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Where Next? Conclusions and Considerations for the Future of Rape Justice

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Abstract

A summary of the book’s key arguments will follow, but first I note the sense of a Sisyphean struggle for reform, as highlighted by McGlynn (2010), throughout. My findings show evidence of clear improvements on Lees’ (1997) observations, but some problems have also remained stubbornly consistent in the intervening 20 years. For example, barristers and judges now demonstrate awareness of the realities of rape and empathise with survivors, but they retain the sense that survivors are collateral damage in the justice process. Similarly, there have been wide-ranging restrictions on the use of sexual history since Lees’ work, and yet Chap. 4 revealed these restrictions being diluted to the point that they no longer presented any barrier to such evidence. Defence tactics also remain strikingly familiar, with both Lees’ (1997) work and my own observations showing how survivors are placed ‘on trial’ rather than the accused. This is mirrored in New Zealand research by Zydervelt, Zajac, Kaladelfos, and Westera (2016), which found that lawyers’ strategies for cross-examination had barely changed since the 1950s despite social and legal reforms (see also Stern, 2010, on the UK context).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These circumstances include that the accused used violence or fear of violence, the accused was not lawfully detained while the complainant was, the complainant was asleep or unconscious, the complainant’s physical disability meant they could not communicate consent, or if the complainant had been given a substance without consent that would stupefy or overpower them.

  2. 2.

    Indeed, Morris (2003) argued that restorative approaches are focused on getting offenders to accept responsibility for their actions, whereas the traditional justice system encourages denial.

  3. 3.

    Offenders tended to be more satisfied than survivors, but both parties were more satisfied than their counterparts in the traditional criminal justice system (Braithwaite, 1999).

  4. 4.

    However, it is notable that evidence submitted to the Independent Inquiry in Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales suggested that the average award is only around £13,000.

  5. 5.

    Historically, sexual violence was considered a private matter and trivialised as something that was not a societal problem (Westmarland , 2015). Through feminist activism and the rise in human rights discourse, violence against women has now been recognised as a public issue that should be dealt with at all levels of society (Council of Europe, 2012). Anything that appears to erode societal responsibility is understandably treated with caution for fear of trivialising the problem once again.

  6. 6.

    However, the Domestic Violence, Crime & Victims Act 2004 introduced a £15 Victims Surcharge in 2007, which is paid by offenders in addition to fines in order to finance support services and state compensation. It was extended in 2012 to provide an extra £50 million funding (Hall, 2013).

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  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK

    Olivia Smith

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Smith, O. (2018). Where Next? Conclusions and Considerations for the Future of Rape Justice. In: Rape Trials in England and Wales. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75674-5_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75674-5_7

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