COMBATING HARASSMENT UNDER THE PROTECTION FROM HARASSMENT ACT 17 OF 2011 IN SOUTH AFRICA: DOES IT PUNISH VICTIMS AND PROTECT PERPETRATORS?

The Protection from Harassment Act 17 of 2011 (the Act) seeks to protect victims of harassment. Despite this legislative development, the effectiveness of the Act has not been widely explored. This article fills this cavity. It argues that the broadly drafted definition of harassment, together with other concomitant shortcomings in the Act, makes it prone to abuse by unscrupulous litigants, thereby militating against its regulatory efficiency goals. The article further maintains that the Act is constructed in an unbalanced manner as it protects the rights of complainants, but unintentionally is open to abuse, allowing, unfathomably, an alleged victim of harassment to become the harasser. The article analyses the regulatory aptness of the Act in an age marked by an exponential increase in cyber-related harassment and makes a case for enhancing the regulatory approach of the Act to offer an effective means of protecting victims of harassment in a rapidly evolving society.

Nationality (Justice and Crime Coverage)

The variable provides information on whether the nationality of the (alleged) victims and/or perpetrator is mentioned in connection with crimes and offences. Research shows that minorities are disproportionately more often depicted as perpetrators than as victims (Hestermann, 2010; Vinson & Ertter, 2002). Field of application/theoretical foundation: The variable “nationality of the (alleged) victim or perpetrator” is of particular relevance in the context of debates on media ethics and legal philosophy. It is mainly used in the field of media effects research (stereotype and cultivation research, see Arendt, 2010). Example study: Hestermann (2010) Info about variable Variable name/definition: nationality [Nationalität] Level of analysis: mentioned (alleged) victim and perpetrator in the report Values: Nationality of the victim & perpetrator Nicht genannt Deutsch Ausländisch Ausdrücklich unbekannt Trifft nicht zu Intercoder reliability: Nationality of the victim 0.94; Nationality of the perpetrator 0.98 (2 Coder). What exact coefficient has been calculated has not been reported. Codebook: available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv941tf9.12 References Arendt, F. (2010). Cultivation effects of a newspaper on reality estimates, explicit and implicit attitudes. Journal of Media Psychology, 22, 147–159. Hestermann, T. (2010). Fernsehgewalt und die Einschaltquote: Welches Publikumsbild Fernsehschaffende leitet, wenn sie über Gewaltkriminalität berichten. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. [Television violence and ratings: Which picture of the audience leads television makers when they report on violent crime]. Vinson, C. D., & Ertter, J. S. (2002). Entertainment or Education: How Do Media Cover the Courts? Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 7(4), S. 80–97.

Senegal's Sonko could be a major contender in 2024

Significance The newly formed opposition and civil society alliance, the Movement for the Defense of Democracy (M2D), has questioned the independence and rationale for the Commission, given that a government report has already claimed Sonko instigated the violence. Impacts The politicisation of the charges and demonisation of Sonko's alleged victim may undermine lagging efforts to combat gender-based violence. Despite an inevitable public outcry, Sall is highly likely to try to win a third term in 2024. A Sonko presidency could lead to a review of various state contracts, including in the oil sector. Despite growing opposition cooperation, a formal electoral alliance is still some way off.

Voyeurism

This chapter considers the offense of voyeurism, where the offender infringes on the complainant’s autonomy by intruding on her sexual privacy without her consent. Rather than ask if the alleged victim expressed actual consent, it will sometimes be appropriate to ask if she gave constructive consent, based on her assuming the risk of some potential harm or wrong. Many victims of voyeurism probably never know that they have been victimized and thus do not suffer the usual sort of psychological trauma that victims of sexual misconduct often endure. Nevertheless, voyeurism clearly involves a serious wrong. In that sense, it constitutes what has been referred to in the criminal law theory literature as a harmless wrong. There is also another conceptual challenge that voyeurism presents. In order for the offense to be committed, the victim must have had a reasonable expectation of privacy. But this raises the question of exactly what expectations of privacy should be considered reasonable in a world in which new technologies and new social practices—including social media, smartphones, sexting, and revenge porn—have simultaneously lowered the threshold of what society regards as private while increasing the potential for harm to individuals.

Family Violence, Cross-Examination and Self-Represented Parties in the Courtroom: The Differences, Gaps and Deficiencies

Since the early 2000s, the ability of a self-represented litigant alleged to have used domestic and family violence including sexual violence to personally cross-examine the alleged victim of that violence has been steadily restricted or prohibited across the Australian jurisdictions. These statutory limitations recognise the traumatic and negative impact such personal cross-examination can have on the alleged victim. All Australian jurisdictions restrict such personal cross-examination in sexual offence proceedings. Many jurisdictions also impose similar limitations in proceedings for other domestic and family violence related criminal proceedings and civil protection order proceedings. This article reveals a marked unevenness in protection for alleged victims both across and within jurisdictions. The lack of consistency in approach and lack of uniformity in provisions across the jurisdictions means that not all victims of domestic and family violence are protected, and for those who are, the nature and extent of those protections differ.

Fourteen-Year Trends in the Criminal Justice Response to Child Sexual Abuse Reports in New South Wales

This study of attrition compares the prosecution of child sexual offenses reported while the complainant was still a child with those in which the report was delayed into adulthood; it also compares matters involving adult and young (under 18 years) suspects/defendants. It is based on an analysis of police and court administrative data in New South Wales, Australia over a 14-year period (2003–2016). Only one in five (21.6%) proceeded beyond the investigation stage. Criminal proceedings were more likely to commence when the alleged victim was 7–12 years old at the time of the incident, when the suspect was an adult and at least 10 years older than the victim, and also when the report to police was made when the victim was an adult. Just over half (55.5%) of the matters finalized in court resulted in a conviction. Cases in the higher courts were less likely to be dismissed and more likely to feature guilty pleas and convictions at trial than cases in the lower courts. The overall estimate is that only 12% of offenses reported to police resulted in a conviction, at a relatively stable rate over 14 years. These findings are consistent with those of comparable studies.

Cripping Consent

The fifth chapter explicates a Connecticut case of alleged sexual assault committed against a significantly physically and cognitively disabled woman. The facts and fallout of the case facilitate an analysis of sex and sexual ethics that applies, synthesizes, and qualifies the three core criticisms of consent (insufficiency, scope, and inappositeness) leveled across the other chapters. The examination of the case shores up several ways in which consent fails to deliver sexual justice. Hilary O’Connell and I propose legal remedies and social reforms that would better facilitate sexual and intimate possibilities not only for the alleged victim in the Connecticut case and people similarly disabled but also, if more speculatively, for people positioned across the spectrum of ability. The legal remedies are grounded in a feminist reconstruction of sexual autonomy that rejects the equation of autonomy with consent. The social reforms are grounded in a disability-studies reconstruction of access that promotes institutional arrangements facilitating people’s equal participation in politics, education, employment and sex.

The Crime of Rape and Sexual Violence against Women in Nigeria: A Comparison with Other Common Law Countries

This discourse is a comprehensive look at the offence of “rape” as a legal concept, taking into consideration, the premodial, mythical and legal beliefs and meanings associated therewith. It analysed recent statutory changes and developments in this area of the law, particularly under the English common law in contradistinction from the almost static provisions of some African penal statutes relating to the offence of rape. The propelling aim was to appreciate the difficulties associated with efforts to convict persons accused of committing the offence of rape and the legality of calling in aid corroboration in amelioration of these difficulties. It was observed that, the statutory ingredients of the offence do not accommodate such a practice. It became significant that the myths and traditional beliefs surrounding the claim of an alleged victim of rape imported the burden of a rebuttal on the accused. It was observed that sympathy on the part of the courts for alleged rape victims sway their decisions in favour of such victims. This emotional consideration by the courts may have informed he demand for corroborative evidence to seal all escape routes for the accused even when not statutorily provided for. Absence of corroborative evidence may on the reverse, favour the accused though the prosecutrix may concoct one to secure conviction. It was concluded that rape cases should be determined on the basis of the dry provisions of the relevant penal statutes devoid of extraneous considerations, such as corroboration.