Balancing the Scales: Rape, Law Reform, and Australian Culture

The past two decades have seen a succession of reforms to sexual assault laws in all Australian jurisdictions. This book examines how effective these reforms have been in light of the fact that such changes challenge the "traditional" social norms of the legal system: male dominance, acceptability of male violence, and women's responsibility for male violence. Has a better balance been struck between the rights of victims to protection, assistance, and compensation and the rights of accused to a fair trial and preservation of the presumption of innocence? And what still remains to be done? These and many other questions are those explored by the contributors.