Do university and college websites give students enough information about how to prevent and respond to sexual assaults on campus? Here’s a reality check.
A Canadian study has found that university women participating in a rape-prevention program involving “resistance training” were significantly less likely to be sexually assaulted in the next year.
Australia is at a critical juncture of increasing awareness and understanding of men’s violence against women. But one important type of sexual violence is often overlooked: acquaintance rape.
There is a non-binding precedent in Victoria that allows judges to consider the victim’s sexual experience when passing sentence on a sex offender – but only when the “victim is a prostitute”.
Rolf Harris’s conviction on 12 charges of indecent assault came at the end of a long trial. The case put sexual assault victims in the spotlight once again – only the latest high-profile example of a growing…
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is back. On Thursday May 16 he took a major part in a prime-time documentary about the Euro – where he criticised Nicolas Sarkozy’s response to the 2008-9 economic crisis. The following…
It was simultaneously heartening and dispiriting to see the release of a survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on the prevalence of violence against women in Europe. Dispiriting…
In the space of just over a year, two women in Greater Manchester have killed themselves because of their experiences as complainants in sexual offences cases. The challenge this poses to the criminal…
Hidden amongst the more high-profile reforms in the newly published Criminal Justice and Courts Bill 2014 is a proposal to extend the law on extreme pornography. This law, first enacted in 2008, criminalises…
Coinciding with yet another brutal gang rape in Delhi is news that Delhi’s women and child welfare minister, Rakhi Birla, is recruiting an all-female commando unit to help respond to Delhi’s rape problem…
We are in a time when the focus on allegations of sexual abuse is intense. Accurate and comprehensive statistics on the prevalence of sexual abuse remain elusive, but the figures that do exist indicate…
All too often, governments take the lazy option when faced with public outcry about sexual offences. Their automatic, knee-jerk, politically charged response is to “get tough on crime” by imposing mandatory…
Controversy over rape, alcohol consumption, and responsibility reignited last month when US columnist Emily Yoffe penned an article provocatively titled College women: stop getting drunk. But the link…
People with disabilities suffer higher rates of sexual assault than are seen in the broader community. They also suffer barriers to reporting which mean the available figures are likely to significantly…
Stuart Brown, London School of Economics and Political Science
Hard Evidence is a series of articles that looks at some of the trickiest public policy questions we face. Academic experts delve into available research evidence to provide informed analysis you won’t…
Deaths, arrests, missing passports, hospitalisations, rapes and sexual assaults - it’s holiday season and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has published its annual report on British behaviour…