"This decision should not deter any person from coming forward to police if they have been the victim of a serious crime", declared Detective Chief Inspector Jason Breton, after announcing on April 27 that the gang-rape case against up to six Canterbury Bulldogs rugby league players was to be dropped at the request of the NSW director of public prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery QC, due to "insufficient evidence".
But Breton is fooling nobody. This sets a very dangerous precedent for the future handling of sexual assault cases.
Sexist violence against women is endemic in our society. However, sexual assault remains one of the most under-reported crimes, with one of the lowest conviction rates.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 17,850 sexual assaults were reported in Australia during 2002. Yet this reveals only part of the picture. A 2003 ABS information paper, Sexual Assault Information Development Framework, noted: "Many incidents of sexual assault are not reported to the police so neither the total number of victims nor the total number of perpetrators are captured in crime statistics."
The Centre Against Sexual Assault, a national organisation supporting victims of sexual assault through the legal system, suggests that often victims do not report to the police due to the uneven playing field of the legal system.
The charge of rape differs slightly from state to state, but it essentially requires that the victim prove sexual intercourse occurred and that the rapist knew that the victim/survivor did not consent to this.
These requirements are highly dubious, as there are many reasons why they may be difficult to fulfill when a rape has occurred. Even if it can be proved that non-consensual intercourse occurred, it must also be proven that the accused was aware that it was non-consensual at the time. The onus is on the victim to demonstrate that the accused didn't genuinely believe that the victim/survivor consented.
Sexual assault law is weighted against the victim. According to the Centre Against Sexual Assault training kit Who's on Trial, prior to 1991 juries were told that women who claimed to have been sexually assaulted were an unreliable "class" of witness. This was changed so that juries can only be told that the claims of a "particular" woman are unreliable.
Victims can be classed as unreliable if they delay in making the complaint, or if there is a lack of corroborative evidence, such as forensic evidence, which must be collected within 48 hours of the attack. Such evidence may not be present if the victim has bathed, gone to the toilet or washed her clothing after the attack.
A victim may also be deemed unreliable if she has a history of visiting a psychiatrist or psychologist. In certain circumstances victims can still have their previous sexual histories pawed over by the jury. This assumes that a victim's history can encourage the assault. But nothing excuses sexual assault and no woman is to blame for her attack.
In this society, women are still discriminated against economically — from receiving a smaller pay packet to performing the bulk of unpaid labour in the home. In addition, the mass media and capitalist advertising machine create a social climate of sexual violence and harassment by portraying women as sex objects.
Women are often portrayed as either the silent worker or the ultra-sexualised object of male fantasy. The message is that women are meant to be compliant, and should not have an independent voice.
Without massive educational campaigns to confront sexism and without the creation of a society based on true equality and real justice, sexual assault against women will continue.
A crucial part of changing this situation will be giving a voice to those who are made silent — the victims of sexual assault. The dismissal of the gang-rape charges against the Bulldogs players can only discourage more victims from coming forward to the police.
When the charges against the Bulldogs players were dropped, the team's chief executive Malcolm Noad said: "Let us believe that nothing happened in Coffs Harbour." Something happened at Coffs Harbour that led a woman to come forward and allege that she was the victim of a gang-rape, but she has been blocked from even presenting her case before a jury. The assumption is that she was guilty. But where's the evidence for that?
Jess Melvin
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, June 9, 2004.
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