Mcgill-queen's University Press
Putting Trials on Trial
About this book
Less than one percent of the sexual assaults that occur each year in Canada result in legal sanction for those who commit these offences. Survivors often distrust and fear the criminal justice process, and as a result, over ninety percent of sexual assaults go unreported. Unfortunately, their fears are well founded.
In this thorough evaluation of the legal culture and courtroom practices prevalent in sexual assault prosecutions, Elaine Craig provides an even-handed account of the ways in which the legal profession unnecessarily - and sometimes unlawfully - contributes to the trauma and re-victimization experienced by those who testify as sexual assault complainants. Gathering conclusive evidence from interviews with experienced lawyers across Canada, reported case law, lawyer memoirs, recent trial transcripts, and defence lawyers' public statements and commercial advertisements, Putting Trials on Trial demonstrates that - despite prominent contestations - complainants are regularly subjected to abusive, humiliating, and discriminatory treatment when they turn to the law to respond to sexual violations.
In pursuit of trial practices that are less harmful to sexual assault complainants as well as survivors of sexual violence more broadly, Putting Trials on Trial makes serious, substantiated, and necessary claims about the ethical and cultural failures of the Canadian legal profession.
Author / Editor information
Reviews
"Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession - a rigorous and damning indictment of the justice and legal systems' handling of sexual-assault cases in Canada - was finished before the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements seized national headlines. But it is arguably now more relevant than ever. For actors in and outside the legal profession, there is no shortage of answers in Craig's excoriating study. This book will undoubtedly generate controversy as it delivers a verdict upon the Canadian legal system: guilty." The Globe and Mail
Topics
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Front Matter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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Acknowledgments
ix -
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Sexual Assault and the Legal Profession
3 -
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Pendulum Swings and Matriarchal Justice: Debunking Defence Counsel Myths
24 -
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A Kinder and Gentler Approach? Interrogating the Heroes of the Defence Bar
61 -
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The Sexual Assault Lawyer’s Justice Project
100 -
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The Role of the Crown in Sexual Assault Trials
135 -
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Judging Sexual Assault Trials
167 -
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Judicial Error in Sexual Assault Cases
191 -
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We Owe a Responsibility …
219 -
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Notes
229 -
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Index
301