https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8826217/jenna-price-justice-mccallum-challenges-sexual-assault-jury-bias/
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My goodness, a judge speaks common sense and all hell breaks loose.
Let's put our hands together now for Justice Lucy McCallum, chief justice of the ACT, who last week spoke for all of us when she said: "I want to understand why in the 2020s, jurors find it so hard to believe allegations of sexual assault."
Ok, let me answer that because McCallum, an absolute queen, has gone to ground because of the deranged way barristers have responded. You might not have heard Jack Pappas, ACT barrister on ABC Radio this week, basically saying everything is perfect in the matter of sexual assault trials in this country. My god, my ears nearly exploded. In short, he thought juries always made the right decision.
"I've been doing this for a very long time. I've probably run more sex trials than any barrister in the ACT. In my experience, it's not rare for convictions to be recorded, neither is it rare for men to be acquitted or women to be acquitted. Because it's not always a man who is accused of a sex crime."
Ok Jack. You would say that (also please stop calling them "sex trials", I beg you). But let me help you out with some statistics which may (probably won't) change your mind. In the year ending June 2023, ACT courts heard 137 sexual violence cases. Of those, 33 ended with guilty verdicts and of those, 28 pleaded guilty.
Of the 33 guilty verdicts, only 10 had a custodial sentence. Ten.
So when Pappas and his ilk reject McCallum's comments, I wonder who they think they are fooling.
It's not that juries themselves are biased in favour of perpetrators. It's that society carries with it ridiculous stereotypes about those who allege they have been sexually assaulted. She's only doing it to get revenge. She's been dumped.
Australian research tells us that two in five Australians believe that women make up false reports of sexual assault in order to punish men. The same research tells us that Australians think sexual aggression can be attributed in part to men's 'natural sex drive'.
But here's what we know about those who allege sexual assault. They do it because they don't want the perpetrator to do this to anyone else. They want to get on with recovering and healing but are making the complaint because their lives have been destroyed. Everything has been much harder after the sexual assault and they don't want anyone else's life ruined.
While I can't pretend to understand what led to McCallum's bravery at taking on the legal establishment, it might just be the case of the woman who just lost in the middle of lengthy and drawn-out legal proceedings.
The poor woman just started shouting in the middle of a cross-examination: "You know what you've done. You know what you've f---ing done! I'm not answering any more questions. I've had enough."
I asked Swinburne University's Rachael Burgin, an expert in criminal justice and criminology, what she thought about McCallum's remarks.
"Nothing she said is incorrect. It is uncontroversial to say that juries rely on rape myths and stereotypes about sexual violence. [McCallum said] nothing which doesn't align with decades of evidence domestically and internationally.
"The criminal justice system has a long way to go to be able to meaningfully respond and address the problem of attrition of rape charges."
Will it change?
"I have to hope that it will change ... the deck is stacked against victim-survivors. Victims should be part of the process and not just witnesses to their own rape."
Acting ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Margie Rowe hopes for change too. She says victim-survivors of sexual violence have been frustrated and disappointed with their experiences within the criminal justice system for decades - and for good reason.
"But I want people to have hope because things are starting to change. We are beginning to understand how important it is - and the need for - someone to walk alongside victims, someone to advocate for them."
"And that is now happening through advocates at Victim Support, CRCC and the new Sexual Violence Legal Service."
But Katherine Berney was listening to the ABC on Wednesday morning and said Pappas's comments highlighted the serious issues facing the criminal justice system.
"It's why we have an Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into strengthening the criminal justice system," says Berney.
Then she takes me through all those figures, the tiny number of guilty verdicts, the fact that somehow there are few custodial sentences but community service and good behaviour bonds.
Pappas said on the ABC: "It's not the wrongful acquittals that are causing the problem or have the potential to be so harmful, it's the wrongful convictions. If you are convicted of a serious sex crime you are going to go to jail and you may go to jail for a very long time."
Berney, executive director of the National Women's Safety Alliance, says we don't put people in prison for sexual violence. "But if someone is acquitted who is guilty, they can cause harm in the community and they are emboldened. Surely that should be a concern to the legal profession."
Here's our problem. Australian women still don't want to report sexual assault because they know exactly how they will be treated once they get into the courtroom. They will be asked every irrelevant thing. Are they wearing underwear? Are they being provocative? Did you complain because you didn't experience any pleasure? Or because the bed was too hard? (These are all real questions, by the way.)
Veteran sexual assault activist Nina Funnell has started a campaign called Take The Stand. She says of sexual assault survivors: "We know when they take the stand they do so at great personal cost and they are doing it to keep the community safe.
"Now the community needs to take a stand and insist on a criminal justice system that does not further traumatise those who enter it."
I'm sure Jack Pappas is very good at his job, very good. His job is to make sure his clients get off. And he clearly believes everything he says. But that doesn't mean the society in which he does his job is any good at discerning what is real and what is fabricated.
We make a lot of excuses in this country for male behaviour and it begins with, let boys be boys. There are plenty of wonderful men in our communities but there are also rapists. We need to give them the justice they deserve. Their victims deserve it.
Ignore all the barracking from barristers and know that McCallum has a point.
- Jenna Price is a regular columnist and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University.
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#FsckRWNJs #FsckThePatriarchy #FsckMisogynists #FsckSexists 🖕
#Feminism #WomensRights #WomensRepresentation #misogyny #sexism #DomesticViolence #DieDickswingersDie #WomanNeedsManLikeFishNeedsBicycle
