Less than one percent of the sexual assaults that occur each year in Canada result in legal sanction for those who commit these offences. Survivors often distrust and fear the criminal justice process, and as a result, over ninety percent of sexual assaults go unreported. Unfortunately, their fears are well founded.

In this thorough evaluation of the legal culture and courtroom practices prevalent in sexual assault prosecutions, Elaine Craig provides an even-handed account of the ways in which the legal profession unnecessarily - and sometimes unlawfully - contributes to the trauma and re-victimization experienced by those who testify as sexual assault complainants. Gathering conclusive evidence from interviews with experienced lawyers across Canada, reported case law, lawyer memoirs, recent trial transcripts, and defence lawyers' public statements and commercial advertisements, Putting Trials on Trial demonstrates that - despite prominent contestations - complainants are regularly subjected to abusive, humiliating, and discriminatory treatment when they turn to the law to respond to sexual violations.

In pursuit of trial practices that are less harmful to sexual assault complainants as well as survivors of sexual violence more broadly, Putting Trials on Trial makes serious, substantiated, and necessary claims about the ethical and cultural failures of the Canadian legal profession.

An interrogation of sexual assault law and a legal process that traumatizes complainants.

About the Author
Elaine Craig is associate professor in the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University.

Reviews

"Elaine Craig offers a compelling, timely, and empirically rigorous indictment of Canadian legal professionals for their collective failure to act lawfully and ethically towards complainants in sexual assault cases." Canadian Journal of Law & Society

"This thorough and convincing book should be required reading for students and practitioners of criminal law and for the law societies that govern professional conduct. It will be a useful resource for feminists concerned about the treatment of women in sexual assault trials and the psychology professionals who deal with the aftermath suffered by victims." Quill & Quire

"Putting Trials on Trial: Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession - a rigorous and damning indictment of the justice and legal systems' handling of sexual-assault cases in Canada - was finished before the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements seized national headlines. But it is arguably now more relevant than ever. For actors in and outside the legal profession, there is no shortage of answers in Craig's excoriating study. This book will undoubtedly generate controversy as it delivers a verdict upon the Canadian legal system: guilty." The Globe and Mail

Book Information
ISBN 9780228006534
Author Elaine Craig
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint McGill-Queen's University Press
Publisher McGill-Queen's University Press
Weight(grams) 595g