Putting Trials on Trial
Sexual Assault and the Failure of the Legal Profession
An interrogation of sexual assault law and a legal process that traumatizes complainants.
Description
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.
Reviews
"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
"This spectacular, thoughtful, and hard-hitting book pushes all of us to reconsider the impact of trials on those caught up in the justice system. Elaine Craig has done us all a service. This is the most important book you'll see this year." Clayton Ruby, lawyer, activist, and member of the Order of Canada
"Dalhousie law professor Craig's impeccably researched book is an outstanding work that dovetails perfectly with the #MeToo movement. Craig skewers the still prevalent notion that Canadian sexual assault survivors enjoy a free pass in the courts. Combining academic rigor with an eminently readable style that is cohesive and fearless, Craig makes several proposals that would mitigate harm without impinging on the rights of the accused. This is a must-read title for judges, lawyers, politicians, courtroom staff, and anyone concerned about sexual Violence." Publishers Weekly
"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
"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
"A damning account of what goes on in Canadian courtrooms, filled with outrageous examples of misconduct by legal professionals, including judges, prosecutors, and defence lawyers. Craig has proven in this book what many women knew to be true already: sexual-assault trials are hellish, traumatizing experiences, and the fair dispensation of justice, in a society still steeped in a mistrust of women and women's sexuality, is unlikely." The Walrus
"Putting Trials on Trial is a riveting exposé of criminal defence lawyers who regularly engage in aggressive and humiliating cross-examination, of Crown attorneys who fail to meet their duties to complainants, and of judges who fail to intervene to prevent abusive cross-examination and who fail to properly apply substantive law. It is a must-read for those who seek to change the way that sexual assault law is practised and adjudicated." The Honourable Marie Corbett, author of January: A Woman Judge's Season of Disillusion