“Children in a Terrible State”: Understandings of Trauma and Child Sexual Assault in 1970s and 1980s Australia*

ABSTRACT

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has shown us the multitude of ways that children were vulnerable to sexual violence. This article explores child sexual abuse outside of institutions, and the development of concepts of trauma in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s. From the mid-1970s, there was increased social, medical and legal focus on child abuse. Driven originally by feminists, there was a new interest in the psychological impacts of abuse, including analysis of the grief, despair, fear and anger experienced by survivors. The explosion of interest in child sexual abuse was mainstreamed in the Royal Commission into Human Relationships (1974–1978) and in discussion leading up to the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989). Across the 1980s, public recognition grew concerning the dangers of sexual violence against children, and, in particular, the increased knowledge and interest in intra-familial assaults. This article will chart the dramatic shifts in public consciousness around sexual abuse, particularly around ideas of harm and trauma. It will also suggest that despite a substantial change in cultural views on sexual assault, improvements for child victims were slow to filter through to the criminal justice system.     

强奸犯罪被害人责任研究

强奸犯罪一直困扰着世界各国,我国对强奸犯罪被害人责任的研究尚不深入。强奸犯罪中是否存在被害人责任,承担何种程度上的责任,争议较大,强奸犯罪中被害人责任问题无法也不应回避。研究强奸犯罪被害人责任具有重要的意义。     

民法视野中的婚内强奸罪

婚姻使男女双方从性行为主体角度获得了与对方同居的资格 ,夫妻双方获得的是向对方的同居请求权 ,而非对对方性的支配权。妇女性权利是妇女的一项基本人身权利 ,不能以任何形式转由他人支配和行使 ,包括其丈夫。从利益衡量和妇女解放运动的趋势看 ,婚内强奸亦应成立强奸罪。     

解读婚内强奸问题

婚内强奸作为一个法律问题被提上价值层面乃西方 2 0世纪 70年代女权主义运动以后的事。本文从中、西方文化的差异、价值理念及社会背景不同等实际考察入手 ,提出我国应对婚内强奸以罪性论处的主张     

Social workers' and police officers' perception of victim credibility: Perspective-Taking and the impact of extra-Evidential factors

Abstract

The credibility of a victim can be influenced by factors that objectively should not have any impact on the judgemental process. The present two studies examine the influence of two such factors: (1) the non-verbal behavior of the victim, and (2) the ethnic identity of the victim, in the context of two different perspectives of observation (victim focused or truth detecting). Study 1 focused on perspective taking, and was included for the methodological reason that in Study 2 perspective taking was necessarily confounded with subject gender. Study 1 indicates that the perspective of the observer has a significant influence on the perceived credibility of the victim and the interpretation of non-verbal behavior. In Study 2 perspective-taking was manipulated more realistically by including a sample of social workers and of police officers. The other two factors were manipulated in the videotapes. Results suggested that the white victim exhibiting white non-verbal behavior, judged by a social worker, is perceived as more credible and has less chance of secondary victimisation. The black victim however, exhibiting black non-verbal behavior, who is judged by a police-officer, is perceived as least credible and runs a higher chance of secondary victimisation.     

The Case for a Rational Reconstruction of Consent in Criminal Law

This article argues for consistency in criminal law and the need for 'rational reconstruction' of the law where necessary to achieve this. It focuses Parliament's failure to respect the need for consistency by passing a statutory definition of consent in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which appears to apply only to sexual offences. As a result, the law on consent risks being a patchwork of statute and ad hoc case law, without any overarching principle to deal with new situations and different offences. The consequent lack of certainty, accessibility, predictability and fairness is compared to the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights. The statutory definition of consent in the context of the sexual offences is assessed critically as a model which could be used in offences against the person and property offences. The article concludes that until Parliament responds to the need for certainty and consistency by legislating on consent, there can be no rational reconstruction of consent under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.     

中英刑法上强奸罪之比较

英国自上世纪中叶至本世纪初对强奸罪做过多次修改,当今英国强奸罪的概念与过去相比已有本质上的区别。从纵向评析英国强奸罪概念的发展过程,横向比较中英两国强奸罪的概念和构成,有助于深入探讨我国有关强奸罪法律所存在的问题。例如,强奸罪受害人是否仅限于女性,性行为指向是否仅限女性生殖器,婚内强奸是否构成犯罪,以及如何立法保障男性免受鸡奸等行为的侵害。     

The question of “the black lesbian”: monstrous,ideal and fictitious postapartheid citizen

This paper calls attention to how “the black lesbian”—as a figure and an idea—is emerging as a model of the ideal postapartheid citizen. I argue that this figure is both instituted and undermined at the point at which the nation becomes vexed by its own limits. Within this symbolic politics, “the black lesbian” is staged as a traumatized victim. To track how black lesbians have become enmeshed in debates about defining citizenship, I revisit the rape trial that was initiated when the pseudonymous “Khwezi” made a rape complaint against Jacob Zuma. I examine how “Khwezi” and Zuma came to represent competing ideas about citizenship. Drawing on Berlant’s analysis of the crucial role that “official sexual underclasses” play in the production of “national symbolic and political coherence,” I argue that the trial evidences how “the black lesbian,” a simultaneously abjected and idealized figure, is produced and mobilized as a political resource in South Africa’s citizenship politics.     

浅析婚内强迫性行为的法律规制

对婚内强迫性行为是否应予法律规制，特别是按婚内强奸罪定罪处罚，一直是近年来国内学界争论较多的话题。婚内强奸作为家庭暴力行为的一种主要表现形式，对女性人权，特别是人格尊严和性自由的侵害是不言而喻的。本文从婚内强迫性行为的社会危害性和国外对该行为予以犯罪化处理的趋势出发，提出对婚内强迫性行为应予以法律规制，并宜单独定罪处罚。     

When a corporation rapes: perceptions of rape in civil court for corporate defendants

In recent years, the coupling of poor outcomes for rape victims in criminal court and the widening scope of legal responsibility for sexual assault has prompted plaintiffs to file civil suits for rape against corporations. Unfortunately, we know little about juror perception of civilly litigated rape against corporate defendants and most jury research involving corporate defendants concerns non-sexual injury cases (e.g. premises liability, automobile accidents). With the increasing number of corporations being sued civilly for rape, we need to understand how civil juries perceive these cases. The present study investigated mock jurors’ perceptions of a fictional civil rape trial against a hotel. Community members (N?=?155) read one of three trial summaries: Civil rape trial against the alleged perpetrator, civil rape trial against a hotel, or criminal rape trial. Results indicate females have higher pro-plaintiff judgments than males in civil court, perceptions of greed typically associated with civil litigation apply to rape, and favorable plaintiff decisions are most likely against a corporate defendant. Also, mental models suggest mock jurors conceptualize criminal and civil rape cases against an individual similarly. We discuss our results in terms of psychological, legal and practical expectations when suing for rape.