Review of Elisabeth McDonald's, Prosecuting Intimate Partner Rape: The Impact of Misconceptions on Complainant Experience and Trial Process (Canterbury University Press, 2023)

• Author: Scott Optican
• Position: Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland
• Pages: 279-290

Book Review

279

BOOK REVIEW:

Review of Elisabeth McDonald's, Prosecuting

Intimate Partner Rape: The Impact of

Misconceptions on Complainant Experience

and Trial Process





In my 2020 review of Professor Elisabeth McDonald’s Rape Myths as Barriers to

Fair Trial Process: Co mparing adult rape t rials with those in t he Aotearoa Sexual Viol ence

Court Pilot [Rape Myths],1 I noted that the author “has long been New Zealand’s

premiere resea rcher in – and advocate for – the r eform of criminal t rial processes

involvin g adult victim s of sexual violence”.2 McDona ld followed that book w ith In the

Absence of a Jury: exa mining judge alone rap e trials [Judge Alone R ape Trials]3 – which I

described i n a 2022 review as “an i mportant a nd timely follow-up” to the e arlier and

pivotal exa mination of jur y-based rape cases .4

It is now my privi lege to w rite t his fin al rev iew of Prosecuting Intimate Partner Rape:

e impact of misconceptions on complainant experience and trial process [Prosecuting

1 Elisab eth McDonald Rape Myths as Barriers to Fair Trial Proce ss: Comparing Adult Rape Trials

with those in th e Aotearoa Sexua l Violence Cou rt Pilot (Cant erbury Un iversit y Press, Ch ristchu rch,

2020) [Rape Myths]. A digital edition of the book is freely available from the University of

Canterbu ry Resear ch Repositor y and can be acce ssed at <www.ca nterbury.ac .nz>.

2 Scott Optican “Book Review: Review of Elisabeth McDonald, Rape Myths as Barriers to Fair

Trial Process: C omparing Adult Rape Trial s with those in the Aotearo a Sexual Violence Cour t Pilot

(Canterbu ry Universit y Press, 202 0)” (2020) 26 Canta L R 229 at 229.

3 Elisabeth McDonald In the Absence of a Jury: Examining judge alone rape trials (Canterbury

Universit y Press, Chri stchurch, 2023) [ Judge Alone Rape Trials] . A digital ed ition of the book is

freely ava ilable from t he University of Ca nterbury R esearch Repos itory and ca n be accessed at

<www.canterbu ry.ac.nz>.

4 S cott Optican “ Book Review: Rev iew of Elisabeth McD onald, In the Absen ce of a Jury: Examining

Judge Alone Rap e Trials (Canterbu ry Universit y Press, 202 2)” (2022) 29 Cant a LR 193 at 193.

* Associat e Professor, Facul ty of Law, Universi ty of Aucklan d.