Rape Victims Have Been Failed By Our Legal System For Too Long 15/6/2007
Rape Victims Have Been Failed By Our Legal System For Too Long
The decision by our NSW Labor government to reform the rape laws is welcome but overdue. Probably about 100 years overdue.
According to "Girls Like You" by Paul Sheehan only 1 in 100 perpetrators of sexual assault in Australia end up in gaol.
A victim may not report sexual assault because she does not want the trauma of a court case, or the embarrassment of recounting the event in a police interview, or she is in fear of her attacker, or she fears she will not be believed.
If she does report it the police may not believe her or they may not pursue the case.
If they do pursue the case the attacker may not be apprehended.
If the attacker is apprehended, the police may not consider it worth taking the case to court because they estimate a low chance of conviction.
If the case goes to court, due to character assassination and intimidation of the victim by the defence attorney, the attacker may not be found not guilty.
In no other area of law is there such a statistical gap between commission of a crime and a conviction.
What would the outrage be if only 1 in 100 motorists who were photographed going through a red light camera got a fine?
When it comes to that what would be the outrage if only 1 in 100 of the legal aid lawyers who defend rapists got paid?
Under muslim sharia law in Nigeria recently a man was sentenced to death by stoning for the rape of his 15 year old stepdaughter. She in turn got 100 strokes of the cane for being raped.
In enlightened countries like Australia rape victims don't get caned, they are only forced to be humiliated, traumatised, defamed and psychologically scarred by unscrupulous defence lawyers intent on destroying them in trials that can drag on for years.
If these victims had the choice they'd probably prefer a quick 100 lashes as long as they saw their attackers locked up.
The low conviction rate for sexual assault and the way the odds are stacked against the victim demands reform.
One solution might be to offer perpetrators a substantial discount in sentence for a guilty plea to save victims the harrowing experience of a trial. This might upset those who love screaming for tougher sentences, but we'd jail more rapists that way.