In the absence of a jury: examining judge-alone rape trials

Abstract

This book is the second of three publications which describe what can be observed when the door to the courtroom is metaphorically opened to researchers during adult rape trials. Through the privilege of being granted access to case files, the transcripts and audio of complainant evidence in more than 70 trials over a 10-year period have been examined. This second book focusses on the experience of complainants in eight judge-alone trials, as compared to 30 jury trials in the first book. The majority of the analysis of the adult rape jury trials has previously been published in "Rape Myths as Barriers to Fair Trial Process: Comparing adult rape trials with those in the Aotearoa Sexual Violence Court Pilot" (Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 2020). Forthcoming work in 2023, funded by the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, will analyse 15 jury trials and seven judge-alone trials in order to document the experiences of adult complainants who allege they were raped by their intimate partner.