Sheridan Barr (author); D. Scharie Tavcer (thesis advisor); Mount Royal University Faculty of Arts Economics, Justice and Policy Studies (Degree granting institution)
Date issued
2022-04; 2022-04
Description
Rape myth acceptance continues to make its way into our criminal justice system. It is expressed in sexual assault trials during cross-examinations of complainants and in a judge or jury’s decision-making processes. Prejudices and biases about sexual assault and its victims infiltrates societal views about the offence and people involved; thus, affecting reporting and conviction rates. This project illustrates how rape myths are used and accepted by justice professionals during trials and how it affects sexual assault case outcomes. This is showed with landmark cases where myths were the backbone of the decision-making process in deciding the offender’s guilt for the offence. Using an...
Laughton Angela (author); Kirk Niergarth (thesis advisor); Mount Royal University (Degree granting institution)
Date issued
2016
Description
The Phillips seduction case, tried in a Lethbridge, Alberta court in 1922, reveals that the extent to which the law of seduction empowered women to pursue justice in cases of sexual assault was limited by the ways in which patriarchal society regulated women’s sexuality. May Phillips was a white, American-immigrant teenager living with her family in the Wrentham sectional house in 1922. She was repeatedly assaulted by John Johnson, the forty-year-old section foreman. In court, both crown and defense characterized Phillips and Johnson in ways that reflect patterns present in other seduction cases. The degree to which May Phillips and John Johnson fit social expectations of, respectively,...
