NCJ Number
144450
Journal
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology Volume: 26 Issue: 2 Dated: (July 1993) Pages: 146-154
Date Published
1993
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This analysis of laws regarding sexual assault in Australia argues that to ensure that all women who experience sexual assault have full equality and justice before the law, all manifestations of women's resistance to a sexual assault must be viewed as acceptable and lawful acts of self-defense.
Abstract
The legal and criminal justice systems proceed on the masculine assumption that a woman's body communicates her lack of consent to sexual intercourse and that a woman will offer strong physical resistance to sexual assault. Recent changes to the legal definition of nonconsent as a positive action provide women with greater protection under the rape laws. However, women are unlikely to be protected by the law if their physical resistance to sexual assault results in death or serious injury to the perpetrator. Thus, the legal and criminal justice systems have severely limited women's freedom to exercise autonomy in defending themselves against sexual assault. They are legally immobilized by the contradictory expectations that they resist with force but defend themselves without deadly force. Therefore, law reforms are needed. Note and 47 references