Judicial Decision Making in Child Sexual Abuse Cases

Laura Mazenc:
Judicial Decision Making in Child Sexual Abuse Cases provides a useful general overview of the state of sentencing in cases of child sexual abuse. The book is a thought-provoking challenge to traditional practices […]. It is a worthwhile read for practitioners and academics in the area of criminal law, and may be of particular interest to members of the judiciary. In addition, it is relevant to anyone interested in the impact of the legal process on the social problems of children and victims in general.

Lynne Curry:
Wright, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work and Family Studies at the University of British Columbia, argues convincingly that the 1988 revisions to the CRIMINAL CODE OF CANADA have failed to provide justice for the child victims of sexual abuse.

Marge Reitsma-Street, Professor, Studies in Policy and Practice, University of Victoria:
This is a rich research study of the arguments that trial and appeal court judges use in sentencing … It examines a variety of situations and people rarely encountered in the research literature, and successfully argues that sentences are still less affected by changes in laws than by judges’ values and interpretations of these laws.