victims in Canada. The research is based on literature from high quality sources such as academic journals, books and the Canadian government reports.
The rape law reform The legislation became applicable in the county in 1983. The Canadian criminal code underwent several changes to see that justice to the rape victims was realized. The main reason of the reform was to enhance justice to the rape victims through increased reports of the rape cases. The other reason was to reduce the number of unsolved cases by the police concerning rape and other sexual assaults. The reform also aimed at increasing the number of rape cases that were charged. There are various that were declared wrong by the reform and anyone found guilty of the
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This was a positive impact of the legislation but it did not last long. The trend changed and the number of rape cases that were reported reduced. The number of reports classified as founded also increased and there were fewer cases where charge was made. This implies that the reform failed to meet its primary objectives. The reform was pushed by the actions of the scholars, advocacy organizations, politicians and researchers. The groups identified the major drawbacks that the earlier law had, necessitating the push for reforms. Previously, the law did not grant justice to the rape victims as it had various deficiencies. Some of the deficiencies included negative attitude of the criminal justice personnel towards the rape victims and the end result was a few convictions to the perpetrators. This definitely denied the victims justice and most of them resorted to suffering in silence. The reform focused on the violence committed rather than the nature of the act. This implies that the issue of the perpetrator’s gender was not as important as the bodily harm they caused the victims in deciding on the charges that they would face. In the reforms, rape was no longer classified as rape but a sexual assault and this gave hope to the …show more content…
The country’s criminal code defined the actions that constituted sexual offences differently for the male and female victims (Frank, Hardinge & Correa, 2009). When a male perpetrated an indecent action of sexual nature, they would serve a maximum of ten years imprisonment. Interestingly, when the perpetrators were female, they would serve half the sentence of their male counterparts. The reforms changed this and in the current system of justice, all the criminals are charged with the same sentence regardless of their gender. The duration of the sentence in the post-reform era is determined by the level of seriousness of the crime. Committing the act without causing physical harm to the victims attracts a maximum of ten years imprisonment. When one uses crude or any other forms of weapon to carry out the act, they face a more serious charge of a term that does not exceed fourteen years. The last level involves wounding or disfiguring the victims and it may lead to life
Canada is perceived as a very peaceful country that protects its citizens with appropriate laws and legal processes. However, after researching sexual assault in Canada, that statement seems preposterous. To third world countries, this would be true, although this is not the case for those who are accustomed to living in a first world environment. The world tends to consider Canada to be one of the most progressive countries, but this cannot be when we are still deprived of the justice system we claim to have; today we do not have a justice system, we have a legal system. An answer to the question of whether or not the current state of our country’s legal process and laws involving sexual assault are effective as they could be is yet to be
As Estrich demonstrates, the law on rape has major flaws. The law exposes traditions and attitudes that surround women and sex. It condones the idea that sex contains male aggression and female passivity. The law uses three different criteria to label an act of sex as rape: mens rea, force, and consent. Estrich feels that these features demonstrate sexist attitudes within the law. Our legal system abandon’s mens rea which is Latin for “guilty state of the mind.” It is the perpetrator’s ability to understand force and non-consent. A woman must demonstrate resistance. The man can escape by stating he did not realize the woman was not consenting. So, the court turns to the woman to see if she provided proper evidence that she did not consent to the sex.
Saunders states that Rape Shield laws are in place to protect victims of sexual assaults and rapes during a criminal trial. They prevent defendants to bring fourth evidence of the victim’s sexual history, orientation or past relationships (Saunders, 2014). Rape can be a very emotional and embarrassing ordeal; it’s very private and personal and can be hard to deal with for years to come. As with many victims of crime especially sexual offenses there are advantages and disadvantages to each new law that is implemented. This paper is designed to analyze the advantages and disadvantage of the Rape Shield Laws.
In Canadian law it is identified in the background of other defenses, conveying BWS into the courts engages the exploit of well-prepared evidence. It has become apparent formerly that women have been treated in a stereotypical manner by the Canadian courts. Their incidents and requirements were not completely considered. Prior to the 1990 law modifications, there was a gendered structure of the self-defense doctrine that assessed females alongside a male standard of reasonableness. This setback was projected to be put to the end with the Supreme Court verdict in R.V Lavallee . With all these changes, particularly Lavallee, the justice system was effective in becoming additionally understanding to t...
Martin, Sheilah L. "R. V. Morgentaler Et Al." Canadian Journal Of Women & The Law 1.1 (1985): 194-205. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.
Rape Shield Laws Facing with much criticism from women’s group with the legal definitions of rape and how rape cases are being processed in the legal system, the government is forced to pass a Rape Law reform in the 1970s. Rape law reform urging courts to treat rape case the same as other crimes, rape law reforms modified traditional rape laws and ratified evidentiary reforms in every state in the United States. The most common and widespread changes occurred in three areas. First, rape was redefined so that there was no longer a single crime of rape.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was established in 2003 to secure and protect prison inmates from sexual abuse (National Prison Rape Elimination Commission p.44). The idea of eliminating rape within prison systems is not only beneficial to the prisoners, but also, to the staff. Victims of sexual assault are pin-pointed for unintentionally failing to succeed in rehabilitation methods due to their experience as sexual assault victims. Simply, if the prison system fails to provide a solution, then it fails in providing the full experience of an individual attaining rehabilitation while in prison. The impact on prison rape by PREA is noted below while highlighting the underlying framework that may constitute sexual incidents. PREA undoubtedly influences the prison system and it is an effective strategy if the execution of plan is as according to its guideline.
Gender is predominating in the criminal justice system and sexual assault exemplifies the contrast found between the traditional and non-traditional justice systems employed over time. Sexual assault poses a social threat to all aspects of community, spreading insecurity in 43400 victims across Australia and 13300 victims in NSW alone as indicated in the recent Australian Bureau of Statistics Crime Victimisation Report. (ABS 2011, p. 40) There has also been an increase of sexual assault by 51% since 1995 with an average of 4% every year. (ABS 2010) Another major issue within the boundaries of sexual assault is that it holds one...
Sexual assault is the act of sexual intercourse without consent of the other person according to New South Wales Consolidation Act of 1900 (Austlii 2011) and is also described by the Australian Standard Offence Classification as ‘non-consensual’ acts or intents of sexual nature (ASOC 2008, p. 31) has become one of the most predominate crimes creating social harm in Australia. Social harm is defined as the negative influence through consequences impacting from the individual to the living conditions of the surrounding public (Cain & Howe 2008, p. 26). Sexual assault poses a social threat to all aspects of community, spreading insecurity in the 9000 victims across Australia and 1900 victims in NSW alone as indicated in the Australian Bureau of Statistics Crime Victimisation Report (ABS 2011, p. 40). This is supported by the victimization rate of all sexually assaulted victims between ages 10 to 14 being 4 times greater than all the other age groups (ABS 2010). Another major issue within the boundaries of sexual assault is that it holds one of the lowest prosecution rates with only 1 in 10 incidents able to prosecute the offender as guilty (Fitzgerald 2006, Pg. 1). The abundance of statistics and reports conducted all imply that sexual assault is still a predominate issue of crime within Australia.
King, Jack. "The Ordeal of Guy Paul Morin: Canada Copes With Systemic Injustice." National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) . N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2010. .
Narrowing towards thesis: “Aboriginal women between 25 and 44 are five times more likely to die a violent death than other women.”( The Tragedy of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada).
According to RAINN, (2009) approximately 10 per cent of all victims of sexual assault and abuse are adult and juvenile males. In terms of the nature of assault, real figures include a compendium of reported incidents ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration. To qualify this statement, it must be understood that the percentage does not reflect a vast number of crimes that go unreported due to issues that will be discussed in the present paper.
In the year 1970, the Canadian government founded the Law Reform Commission of Canada to ensure the progression of law making and to make recommendations for legal changes. The Law Reform Commission of Canada is constantly importing and suggesting proposals towards the criminal code of Canada. During the year of 1985, the Law Reform Commission of Canada acknowledged a proposal that was never picked up on.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Welsh, B., & Irving, M. (2005). Crime and punishment in Canada, 1981-1999. Crime and Justice, 33, 247-294. Retrieved from http://library.mtroyal.ca:2063/stable/3488337?&Search=yes&searchText=canada&searchText=crime&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dcrime%2Bin%2Bcanada%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=18&ttl=33894&returnArticleService=showFullText
To comprehend the underlying levels of conviction, there are unfortunate factors from the police, the criminal justice system, the probability of evidence and issue of consent that make convictions immensely difficult to prove. This essay will investigate those measures showing the contrasts of rape and why it is tricky to prove rape occurred without consent, without any corroborative evidence, attitudes of police towards rape victims, the victims withdrawing their report due to personal circumstances and the handling of victims in court, that lead to many offenders having a non-custodial sentence or being acquitted of a rape charge. In the first paragraph, I will explain what constitutes rape and the variations of relationships in which rape is committed. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 (the Act) came into force on the 1st May 2004. The purpose of the Act was to strengthen and modernise the law on sexual offences, whilst improving preventative measures and the protection of individuals from sexual offenders.