Myths about how rape and sex assault victims ‘should’ react will be busted by Victoria Police
POLICE will educate the judiciary and legal system to bust damaging myths about how rape and sexual assault victims behave in court.
Law & Order
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POLICE will educate the judiciary and prosecutors to bust common myths about rape and sex assault victims.
The groundbreaking education package aims to stamp out myths about how victims “should” react, and challenge outdated court cross-examination methods.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter has developed the package with the Australian Institute of Family Studies. The document is likely to be released next month.
They hope erroneous concepts about how victims may recall, respond to or report sex crimes are dispelled from the minds of the judiciary and prosecutors.
It will address 15 common, often wrong, ideas including that victims recall the offence in a chronological and coherent way, and that they will report the crime immediately.
“The community believes victims will respond in a certain way that supports their view of what a victim ‘should’ do, and we need to dispel that,” Mr McWhirter said.
The initiative comes as Victorian crime statistics released this month showed reporting of sexual assault had more than doubled in four years.
Mr McWhirter said he hoped the education program would support victims through the legal system and reduce the risk that they would be “re-traumatised or re-victimised” by it. He said other sexual-assault myths include:
THE attack will be perpetrated by a stranger;
VICTIMS will always show a lot of emotion;
IF A woman has consented in the past it means she will do so in future;
“AUTHENTIC” rape or sexual assault results in physical injury to the victim.
“The myths and misconceptions are so strong and embedded in mainstream understanding (that they) impact every decision right through to the criminal process,” he said. “They have a key impact on how a victim is treated and on attrition rates.”
Mr McWhirter said incorrect assumptions were often made if the victim showed no physical signs of an attack.
“There is a misconception about the resistance of rape victims, that they are going to resist and fight off violent offenders and there’s going to be a whole lot of physical force to the victim during the rape or assault,” he said.
“In a lot of cases victims, particularly when familiar with the offender, are going to freeze and co-operate rather than try to fight them off.”
The move comes in the wake of a collapsed case against three men committed for trial for the alleged gang rape of a 14 year-old Geelong girl, after her family decided the risk of re-traumatising her during trial was too great.
Victim advocates have argued trauma, which can cause victims to recall things out of sequence or in a fragmented way, has been long used against them by cross-examining barristers.
Mr McWhirter cited recent research which found despite legislative reforms, rape complainants still found cross-examination distressing, demeaning and humiliating.
Tactics used by defence lawyers to challenge victims’ accounts had not advanced since the 1950s.
Former Victorian Attorney-General and justice advocate Rob Hulls said a Centre for Innovative Justice report found the traditional adversarial court system was “not serving victims of sexual assault”.
“Figures suggest 1 per cent of victims end up reporting to police and going through committal and trial and ultimately that resulting in a guilty verdict against the perpetrator,” he said.
“One in 100, that means 99 per cent of victims are missing out (on justice).
“The current system is letting victims down.”
The Victoria Police/Australian Institute of Family Studies education paper is likely to be released next month.