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This book examines the justice gap and trial process for sexual assault against both adults and children in two jurisdictions: England and Wales and New South Wales, Australia. Drawing on decades of research, it investigates the reality of the policing and prosecution of sexual assault offences – often seen as one of the ‘hardest crimes to prosecute’ – across two similar jurisdictions. Despite the introduction of the many reform options detailed in the book, satisfactory outcomes for victims and the public are still difficult to obtain. Cossins takes a new approach by examining the nature and effects of adversarialism on vulnerable witnesses, jury decision-making and the structures of power within the trial process, to show how, and at what points, that process is weighted against complainants of sexual assault, in order to make evidence-based suggestions for reform. She argues that this justice gap is a result of a moralistic adversarial culture which fosters myths and misconceptions about rape and child sexual assault, thus requiring the prosecution to prove a complainant’s moral worthiness. She argues this culture can only be eliminated by a radical replacement of the adversarial system with a trauma-informed system. By reviewing the relevant psychological literature, this book documents the triggers for re-traumatisation within an adversarial trial, and discusses the reform measures that would be necessary to transform the sexual assault trial from one where the complainant’s moral worthiness is ‘on trial’ to a fully functioning trauma-informed system. It speaks to students and academics across subjects including law, criminology, gender studies and psychology, and practitioners in law and victim services, as well as policy-makers.
This book examines the justice gap and trial process for sexual assault against both adults and children in two jurisdictions: England and Wales and New South Wales, Australia. Drawing on decades of research, it investigates the reality of the policing and prosecution of sexual assault offences – often seen as one of the ‘hardest crimes to prosecute’ – across two similar jurisdictions. Despite the introduction of many reform options, satisfactory outcomes for victims and the public are still difficult to obtain. Cossins takes a new approach by examining the structures of power within the trial process, to show how and at what points that process is weighted against complainants of sexual assault, in order to make thought-out suggestions for reform. She argues that this justice gap is a result of myths and misconceptions about rape which can be eliminated by a radical replacement of the adversarial system with a trauma-informed system. This book takes into consideration the psychological literature and speaks to students and academics across subjects including law, criminology, gender studies and psychology, and to practitioners in law and victim services, and policy-makers.
St. Mary County is a small rural midwestern enclave with a unique approach to handling accusations of child sexual abuse. Hoping to spare children the trauma of lengthy court appearances and probing interrogations, St. Mary's professionals strive to obtain confessions from accused sex offenders rather than ask the victim to bear the burden of proof. Treating this county as a critical case study, scholars from a variety of fields come together to analyze this community's unique approach. They address relevant case law, innovative treatments for both victim and offender, and the social history of child sexual abuse as a national policy concern. They cover legal burdens and scientific methods, prosecutors and protocol, the interrogation of victims and suspects, the use of expert witnesses, defense strategies, and practice wisdom in videotaping. In addition, they examine the unfolding drama of a single legal case from incidence to conviction. The result is a fascinating dialogue that confronts the unique complexities of child sexual abuse for readers on all sides of the issue. Introducing a model that makes enormous headway in the pursuit of justice, fairness, and trauma treatment, this interdisciplinary text is an indispensible tool for all communities seeking redress.
This book is based on award-winning research that analyzes transcripts of intrafamilial child sexual abuse trials. Building on the contemporary focus of legal trials as hegemonic sites of storytelling from the perspectives of dominant interest groups, the argument is developed in three steps. The first documents the development of a de facto relationship between law and psychiatry that simultaneously silences and blames victims of sexual violence, and advances a critique of law as narrative. The second presents a detailed, critical, feminist reading of six trials that are presented as textual case studies. These show the legal mechanisms through which victim/survivor's accounts of abuse are transmuted into forms that facilitate the legal and theoretical acquittal of the alleged abuser and replicates - at symbolic and structural levels - those power relations inherent in the original abuse. The final step in the argument analyzes and synthesizes the structural and thematic patterns in the case studies to show how trials enact a narrative template that maintain a patriarchal status quo around intrafamilial child sexual abuse.
This book, the first to examine the experience of child victims & their families who attempt to seek justice in America's courts, offers practical reforms that would bring greater sensitivity & justice to the legal process. Reviewing American legal history & the equivocal treatment of children & sex crimes, Dziech & Schudson explain how current courtroom procedures often fail to acknowledge a child's abilities & needs, & how child witnesses are often re-victimized by the legal system that is supposed to help them. They argue that there is no justification for subjecting abused children to a second round of trauma -- in court. This important book recommends sweeping changes to assure justice for children, their families, & those accused of harming them.
This book considers how human rights law can help define what could and should be done to protect children from sexual maltreatment. The volume explores diverse forms of sexual maltreatment, compares societal responses to existing research and policies, uncovers basic themes, and proposes directions for future action. Roger Levesque places particular emphasis on the ways abusive activities in different countries and societies are linked with one another and the way diverse societal views of children place them at risk.
Child Sexual Abuse Reported by Adult Survivors is a wide-ranging and timely critical history and analysis of legal responses to ‘historical’ or ‘non-recent’ child sexual abuse (NRCSA) in England and Wales, Ireland and Australia, each of which represents an evolving and progressive approach to this important and complex issue. The book examines the emergence of NRCSA as a distinctive social, political and legal phenomenon in each country and explores the legal responses developed to address its unprecedented challenges. Courts and parliaments in each country have reformed existing doctrine and practice and have created new ways of holding state and private actors accountable and new ways of addressing survivors’ injuries. Criminal law, tort law, public inquiries and state reparations have all been to the forefront of these new legal responses, which have transformed law’s engagement with NRCSA survivors and understandings of justice itself. However, despite this undeniable progress, the book identifies ways in which the legal responses developed in each country fail to deliver accountability and recognition to NRCSA survivors and argues that such failures betray the law’s inherent ambivalence to delivering justice for these survivors. Creating new insights into legal responses to this complex contemporary legal, social and political problem, this book will be of great interest to academic lawyers, political scientists and historians, as well as those working on related topics in criminology, sociology, social policy, cultural studies and gender studies.
This revealing, informative, and disturbing book candidly assesses what's right about the judicial system and what needs to be changed.
A team of educators, counselors, and scholars examine the widespread problem of sexual assault and abuse in the United States from a legal, criminal justice, psychological, clinical, and legislative perspective. The statistics on sexual abuse in the United States suggest that such crimes are perceived as socially acceptable, despite laws to the contrary. Thirty percent of women are battered at least once in their adult lives, while four million girls and women are trafficked annually. Seventy-five percent of employed battered women are harassed at their jobs by abusive husbands or lovers and half of them are murdered by these mates. At least twenty percent of women have been victimized by incest. Victims of Sexual Assault and Abuse serves as a reference guide for professionals working with victims and perpetrators. Topics addressed include assault within marriage, courtship violence, abducted and runaway youth, violence against pregnant women, cyberspace violence, and sexual harassment of students and employees. This multivolume set promotes legislation to break the cycles of violence and dispels myths about victims and perpetrators. Preventative programs, policies, and educational programs are emphasized.
The central features of this workbook are two first-person fictional narratives that were written for a Massachusetts District Attorney's Office to provide to victims of child abuse so that they could understand the process of criminal justice they find themselves in.