Re-Framing the Rape Trial: Insights from Critical Theory about the Limitations of Legislative Reform

Quilter, Julia

doi:10.1080/13200968.2011.10854458

Cited by 30 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…If they chose to participate, participants read the informed consent and indicated their consent to participate by clicking a “next” button at the bottom of the page to continue with the study. Next, all participants read a summary of a sexual assault case and trial testimony adapted from Quilter (2011) and were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions. In each condition, all details of the sexual assault case and testimony were the same with the exception of the defendant characteristics and the alleged victim’s speed in reporting.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Ratings of Guilt in a Sexual Assault Case

Franiuk

Luca

Robinson

2019

Violence Against Women

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars have long investigated how perceptions of the victim affect judgments in a sexual assault case, but little research has investigated perceptions of the perpetrator. Participants ( N = 322) read a scenario about an alleged sexual assault that manipulated victim behavior (speed of reporting) and perpetrator characteristics (athlete status and celebrity status) and then made judgments about the victim and perpetrator. Results showed that victim behavior was the most important factor in judgments. Furthermore, significant three-way interactions suggested that participants may attend to perpetrator characteristics but only when the victim’s behavior is consistent with stereotypes about sexual assault victims.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Ratings of Guilt in a Sexual Assault Case

Franiuk

Luca

Robinson

2019

Violence Against Women

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As some scholars point out, to research the judicial narratives concerning rape requires the awareness that sexual violence is discursively produced and reproduced by the legal system (Marcus, 1992;Smart 1995;Ehrlich, 2001;Quilter, 2011;Ryan, 2011). Criminal law defines what is unbearable to a certain society and therefore justifies lawful interference; but law has a double dimension of words and actions, so judicial practices (law in action) and social interactions translate, interpret and consolidate the meaning and senses to the words enacted in the Criminal Code.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“They never talk about a victim’s feelings: according to criminal law, feelings are not facts”—Portuguese judicial narratives about sex crimes

Ventura

2016

Palgrave Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sexual violence is a central dimension of what is generally called violence against women. Historically, the law has been one of the structures that has reinforced gender inequality and legitimized male seizure of women's sexuality within and outside marriage: legally, married women had no right to sexual freedom regarding their husbands and, at the same time, non-wed women who pressed charges against white men were accused of lying and faced victim-blaming judicial practices. Since the beginning of the 1990s, Portuguese rape legislation has changed in order to recognize that sex crimes offend someone's right to sexual self-determination. The Criminal Code has abandoned expressions like modesty and decency when referring to sex crimes, and a controversial mitigating penalty norm based on a victim's provocative behaviour or on the relation between the accused and the plaintiff was repealed in 1995. In addition, criminal law has evolved to a gender-neutral formulation and expanded the definition of rape adopting the "all penetration" formula. Nevertheless, the discourses of Portuguese jurisprudence and doctrine reveal stereotyped images about rape victims' behaviour and biased evaluations against women. Therefore, the 'law in books' must be analysed in its relation with 'law in action', which is unescapably influenced by doctrine and by magistrates' individual beliefs. This paper aims to capture judicial representations of rape, rape victims and offenders. Qualitative data are used based on 20 semi-structured interviews with 18 judges and prosecutors and two attorneys. The interviews were analysed through critical discourse analysis using a feminist approach. This article is published as part of a collection on gender studies.

show abstract

“…Ironically a victim who is able to hold her ground under this kind of cross-examination may undercut her claim to have been the victim of coercive control. 9 The 'interpretative schema' for IPV Quilter (2011) has presented a compelling analysis of the manner in which 'interpretative schema' in relation to sexual violence can undercut attempts to reform the legal response to sexual violence (see also Temkin, 2002). Interpretative schema are the sets of understandings that practitioners use to make sense of facts to determine the truth of what happened.…”

Section: Definitional Difficultiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coercive control: To criminalize or not to criminalize?

Tolmie

2017

Criminology & Criminal Justice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Criminalizing coercive or controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship, as has been done in England and Wales and is proposed in Scotland, has the advantage of offering an offence structure to match the operation and wrong of intimate partner violence. This article raises the question as to whether other jurisdictions should follow suit. It argues that the successful implementation of such an offence may require a complexity of analysis that the criminal justice system is not currently equipped to provide and will require significant reforms in practice and thinking. If it is not successful such an offence could conceivably operate to minimize the criminal justice response to intimate partner violence and be used to charge primary victims.

show abstract

Re-Framing the Rape Trial: Insights from Critical Theory about the Limitations of Legislative Reform

Cited by 30 publications

References 0 publications

The Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Ratings of Guilt in a Sexual Assault Case

The Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Ratings of Guilt in a Sexual Assault Case

“They never talk about a victim’s feelings: according to criminal law, feelings are not facts”—Portuguese judicial narratives about sex crimes

Coercive control: To criminalize or not to criminalize?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About