Anne Cossins
Closing the Justice Gap for Adult and Child Sexual Assault
Rethinking the Adversarial Trial
1st ed. 2020
Anne Cossins
Honorary Professor and former Professor of Law and Criminology Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
ISBN 978-1-137-32050-6e-ISBN 978-1-137-32051-3
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Contents
List of Figures
Chapter 1
Fig. 1 Progress of a sexual offence through the criminal justice system14
Fig. 2 Convictions for incidents of sexual assault & rape as a proportion of the estimated number of victims (3-year average E&W: 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012)38
Fig. 3 Convictions for incidents of sexual assault & rape as a proportion of police-recorded incidents (3-year average E&W: 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012)39
Fig. 4 Attrition of CSA offences prior to prosecution in E&W, year ending March 2016 (data taken from Kelly & Karsna, 2017)45
Fig. 5 The progress of sexual offences through NSW criminal justice system, 2014 (NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research [NSWBOCSAR]) (https://www.scribd.com/document/273468462/Sexual-Attribution-Diagrams#)50
Fig. 6 Progression of reported CSA cases with respect to the complainant’s Indigenous status: Jurisdiction A (Australia) (Bailey et al., 2017)66
Fig. 7 Progression of reported CSA cases with respect to the complainant’s Indigenous status: Jurisdiction B (Australia) (Bailey et al., 2017)67
Chapter 2
Fig. 1 From individual processing to group processing (based on Kerr et al., 1996)111
Chapter 6
Fig. 1 The parts of a criminal trial that encourage hypothesis-testing by the jury253
Fig. 2 Sites of activation: heuristics within a criminal trial254
Fig. 3 ‘Director’s cut’ model linking juror and defendant characteristics to juror decisions (Adapted from Devine & Caughlin, 2014: 112; with additions by author)262
Fig. 4 Adaptation of the ‘Director’s cut’ model linking juror, defendant and victim characteristics to juror decisions in sexual assault trials (Adapted from Devine & Caughlin, 2014: 112)266
Chapter 7
Fig. 1 The relational concepts of consent and belief as to consent330
Chapter 11
Fig. 1 Comparison of adversarial trial and trauma-informed system558
Chapter 12
Fig. 1 ‘Director’s cut’ model linking juror and defendant characteristics to juror decisions (Adapted from Devine & Caughlin, 2014: 112; with additions by author)590
Fig. 2 Trauma-informed, specialist court616
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 1 Australia: victimisation rates for sexual assault for different age groups, per 100,000 (2017)8
Table 2 The victimisation rate, by sex of victim, for recorded victims of sexual offences compared to victims of select personal violence offences in Australia, 201816
Table 3 Australian students’ reasons for not reporting sexual assault to university17
Table 4 Reasons for not reporting rape to police: CSEW (adults 16–59 years)18
Table 5 The proportion of sexual offences, by sex of victim, for police-recorded crimes against the person in England and Wales, year ending March 201819
Table 6 Recorded sexual offences against children in the UK and Number of sexual offences per 10,000 Children (2016/2017)20
Table 7 Recorded sexual assault rates (per 100,000) for England, Wales and Australia21
Table 8 Patterns of disclosure of sexually abused children23
Table 9 Police-recorded incidents of sexual offences, E&W, April 2017–March 201840
Table 10 Sexual assault incidents reported to NSW police involving child and adult victims, 2006–2014 (NSWBOCSAR)54
Table 11 Selected defendants finalised in all Australian criminal courts by principle offence, 2016–2017 to 2017–201859
Table 12 Selected defendants finalised by principle offence in NSW higher courts, 2016–2017 to 2017–201860
Table 13 Outcomes of all child sexual assault matters in NSW courts, July 2012 to June 201662
Table 14 All defendant appearances for all child sexual assault matters in NSW courts, July 2012–June 201663
Table 15 Comparison of conviction rates for child sexual assault matters with other offences in all NSW courts, July 2012–June 201664
Chapter 4
Table 1 Comparison of symptoms of sexual victimisation with rape myths163
Chapter 5
Table 1 Recent rape myth studies categorised according to the seven IRMAS categories187
Table 2 Cultural expectations of victims’ responses to rape compared to documented responses of victims to trauma218
Table 3 Laypeople’s and jurors’ misconceptions about children’s responses to sexual abuse and suggestibility as witnesses222
Chapter 7
Table 1 Scope of the mental element for prosecuting sexual intercourse without consent in different jurisdictions294
Table 2 Dubowski’s stages of acute alcohol intoxication308
Chapter 8
Table 1 Frequency of leading and closed questions during cross-examination by different examiners399
Table 2 The cross-examination effect: degree of changes to evidence by children subject to cross-examination-type questions404
Chapter 11
Table 1 Studies on the impact of testifying in court on children in CSA cases536
Table 2 Post-traumatic stress reactions for children according to age546
Table 3 The ten principles of trauma-informed services549
Table 4 Comparison of the cultural environments of the adversarial trial and a trauma-informed system557
Table 5 A trauma-informed courtroom environment567
Chapter 12
Table 1 The principles of restorative justice versus empowerment theory633