Public allegations of rape stem from failed ‘rule of law'

Crying “witch hunt” and pleading for the rule of law to prevail won’t stop sexual assault victims going public with rape allegations. It certainly won’t stop them marching. This particular brand of protest and vigilantism is a direct result of well-entrenched deficiencies within law enforcement and legal systems when it comes to rape cases.

The vast majority of victims will never make it into the dock and the “rule of the law” will never be available to them. Without first addressing the inadequate processes for collection and testing of evidence in sexual assault cases, we can expect to see an increasing number of victims going public with their experiences. A peaceful protest or two will be the least of our worries.

The compulsion to seek retribution, by any means available, is a strong one. Through the ages we have seen people taking matters of justice into their own hands. It’s a popular narrative. It’s the closing of a circle, the restoration of balance. Psychologists would say that without justice we are stuck in a state of cognitive dissonance. Witnessing terrible crimes being tolerated is directly at odds with our deeply held social belief that if you do wrong you are punished.

This dissonance has grated on the collective female psyche and nagged at non-violent men. We can examine these concepts to help us understand why people keep making public rape allegations, why women have “had enough” and where the solution lies.

We can start by considering that going public with allegations often proves more effective than going to the police in terms of helping victims achieve a sense of justice. It is widely documented that an important part of psychological recovery for anyone affected by any kind of violent crime is the knowledge that the perpetrator was punished. If the act of going to the police were more helpful for victims in achieving a sense of justice, if more perpetrators were convicted, more victims would choose this recourse.

It seems easier on everybody to make a statement down at the local police station in a quiet room rather than broadcast nationally that you were penetrated against your will. This seems like the kind of thing one does when one feels they have no other options.

Similarly, waving a strongly worded placard for the world to see would have been incredibly validating for many victims this week. They would have felt safe in the numbers of people around them, with the same beliefs and the same anger, to finally express the frustration of feeling unheard and unseen. You just don’t get that kind of reception when you tell a cop you were raped. At best they’re non-judgmental. At worst they’re dismissive.

Public appeals also tend to be effective at bringing together a string of victims of the same perpetrator — at least more effective than your garden-variety police investigation. Victims who have been living in isolation from each other, who believe they are alone in their experience, are suddenly validated by the fact that it also happened to someone else. The power of connection emboldens victims to come forward and strengthens the prosecution.

Some victims seek restorative justice through an out-of-court mediation session rather than going to the police. Sometimes having the perpetrator simply acknowledge what they did, or even apologise, is crucial in gaining closure. It’s not a readily accessible option for many victims given the limited number of centres and the reluctance of most perpetrators to participate.

Some victims seek retribution through violence. I’m currently reporting on a Tasmanian paedophile who has had his car burnt out, windows smashed and a shot gun shoved in his mouth.

But most victims won’t report, won’t bash the perpetrator, won’t make public allegations and won’t explore options of out-of-court mediation. Most will resign themselves to a lifetime of pain with no resolution. They are watching the situation unfolding nationally, where a dead woman’s diaries are being used to invalidate her experience and discredit her as a person, and they are resolving to remain locked in a silence that is steadily killing them.

Calling for victims of sexual assault to stop going public with their rape allegations, and for the media to stop reporting on it, doesn’t actually solve anything. I’m afraid begging for victims to “see reason” is a bit useless in a country that is effectively lawless when it comes to sexual abuse and assault. It’s natural for people to cling to law as a moral beacon in times of uncertainty, but there comes a point when it makes more sense to challenge the law.

If you want to end the witch hunts, give rape victims a legitimate and accessible avenue of genuine recourse. Train police in how to take statements from sexual assault victims, how to investigate a rape case and how to compile evidence that will lead to a prosecution. Upskilling, educating and resourcing will be critical. It’s like a nationwide cultural sensitivity lesson for those venturing out of rape culture and into a foreign land. Laughing at a victim who is reporting historical sex abuse is not best practice. Neither is asking “aren’t you a bit old for this?” or telling a victim you “don’t have time to take a statement”. I reference these experiences with the permission of the child sex abuse survivors who lived them.

Judges and barristers are not immune to harbouring misconceptions about rape and child sex abuse that continue to influence their application of the law. They, too, will need a couple of professional development courses in the psychological impact of sexual violence and how this might manifest itself in a courtroom. How it might affect a victim’s ability to give evidence. Law school curriculums need to be updated with the latest trauma research.

Still, in 2021, judges are questioning child sex abuse victims who delay in reporting their abuse. The misconception that a delay in reporting somehow casts doubt over allegations still exists within those at the pinnacle of the law — those determining innocence or guilt and handing out the sentences. These misconceptions persist despite an extensive body of research that has established beyond doubt that delays in reporting are a normal and expected symptom of trauma. People, often children, don’t report initially because they are doing their absolute best to forget it ever happened. They have to get up afterwards and go to school. They are trying to survive.

Police and the “rule of the law” have demonstrated time and again they are not realistic avenues of recourse for victims of sexual assault. The paedophile nurse in Tasmania was reported to police not once, not twice, not three or four times, but five times before police laid charges.

Instead of scorning women for failing to run down to the cop shop directly after they’ve been raped to have semen scraped out of their vagina to be used as evidence, we can start by acknowledging that the “rule of the law” has failed them and talking about what we can do to change this.

Virginia Tapscott is a freelance journalist based in regional NSW.
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