Rape and Sexual Offences: Legal and Social Challenges in Convicting the Accused

Abstract

This paper was written to highlight issues regarding rape and sexual assault reports which still rank the highest of all the violent crimes in Malaysia. The various sections of the Penal Code punish the perpetrators and over the years, various amendments have been made to intensify the punishment with the hope of deterring and mitigating this heinous crime. Despite this, the reported numbers still run high while many more go unreported. The findings of this paper is based on 31 court cases reported in the law journal from 2019 to 2022. It also highlights the development of the Penal Code, the procedures in court and the challenges affecting the outcomes of the court cases. The paper highlights issues affecting the punishment meted out to the perpetrators which include time lapse between the incident and the reporting, lack of evidence, technical and procedural impediments and the defence raised by the accused (mainly in relation to the victims’ promiscuity and sexual behaviour). Recommendations are given to overcome some of the challenges faced by the victims in the process of reporting the cases and during the court hearing. Further research could be conducted to analyse the important issues pertaining to the different types of rape and sexual assaults.