challenging institutional disbelief around domestic & sexual violence and abuse
Child Sexual Exploitation is in the news again – the media are over-run with commentators who are wringing their hands, apologising, claiming that they’re not sure how they didn’t know, telling us that work is in progress to ‘remove this vile scourge’ from our communities. But what are we actually doing? We’ve looked over a […]
Trials have outcomes. Juries make decisions. Judges oversee that process. This is British justice. Or is it? Because it is not good justice if some of the comments made during and after that trial do a deep damage to victims of the past, present and really importantly, of the future. When those comments are made […]
In case you haven’t heard, our national treasure, Stephen Fry, reportedly waded into the murky topic of Operation Yewtree and historical sex crimes whilst speaking at a Labour Party dinner. He allegedly ‘went off on one’* and thinks there should be tougher laws to discourage people from inventing false claims of rape and sexual assault. […]
We have sent the following comment in an email to [email protected]. If you’d like to complain, please copy and paste the text into an email and send it to the BBC. The more complaints we can generate, the more likely we are to be heard. ******* I am writing with regard to the broadcast of […]
So Max Clifford gets found guilty at Southwark Crown Court and sentenced to 8 years in prison. His friend, Richard Hunt, UKIP member at national level is quoted as saying: “I don’t believe that the justice system is fair. He said to me ‘Why would they put him in prison for something he hasn’t done?’ […]
I rarely visit local news outlets online websites. A link to an article stating the outcome to the inquiry into Thames Valley Police’s failings regarding the Oxford child rape gang was tweeted into my timeline so I followed to the Oxford Mail’s website to read the decision about how the police failed to protect a […]
“Last week saw the publication of new legal guidance by the CPS on prosecuting Domestic Homicide. An important step, brought about by extensive discussions with us, the family and friends of Joanna Simpson who was killed by her estranged husband in 2010. Despite preparing a grave beforehand, her killer could be acquitted of murder due […]
We are opposed to any laws, criminal or civil, which force victims of domestic and sexual violence to testify against their perpetrator. We believe that the justice system must put the health and safety of the victim first and that it is inhumane and unethical to incarcerate victims for refusing to testify. We are extremely […]
i would just like to say a few things about the story I have just read about the Marissa Alexander case, firstly how is it that the woman was a domestic violence victim who was being beaten by a man can be sentenced to 20 years in prison, when she was protecting herself? The sad […]
We are very concerned about the recent article by Amanda Marcotte in Slate which approves of the arrest as a material witness of a victim of sexual violence in Washington. The specifics of the case Marcotte references are here, however, rather than addressing that case in particular we want to make our position clear on […]