Rape pornography, cultural harm and criminalisation

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-58
Author(s):  
Tanya Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Critical Engagement

In 2015 the offence of possessing extreme pornography (Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, s 63) was extended to cover the possession of pornographic images of rape. Proponents of the legislation claim that rape pornography is ‘culturally harmful’, because it normalises and legitimates sexual violence. Critics have dismissed ‘cultural harm’ as poorly defined and lacking evidence. However, critical engagement with, and development of, this concept has been limited on both sides of the debate. This article fills that gap through a sustained theoretical exposition of the concept of cultural harm and detailed analysis of its role in justifying the criminalisation of rape pornography. It makes the case that at least some rape pornography is culturally harmful, but nevertheless concludes that criminalisation of the possession of rape pornography is not an appropriate response to that harm.

Sex Panic and Denial

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-482
Author(s):  
Corey Rayburn Yung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Goal ◽  
Residency Restrictions

The American criminal justice system regarding sex is not just logically incoherent, it is also often morally bankrupt because it remains unexamined and poorly understood. This Article contends that there are actually common roots underlying the seemingly oppositional forces of social panic and denial, which explain why the United States has an endemic sexual violence problem. Both panic and denial reinforce the implicit, and sometimes explicit, desire to avoid substantive engagement with socially contentious issues related to sex. The use of residency restrictions and civil commitment fit the modern social goal of putting sex offenders out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Yet, those same desires also explain America’s unwillingness to believe victims of sexual violence and police failure to properly investigate criminal complaints. In this way, sex panic dovetails with sex denial—in both instances, American culture only permits a limited discussion and understanding of sex and sexual violence. The result is that our nation fails to take sex crime complaints seriously while overreacting to the few convictions that emerge from the hostile criminal justice system.

The Response to Violence against Women in Liberia

2020 ◽  
pp. 73-88
Author(s):  
Peace A. Medie
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Women's Organizations ◽  
International Pressure ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government ◽  
Women’S Organizations

Chapter 4 covers how the government and women’s organizations in Liberia responded to violence against women. It explains that prior to the conflict, violence against women was largely absent from the agenda of governments and women’s organizations, despite their involvement in international advocacy around this issue. Both domestic and international pressure on governments was low during this period and specialized mechanisms to address VAW were non-existent in the criminal justice sector. The chapter describes how the 14-year conflict changed this and generated strong international and domestic pressures on post-conflict governments to strengthen the criminal justice sector response to violence against women, particularly sexual violence, and to establish specialized criminal justice sector mechanisms.

Can We Be Friends? Offering an Amicus Curiae Brief on Sexual Violence to the EAC

2020 ◽  
pp. 134-141
Author(s):  
Kim Thuy Seelinger ◽  
Naomi Fenwick ◽  
Khaled Alrabe
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Amicus Curiae ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
Sexual Crimes ◽  
International Crimes ◽  
Life Sentence ◽  
Game Changer

This chapter details the preparation and submission of the amicus curiae brief on sexual violence to the Extraordinary African Chambers (EAC). The amicus curiae brief offered by over a dozen experts on the prosecution of sexual violence under international law may have been a game changer for the Hissène Habré trial, both in terms of its relevance as a mechanism of international criminal justice, as well as in highlighting the EAC's power to address crimes of sexual violence despite their omission from original charges. Among other international crimes, Habré had been convicted of rape and sexual slavery as a crime against humanity and as a form of torture. The affirmation of Habré's life sentence for massive sexual violence committed by his Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS) agents was hailed as a tremendous victory for international criminal justice and the rights of sexual violence survivors. However, the conviction for sexual crimes was not complete and its path was not linear.

scholarly journals Rape, inequality and the criminal justice response in England: The importance of age and gender

2019 ◽  
pp. 174889581986309
Author(s):  
Sarah-Jane Lilley Walker ◽  
Marianne Hester ◽  
Duncan McPhee ◽  
Demi Patsios ◽  
Anneleise Williams ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Minority Ethnic Group ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Criminal Justice Response

This article draws upon quantitative and content analysis of 585 reports of rape recorded within two police force areas in England in 2010 and in 2014 tracking individual incidents to eventual outcome to examine the impact, if any, of intersecting inequalities on trajectories of rape cases reported to police. The data were collected as part of the wider Economic and Social Research Council funded Justice, Inequality and Gender-Based Violence research project which examined victim-survivor experiences and perspectives on justice. Building on existing distinctions between types of rape case based on the relationship between victim-survivor and accused, the results suggest age and gender are significant factors in how sexual violence, and the criminal justice system, is experienced. While younger women and girls were disproportionately affected by certain types of sexual violence case and more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system compared to men and older women, they were not necessarily more likely to achieve a conviction. The findings also confirm that some of the most vulnerable victims-survivors of sexual violence, especially those with poor mental health, are still not achieving criminal justice. Victims-survivors from Black and minority ethnic group or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer groups are underrepresented within the criminal justice system, implying these groups are not seeking a criminal justice response in the same way as ‘white’ heterosexual victims-survivors.

scholarly journals Gender Justice Beyond the Tribunals: From Criminal Accountability to Transformative Justice

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 227-233
Author(s):  
Kirsten Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
International Criminal Tribunal ◽  
Gender Justice ◽  
International Criminal Justice ◽  
Transformative Justice ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
Gender Based

What are the legacies for gender justice of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)? Darryl Robinson and Gillian MacNeil in this symposium describe the modernization of the law on sexual violence as a key legacy of the ad hoc international criminal tribunals. However, this characterization does not capture the wider challenges that gender based crimes have raised for the Tribunals, including other legacies of gendered hierarchiesand inequalities.How, then, is it possible to move past these issues to build international criminal justice so that it transforms, rather than reproduces, gendered injustices?

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