New law on sex offences sought by Minister

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 17

New law on sex offences sought by Minister

PA Auckland The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) has called for an urgent study of New Zealand’s rape laws. Officials of the Justice Department and the Institute of Criminology, at Victoria University of Wellington, will examine the issues involved. Mr McLay wants particular attention to be given to the plight of rape victims. . He said that he would like to move legislation on the subject this year although that might'be too optimistic. Those involved in the study might be able to report back in stages and legislative action could be taken fairly quickly. Rape was “one of the most dreadful of all offences.” It violated a woman in a most despicable manner. . “It subjects her to unspeakable indignities, sometimes at the hands of a number of attackers,” Mr McLay said. “It is almost invariably accompanied by violence or by threats of violence. ’“A woman who has been raped will be scarred — certainly emotionally, possibly also physically — for the rest of her life.” Mr McLay said that police statistics tended to confirm that there had been a substantial increase in the incidence of rape and other sexual attacks, such as attempted rape .and indecent assault, in recent months. Between 1980 and 1981, the number of rapes reported to the police had increased 28.4 per cent and the number of

reported sexual attacks had risen 27.9 per cent. There had been a sudden upsurge in reported incidents in the last three months of 1981 and the indications were that the same trend had continued into this year. The figures related specifically to incidents reported to the police, not to people prosecuted or offenders convicted by the courts. Mr McLay said, “We have got to remember that rape is believed to be one of the must under-reported of all serious crimes. For reasons of shame, fear, or simply a desire not to prolong the agony any more, many women do not report the offence, even though they should. “Until relatively recently, concern about the offence was largely limited to those who had actually been, or were close to, one of its victims, or to more radical feminist groups, who saw it is a symbol of man’s oppression of women. “Happily today that is not the case.” Mr McLay said that as concern widened and the number of reported offences increased, so, too, did the demands of the public that something be done? to improve the situation. “We are increasingly asked, ‘Are the penalties adequate? Is the law adequate? Do we give enough help to the victim?’ “It is because of this concern and because, quite frankly, we do not yet have all the answers that some time ago I instructed my

department to look at the whole question of our rape laws and the procedures that are followed once an offence has been reported.” Mr McLay said that one of the overseas changes that those involved in the study would be looking at was that made last year in New South Wales, which had abolished the specific offence of rape and had replaced it with four categories of sexual assault of graduating degrees of seriousness.

The first category (under New South Wales law), and the most serious, was that of sexual assault in which the assailant, with intent to have sexual intercourse, maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm. The maximum penalty for this offence was 20 years imprisonment, compared with the maximum penalty in New Zealand of 14 years for rape. “The second category covers the assailant who inflicts, or threatens to inflict, actual bodily harm by means of an offensive weapon with intent to have sexual intercourse. The maximum penalty is 12 years imprisonment,” said Mr McLay. "The third category is sexual intercourse without consent of the victim and for this the maximum penalty is seven years, or 10 years if the victim is under 16.

“The fourth category, indecent assault, is largely similar to the previous law.” Mr McLay said that the change in emphasis from rape to sexual assault in the new New South Wales law “desexualised” the offence.

This avoided the stigma sometimes associated with being a "rape victim” and also extended the law to cover assaults which did not necessarily involve an actual act of intercourse but subjected women to other indignities. He had mentioned the change in the law in New South Wales because it had been made in a jurisdiction close to, and very similar to, New Zealand’s and one which faced very similar problems. “I am not at this stage saying that we would make that change here,” Mr McLay said. “What I want to know is what the public thinks' of such a change. “I know there will be some women’s groups who would wish to retain rape as a symbolic offence, indicative of what they would describe as ‘man’s oppression of women’. “There will be other hardliners who would say that rape, like murder, is just that and should be called what it is and treated accordingly. “I am not interested in those who want to make it a political issue. What I want to know is what people think because, as I said earlier in respect of penal reform, changes in an area such as this require public support and if it is lacking there is likely to be a back-lash.” The director of the Justice Department’s Planning and Development Division, Mr M. P. Smith, and the director of the Institute of Criminology, Dr Warren Young, will coordinate the study.