Toby Manhire: Sex crimes tarnish our women's rights halo (New Zealand)
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The New Zealand Herald
11 June 2014
Toby Manhire: Sex crimes tarnish our women's rights halo
(excerpt)
Discussing rape culture can be deeply uncomfortable, frustrating and unsettling, for women and men both. But look around. Research tells us one in four females and one in eight males in New Zealand are likely to be victims of sexual abuse. Less than 10 per cent will make a complaint; a minority will result in prosecution.
The Roastbusters scandal nine months ago exposed a strain of sexual criminality and bravado in young men, as well as a negligent police response, suggesting the "culture of scepticism in dealing with complaints of sexual assault" identified in the Bazley Report of 2007 remained. (It bears noting, however, that Billingsley had nothing but praise for police handling of her case).
A senior New Zealand police officer last year apologised after describing a 10-year-old rape victim as a "willing party" in her sexual abuse. The Rolf Harris trial unearthed the way sexual assault is silenced in New Zealand as well as Britain.
And whatever you make of David Cunliffe's introductory remark to a gathering of representatives from women's refuges - he said: "I'm sorry for being a man right now because family and sexual violence is perpetrated overwhelmingly by men" - the crashing wave of condemnation was startling. The men of New Zealand were at last rising up to condemn that great scourge in our society: the Labour leader's campaign tactics. A spectacular case of missing the wood for the trees....
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