Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Sexual assault by male partners: a study of sentencing factors
Other Titles:	Southern Cross University Law Review
Authors:	Easteal, Patricia Gani, Miriam
Keywords:	Sexual assault;Criminal justice responses;Legal issues
Year:	2005
Publisher:	School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University
Citation:	9, 2005
Notes:	This article reviews sentencing decisions on partner sexual assault in different Australian jurisdictions over the past 20 years. Interviews were also conducted with ACT DPP prosecutors, and histories from 21 women identified as survivors of sexual assault by a partner were collected. It finds that, although judges appear to be increasingly reluctant to hold the relationship, recent sex and the offender's emotional state as mitigators in sentencing, there are still individual judges who regard the offender's emotional distress at the end of a relationship and the victim's wishes, as mitigators on occasions. Some trial and appellate court judges expressed archaic notions of conjugal sex and domestic violence. The sentence decisions are found to be light and it suggests that this reflects a lack of knowledge about the dynamics and seriousness of partner rape crime.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/12708
ISSN:	1329-3737
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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