Reforming rape trials : the impact of law reform on criminal trials in Australia / Julia Quilter, Luke McNamara

Oxford ; Oxford University Press, 2026.

1st edition

203497

Criminal procedure.

Evidence, Criminal -- Law and legislation.

Rape -- Australia.

Trials (Rape)

Rape -- Public opinion.

1. Introduction

2. Theorizing the problems with rape law and trials

3. The Australian rape law reform project since the 1970s

4. Windows to rape trial practice

5. Special measures for rape trials

6. Framing the crown case: the influence of 'real rape' attributes

7. Cross-examination: 'genuine' victims, 'lying' complainants, and the resilience of rape myths

8. Intoxication evidence

9. Judicial influences on rape trials

10. Conclusion.

This book draws on qualitative analysis of transcripts from Australian rape trials to explain why 50 years of 'progressive' law reforms have failed to remove rape myths from the courtroom or reduce intense scrutiny of the complainant's credibility. After analysing tens of thousands of pages of transcripts from NSW and Victorian trials, the authors show that complainants in rape trials are still routinely accused of lying. They are still interrogated about their failure to behave in the manner expected of a 'genuine' victim of sexual violence. The problem is not so much one of reform implementation, or imperfect translation to practice, but that statutory reform has never seriously attempted to prevent lawyers from engaging rape myths in the courtroom. Cross-examination continues to pursue traditional rape myth-inspired lines of questioning because the rules allow them to do so. Law-makers have never seriously attempted to eradicate rape myth engagement and victim-survivor character assassination. Favoured tools for 'modernizing' rape trials—such as rich and complex statutory definitions of consent and non-consent, and educative jury directions—do not address the practices that cry out for transformation, such as rape-myth inspired lines of cross-examination. The book concludes that if the criminal justice system is to have any hope of providing justice to victim-survivors of sexual violence, the parameters of law reform need to be widened. A key priority is to address the capacious concept of 'relevant' evidence, which is the gate through which rape myths flood into the courtroom. - Abstract.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9780198948179

1 online resource (xx, 268 pages) ; PDF