Part B The principle of open justice is a vital characteristic of the court system. Lord Atkinson in Scott v Scott noted that public trials are ‘the best security for the pure, impartial, and efficient administration of justice, the best means of winning for it public confidence.’ Similarly, Gibbs J in Russell asserted that this principles ensures ‘the proceedings of every court are fully exposed to public and professional scrutiny, without which abuses may flourish undetected’. It follows that the media ordinarily has a right to report on Court proceedings. This entitlement has been described as a fundamental necessity ‘given that ‘few members of the public have the time, or the inclination, to attend courts.’. Nevertheless, the law has …show more content…
Firstly, sexual offences are associated with a stigma that does not occur in other types of offences. Secondly, studies have demonstrated that identification causes significant distress for victims and may deter them from reporting offences at first instance. Thus, restricting the media’s ability to report on sexual offences enables victim’s to avoid social scrutiny, whilst they are coming to terms with their ordeal, and may also foster a culture where such offences are reported more freely. At common law the courts are empowered to issue suppression orders only where publicity is considered to ‘prejudice the administration of justice’. Embarrassment of either party is not considered a sufficient ground to derogate from open justice at common law. However, in New South Wales s 8 of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders (CSNO) Act 2010, empowers courts to suppress the publication of material discussed in trial if ‘the order is necessary to avoid causing undue distress or embarrassment to a party or to a witness in criminal proceedings involving an offence of a sexual nature’. This power enables the courts to balance the need for transparency in justice with the impact of publication on a complainant and place appropriate restrictions on reporting, especially in cases involving minors. The media should be entitled to report …show more content…
However, in the context of sexual offences, in particular those involving minors, the publication of explicit details is not always conducive to the public interest and may instead adversely impact the victim’s welfare. New South Wales has sought to counter these concerns via the CSNO Act, and this approach has been lauded by the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute. Introducing a similar mechanism in Queensland, whereby courts can make an order suppressing the publication of material discussed at trial if it is likely to unduly embarrass or distress a witness or complainant, would be desirable. Such measures will improve protections afforded to victims of sexual offences without significantly abrogating the transparency of the justice
the case of R. v. Sharpe, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 45, 2001 SCC 2 is regarded as one of the most controversial cases in the supreme court and got a lot of media attention and has led to Canadians all across the country to take into account the seriousness of child pornography and its harms. In this case, analysis I shall review the case R v. Sharpe, [2001] and consider the legal facts, the judicial reasoning and analysis as well as talk about the legal history of this case along with its socio and political implications it has had. In the beginning of a case commentary, it is important to state all the facts and terms, John Robin Sharpe is a British Columbia resident who admitted that he enjoyed child pornography and felt that he was entitled
The purpose of this report is to discuss the matter The Queen V Bayley, which took place on the 29th of September 2012. Adrian bailey (serial rapist) was found guilty on charges of murder and rape, this report will discuss in detail the court proceedings that lead up to the imprisonment of Adrian Bayley and also the events prior to the kidnapping of Jill Meagher. The purpose of this report is to discuss the purpose of law in our society and how it applies to people who commit crimes in our community. As well as the purpose of criminal law in our community.
It is believed as anonymity covers up the victim’s identity it makes people braver to falsely accuse. However, it is in the ‘public interest’ to provide protection from publicity for the complainant. This suggests that it is more important for victims of sexual offences to have anonymity for reasons such as stigma and to encourage more witnesses and victims to come forward, and is less important for suspects and defendants to be granted anonymity for protection from stigma in case they are falsely accused of a sexual offence. Therefore, this suggest suspects and defendant are not to be entitled anonymity leaving innocent suspects and defendants unprotected from potential false
If women are required to openly share their private information, then suspected fathers should have to come forward and give their data, too. Government legislatures should alter this law so that those affected by sex offenders don’t have to give up their confidentiality
Many believed that there was no reason to report an abuse because the police or authorities would not believe them. However, they did not believe many until proven truthful, anyone can say someone sexually assaulted them, but they did not. This was to take precautions amongst both the victim and the accused perpetrator. In the article, there were many aspects that explained that the woman felt more victimized because of the courts decision to believe the abuser until proved he/she is guilt. Also, many children blamed themselves for the rape, so they would not tell their parents. To add, as we read throughout the article, we can distinguish that many abused individuals are scared and embarrassed about the sexual harassment. Many factors were brought to attention: youth and woman fell under the micro-level individual factors, and the community and police did not want to really intervene. These factors result in many victims maybe later on abusing others because they were abused, which should not happen. So, therefore, there was a lot of valuable information presented throughout this
Due to negative aspects that were presented in cases such as the Corey Davis case, the effectiveness of the Australian Legal System in accomplishing justice began to be viewed to demonstrate flaws in certain occasions by the Australian public. The Australian legal system aims to achieve equality and fairness towards the citizens of Australia to avoid anarchy within the nation. This is accomplished by set rules and laws that are created by the government. However, if these rules and laws are to be broken by an individual or a group of people living within the borders of the country, they may face legal consequences that include getting a fine, imprisonment, a life sentence or in some occurrences, a combination of these forms of punishment. In the Corey Davis case, an eleven year old boy that is identified as ‘W’ is sent to trial for committing an offence towards a six year old boy. An outline of the events in the Corey Davis case will be further explored as well as the involvement of the police, the conduct of the court system throughout the investigation of the case and its influence in achieving justice, and a summary of the trial. Furthermore, the debate about the current age limit for doli incapax and whether it is appropriate for modern society will be discussed as the Corey Davis case raised arguments about this topic. The Australian legal system aims to achieve justice, however certain instances such as the Corey Davis case have proved that it may occasionally
Sarah’s Law is an improvement of the U.S. version and modifying the flaws in that law to make the U.K. law extremely more effective and reinforcing the objective of the scheme to protect the children (NSPCC, 2017). As reported by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the official statistics indicated that around 1 in 20 children in the U.K. have been subjected to sexual abuse; and the Home Office in 2007 discovered that around 75% of the victims knew their offenders. Therefore, the scheme needs to be open about the facts and figures surrounding this particular type of offence in order to make the public more aware and educated of the risks. What is more, the possible situations that these offences that takes place in (Penny, 2014). However, the biggest problem resulting with statistics is that most cases are not reported or disclosed. Majority of the sexual abuse are not reported, prosecuted or detected, and the vast majority of the children do not tell anyone about their encounter of sexual abuse. In addition, this particular crime is generally witnessed amongst the abuser and the victim (NSPCC, 2017; Radford et al., 2011: p. 8).
Concepts of ‘accessing’ and ‘achieving’ justice and their definitions are often debated and contested. Achieving and accessing justice may be explained through a segregation of groups. For users of the justice system, access refers to the capacity to effectively utilise the justice system, whereas for the general public access to justice refers to the capacity to obtain appropriate information to evaluate the performance of the legal system and ways in which it operates on their behalf (Martin, 2014). These definitions reveal that both users of the courts and the general public should be very much aware of barriers to its access,
The main stakeholder in this case is the Gazette. The Gazette has a lot at stake because they did not print names in this case, but have in similar cases. Their readers were upset about this situation because they have families too. Why protect the image of someone who molested children care? The people deserve the right to know. Phillip Patterson and Lee Wilkins say, “But privacy is a complicated matter: it does not trump every other right in every context. In practice, protection of privacy or what constitutes invasion of
I have been in a country where this kind of sexual abuse, like sexually assaulting a child, is being kept away from media. Some authorities will not make any legal actions regarding this, instead, they will do their best to cover this up to protect the wrongdoers. In fact, there was a situation where “priests with pending court cases were acquitted and even quietly reinstated to pastoral duties.”
Public Eye on Sexual Offenders In preparing for this essay it has been identified that sexual offenders are not a homogenous group of individuals and that this is an umbrella term used to describe a range of behaviours ranging from acts of voyeurism and exhibitionism, to more serious acts of pedophilia and rape. For the purpose of this essay I have chosen to focus on the more serious forms of sex offending which in my opinion, are the cause of much of the current attention. In order to understand why sexual offenders attract so much attention I will begin by considering today’s society and the emergence of post-modernist values and the preoccupation with risk.
Since the early 1990s, there has not been a classification of criminals who have been subjected to more extensive legislation than sex offenders. A common belief that sex offenders posed a greater threat to reoffend compared to other types of criminals had surfaced, encouraging immediate action to protect the public from such individuals. In a short amount of time, society had implemented sex offender registration laws and sex offender notification laws in which sexual offenders would have to abide by. These innovational registration laws required sex offenders to regularly provide any identifying details, criminal history, and contact information to law enforcement authorities that would be made available to the public through the use of secluded registries exclusively for those who commit acts of sexual violence.
Many of us were raised knowing the story of Daniel Morcombe, the thirteen year old boy snatched from a bus station found murdered with the intention of rape, 8 years laters. Before the murder of Daniel, Brent Peter Cowan was a known child sex offender who had two previous offences with minimal penalty. In an interview with police Cowan stated “I never got to molest him or anything like that. He panicked and I panicked and grabbed him around the throat and before I knew it he was dead.” Daniel is one of many innocent and trusting children who have fallen victim to these vicious repeat offenders. Outside of the family, the first people thought to be responsible when a child is murdered, raped or abducted tend to be sex offenders in the area, so why must a child endure such a heinous act before this information is revealed to the public? I firmly believe that communities should be notified if and when a known predator on the paedophile and sex offenders registry has entered their neighbourhood. (Quite engaging, with a strong contention.)
Sex offenses receive an inordinate amount of special attention from the public as well as the criminal justice system. Is this because our system is a static reflection of the society/community they answer to? Sexual offense stories infiltrate every membrane of our society, from legal mores to norms, from social media to religion. Our system of justice can’t help but deliver attention to this area. Justice demands it and society needs it for interpersonal validation. The Criminal Justice system has given humans a scale to rate what is normal and what is deviant. Our text (Okada. p.182) shares that
In an era where internet and social media dominate, there must be a consideration of legal issues concerning privacy rights. But where is the line drawn when it may be associated with the sexual exploitation of youth? R. v. Barabash, 2015 SCC 29 [Barabash] is a circumstantial case that centres on concerns of privacy rights involving private use, child pornography, as well as regarding the establishments of exploitation and consent. Barabash involved two fourteen year old girls who were runaways, dependant on drugs and involved in prostitution. According to Statistics Canada (2008) at the time of this case, youth aged 12 to 14 were twice as likely to experience sexual violence then that of young adults, this statistic was even higher if the victim is female (Sexual Assault, para. 4). While they were staying with two significantly older men they were involved in sexual activity that was videotaped and photographed. Under s.163.1(2) of the Criminal Code the men were charged for making child pornography as well as the older man was charged with possession of child pornography under s. 163.1(4). While the trial judge found all elements of the offences were established, the accused raised in defence the private use exception outlined in R. v. Sharpe, 2001 SCC 2 [Sharpe], which the judge failed to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt. Through theoretical and legal frameworks this paper will analyze the defence of private use through objective analysis with reference to