaranteeing the right to anonymity, privacy and protection of victims.
The origins
To find the origin of this legal pseudonym you need to go back in time to 14th century England, during the reign of King Edward III, between 1327 and 1377. At the time, if a landowner wanted to evict a delinquent tenant or squatter, he had to initiate a legal action called a Writ of Right, a complex process used to resolve disputes over ownership of land. To demonstrate the title of absolute ownership, however, it was necessary to present mountains of documents and testimonies. The bureaucratic process could go on for years and the defaulting tenant even had the right to ask for a duel to the death to decide who owned the land.
John Doe and Richard Roe
So, to get around the bureaucracy and avoid dangerous consequences, lawyers started using two fictitious names. The fake tenant who was being evicted was called John Doe, while the fake landlord who wanted to evict him from the property was called Richard Roe. The choice of terms was not random, but linked to the fauna present in the English countryside: the term doe indicated the female fallow deer or deer, while roe referred to the roe deer, perfect symbols to represent ordinariness and anonymity. In fact, by using these imaginary names the duel option could not be applied, reconstructing the entire history of the property was avoided and procedural technicalities or formal defects, perhaps due to banal errors in transcription of the data, were eliminated.
The “birth” of Jane Doe
After British colonization, this custom was integrated into the legal system of the United States. When the old medieval procedures were abolished in the mid-19th century, the name John Doe remained in common use to indicate any unknown man. At the same time, the variant for women was coined: Jane Doe. In subsequent centuries, the use of this name was extended by US courts to all civil and criminal proceedings in which revealing the plaintiff’s personal details could have exposed her to serious social harm, retaliation or psychological trauma. In cases of sexual violence, the pseudonym has become a real protective shield against public shame and the risk of secondary victimization. Under the name of Jane Doe, women can report, testify and ask for justice, separating the private from the public sphere, without the fear of seeing their lives exposed to the media.
The rape at Cornell University
In recent days, Jane Doe’s name has once again filled the pages of newspapers around the world in relation to the gang rape reported by a former Cornell University student, dating back to October 2024. The woman filed a civil lawsuit against seven members of the Chi Phi university fraternity, accused of having drugged and raped her. After the case exploded, some users tried to trace the identity of the woman who had filed the complaint, triggering a huge response on social media. From
From gimmick to “shield”
A digital wall erected in defense of the victim’s anonymity, while the investigation into the matter has been entrusted to special prosecutor Letitia James, who will have to shed light on what happened to Jane Doe of Cornell University. A bureaucratic expedient that over the centuries has transformed into the symbol of a fundamental civil right. Whether in a courtroom, in a newspaper article or on social media, Jane Doe’s name reminds us of the importance of protecting the safety and dignity of those seeking justice