NCJ Number
96636
Date Published
1984
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The legal system in Australia is not only failing to deal with the problem of incest, it constitutes part of the problem by operating under myths that silence and oppress victims and by refusing to recognize that it is dealing with children.
Abstract
The current goal of intervention for incest -- to cure the man and reunite the family -- is inappropriate. What can be done, however, is to restrict men's option of taking up power so the risk of incest reoccuring is reduced and so girls and women feel they can defend themselves. This can be achieved through legal reforms, behavioral changes in the individual, empowerment of women and children, and development of more community awareness. In the legal area, discrepancies should be eliminated regarding the notion of consent and the requirement that the Attorney General's sanction must be obtained before a prosecution can commence. The very small number of incest cases that actually get to court demonstrates the law's absolute failure to deal with the problem. Procedures add to the problem and ensure that the victim is silenced. These include delays between the incident and the trial, failure to prepare the child for the courtroom experience, and the requirements of evidence which place unrealistic demands on the child. The defense often paints the child victim as seductive, revengeful, or unreliable. If the child survives this, the jury still will take with it the same myths about incest that are present throughout the entire process. These myths rest on the assumption that incest is a sexual aberration, whereas it is a power problem with sex as the medium through which it is translated.