Prosecuting intimate partner rape: the impact of misconceptions on complainant experience and trial process

Abstract

This is the final of three publications which describe what can be observed when the door to the courtroom is metaphorically opened to researchers during adult rape trials. As a result of privileged access to case files, the transcripts and audio of complainant evidence in 71 trials in total over a 10-year period (2010–2020) have been examined. This third book examines the experience of complainants in 15 intimate partner rape jury trials, as compared to complainant experience in 30 adult rape jury trials (in which the complainant and defendant were not in an intimate relationship). The book also contains commentary on complainant experience in intimate partner rape cases heard by a judge sitting alone, as compared to jury trials and as contrasted with the experience of adult rape complainants in judge-alone trials. 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). Previous commentary on the adult judge-alone adult rape trials was published as "In the Absence of a Jury: Examining judge-alone rape trials" (Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 2022).