"How the Criminal Justice System Responds to Sexual Assault Survivors: The Slippage between 'Responsibilization' and 'Blaming the Victim'.".

Comack, Elizabeth ; Peter, Tracey

While feminist scholars have identified the factors within law that serve to disqualify claims of sexual assault, the authors maintain that a fuller appreciation of how the criminal justice system responds to sexual assault survivors requires locating this issue in its broader socio-political context. By focusing on one survivor's story their aim is to reveal how a neo-"law and order" approach and a neo-liberal rationality premised on "responsibilization" play out in sexual assault cases. In the process, their analysis raises questions about the prospects of realizing justice for women and children victimized by sexual violence in this current socio-political context. When social institutions fail, where do we place the responsibility? (Journal Abstract)

Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, Special Issue: Defining Moments, vol. 17, no. 2 (2005), pp. 283-309.