Jennifer Temkin and Barbara Krahé: Sexual Assault and the Justice Gap: A Question of Attitude

Abstract

Feminists have for a long time now been decrying the fact that the rate of convictions for sexual assaults (including rape) is 'going from bad to worse.' What can be done about it has been the subject of much debate not just in academic circles but also by practitioners. Those debates have focussed on sexual history evidence, anonymity of victims, corroboration warnings as well as changes to the elements of the offences (in particular rape). Most have resulted in some kind of revision in the law and procedure. One could argue that because of these and other societal attitudal changes, reporting of rape has increased significantly in the last 30 years. Despite this phenomenon conviction rates are still low, leading to what has been called a 'justice gap.' Temkin and Krahe argue in the introduction to the book that, despite the fact that 'laws may have been stripped of their most blatantly misogynistic manifestations, but the processing of rape cases through the criminal justice system r... Language: en