American singer Chrissie Hynde provoked outrage this week by suggesting scantily-dressed women make themselves targets for sexual assault. Her comments play into pervasive cultural myths about rape.
All spaces should be safe.
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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.
Charting the progress of a global movement against shaming women for the actions of men.
A protestor at a demonstration against rape. Rape statistics collected by the police do not reflect the high levels of under-reporting.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
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.
The majority of sexual assaults are perpetrated by a man known to the victim.
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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.
Research has shown that when sex work is illegal, street sex workers who are victims of sexual assault are reluctant to report it to police.
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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 at Cannes last year.
EPA/Ian Langsdon
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…
Women in Poland stand up against violence.
EPA/Bartolomiej Zborowski
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…
The UK’s justice system has failed to protect rape complainants from harm.
Valerie Everett
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…
When it comes to extreme porn, there’s more the law could do to help.
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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…
Protesters gather in Delhi, near the site where a Danish woman was gang-raped, to demand action on rampant violence against women.
EPA/Money Sharma
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…
There’s more to fighting sexual abuse than prisons.
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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…
The ‘lock 'em up’ approach largely ignores the victim.
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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…
Media commentators have linked alcohol use with sexual assault.
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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…
Victims of sexual assault with a disability are often doubted when reporting their abuse.
Joseph Ma. Rosell
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…