Rape Myths as Barriers to Fair Trial Process: Comparing adult rape trials with those in the Aotearoa Sexual Violence Court Pilot. By Elisabeth McDonald

• Author: Scott Optican
• Position: Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland
• Pages: 229-234

Book Review

229

BOOK REVIEW:

Review of Elisabeth McDonald, Rape Myths

as Barriers to Fair Trial Process: Comparing

Adult Rape Trials with those in the Aotearoa

Sexual Violence Court Pilot

(Canterbury University Press, 2020)

R  S O*

Professor Eli sabeth McDon ald (Univers ity of Canter bury School of L aw) has

long been New Zea land’s premiere rese archer in — a nd advocate for — the refor m

of crimi nal trial proces ses involvi ng adult vict ims of sexual violence. Her ne w and

import ant book from Ca nterbur y University P ress, Rape Myths a s Barriers to Fai r

Trial Process: Comp aring adult rape tr ials with those in t he Aotearoa Sexual Vi olence

Court Pilot, is undoubted ly McDonald’s most sign if‌icant contribut ion to those areas

of advocacy an d scholarship.

The book summ arises f‌i ndings from 4 ye ars of resear ch analys ing tria l processes

in 30 adult r ape cases (2010–2015) where the defence w as consent. It then compar es

those wit h 10 cases (2017–2018) from the S exual Violence Cour t Pilot — a “judicia lly-

led initi ative” whose goa l is “to improve t he court ex perience for par ticipants i n

sexual oence t rials …”.1

As describ ed by McDonald herself:2

… the motivat ion for the researc h was to invest igate the

possible reas ons why adult rap e complaina nts’ report ed

experience of g iving evid ence has not alte red over many year s,

1 Elisab eth McDona ld Rape Myths as Ba rriers to Fair Tria l Process: Com paring adult r ape trials

with those in th e Aotearoa Sexual Viol ence Court Pilot(Cant erbury University Press, Canterbury,

2020) at 21 [Rape Myths]. A di gital edit ion of the book is freely av ailable from th e University of

Canterbu ry Resear ch Repositor y and can be acce ssed at .

Support for McDona ld’s work was prov ided by the Mar sden Fund, t he New Zeala nd Law

Foundation , the Borrin Fou ndation and the Un iversity of Ca nterbury Sch ool of Law. Universit y

of Waikat o law lectur er Paulet te Benton-G reig — togeth er with rese archers Sa ndra Dick son and

Rachel Sou ness — contribu ted to the boo k’s research a nd writin g. McDonald a lso acknowle dges

numerous memb ers of the judi ciary ( partic ularly t he heads of var ious court s), Minis try of

Justice emp loyees and others who help ed her team by givi ng access to the neces sary case f‌ile

material a nd generously provided their time a nd expertise.

2 Rape Myths, above n 1, at 39 .

* Associat e Professor, Facul ty of Law, Universi ty of Auckla nd.