Sex Rape In Australia

The law is not effective in responding to sexual assault. Over the past 50 years we have seen a very gradual shift in the law’s response to victims of sexual assault in criminalising marital rape, considering the trauma of victims and slightly moving the stigma around sex related violence. In spite of this, one in four Australian women has experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, only about 17% of reported sexual offences result in a conviction, a figure consistent with data from other States and overseas and one in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence. A 2011 report by the Australian Institute of Family Studies found that nine in every 10 sexual assault victims do not receive any legal redress.

A prevalent

law reform issue that held major significance years ago and still contains stigma is the issue of marital rape. The law has been slow to recognise that women are not the property of their husbands. According to an Australian study, 66 per cent of women raped by their husbands experienced additional injuries compared with 55 per cent of those raped by strangers.

Marital rape was criminalised in all Australian jurisdictions, starting with a partial criminalisation in South Australia in 1976, with full criminalisation starting in New South Wales and Victoria in 1981. Queensland was the last state to criminalise marital rape in 1989, with the Northern Territory following in 1994. Although you can be prosecuted for raping your significant other nowadays, there is still a lot of resistance and opposition to the idea that women can ‘opt out’ of sex. Mainstream media often still brings forth the idea of a woman ‘calling rape’ by her husband/boyfriend for revenge. This holds a harmful stigma around reporting all forms of marital sexual assault and is why approximately only 20% of cases are ever reported. The discussion of the morals of marital rape dates back to the 1800s. In The Subjection of Women, brought into the eye of the public as long ago as 1869, John Stuart Mill, a philosopher, answered in no uncertain terms: a married woman is more than a "personal body-servant of a despot". By the time the 1970s came around, feminist ideas were arising and many people started to

speak out about the inequality of the law, allowing such a horrific crime to be committed in a marriage. The changing social values of Australian society took notice and soon enough there was a large debate. Many people argued that prosecuting men would ruin the sanctity of marriage, that it would break a family. Others argued that women are not under any circumstances property, nor should they be treated as such in the eyes of the law. Law reform was also fiercely opposed by mainstream conservatives, including members of the Liberal Party. In New South Wales, Senator O’Dowd of the Liberal Party suggested that his Party opposed rape in marriage legislation because ‘the law should not come between husband and wife and thereby harm marriage’.