Review of Elisabeth McDonald, In the Absence of a Jury: Examining Judge Alone Rape Trials (Canterbury University Press, 2022)

• Date: 01 January 2022

Book Review

193

BOOK REVIEW:

Review of Elisabeth McDonald,

In the Absence of a Jury: Examining Judge

Alone Rape Trials

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

In a 2020 revie w of Elisab eth McDonald’s Rape Myt hs as Barrie rs to Fair Trial

Process: Compa ring adult rape t rials with thos e in the Aotearoa Sexua l Violence Cour t

Pilot [Rape Myths],1 I noted that the au thor “has long be en New Zeala nd’s premiere

researcher i n – and advocate for – the reform of cr iminal tri al processes involvi ng

adult vict ims of sexual violenc e”.2 Her new book,In the A bsence of a Jury: examining

judge alone rape t rials [Judge Alone Rape Trial s], is an import ant and timel y follow-up

to that pivot al rape jury t rial study.3

McDonald’s ea rlier empirica l work demonstr ated the cont inued, pern icious

and dist ressing i mpact of “rape my ths” – “define d as ‘descripti ve or prescriptive

beliefs about r ape … that serve to deny, downpl ay or justify s exual violence th at men

commit ag ainst wome n’” – on the conduct of jur y tria ls, the ques tioning of r ape

complain ants in such proceed ings and the exper ience of those complain ants in the

1 Elisabeth Mc Donald, Ra pe Myths as Bar riers to Fair Trial P rocess: Comparing Adult R ape Trials

with those in th e Aotearoa Sexua l Violence Co urt Pilot ” (Canterbu ry Univer sity Pres s, 2020)

[Rape Myths]. A digita l edition of the b ook is freely ava ilable from the Un iversity of Ca nterbury

Researc h Repository a nd can be acces sed at <www.ca nterbury.ac. nz>.

2 Scott Optican “Bo ok Review: Revie w of Elisabeth McDonal d, Rape Myths as Barr iers to Fair Trial

Process: Co mparing Adult Rap e Trials with those in th e Aotearoa Sexual Vi olence Court Pi lot” (2020)

Cant LR 22 9 at 229.

3 Elisab eth McDona ld In the Absenc e of a Jury: Examin ing judge alon e rape trials (C anterb ury

Universit y Press 2022) [Ju dge Alone Rape Trials]. A d igital edi tion of the book is fr eely available

from the Un iversity of C anterbu ry Resea rch Reposit ory and c an be access ed at <www.

canterb ury.ac.nz >. As with t he earlier Rape Myths boo k, support for Mc Donald’s lat est work

was provide d by the Mar sden Fund, t he New Zealand Law Found ation and the Universi ty of

Canterbu ry School of Law. AUT l aw lecturer Pau lette Benton- Greig, toget her with resea rchers

Sandra D ickson and R achel Sounes s, contrib uted to the c ase ana lyses on wh ich the book is

based. A ndrea Ewing of Cro wn Law and Dr Warren Youn g QSO are single d out for their peer

reviews of t he manuscript. McD onald also acknow ledges numerous member s of the judiciary

(part icular ly the heads of v arious cou rts), Min istr y of Justice empl oyees and other s who assis ted

her by givi ng access to ne eded case fi le materi als and gen erously prov iding th eir time a nd

expertise.

* A ssociate Pr ofessor, Faculty of L aw, University of Au ckland.