Is the law of rape sufficient to protect rightful victims, but prevent the misuse of the provisions?
The recent cases in which, false allegations have been made the woman regarding rape have raised doubts regarding the view that women do not lie regarding being raped. At the same time, the opposing view according to which, the false allegations of rape are becoming common also needs to be questioned because such review also has very serious implications for the society as well as for public policy. Historically, the legal system has viewed the claims of rape skeptically.
Generally the failure of the criminal justice system to adequately deal with rape as a criminal offense has been illustrated by the decline in the convictions in cases where allegations of rape has been made during the recent years. These figures reveal a steady decline, apart from a slight increase during the recent years and generally, these figures are compared with the conviction rate for the cases involving homicide and assault. At the same time, significant difference is also present between the convictions in the courts as a percentage of incidents that have been reported to the police (which is known as attrition rate) and the percentage of the cases that are prosecuted in the courts (called the conviction rate). In this way, when it comes to the successful conviction of the cases that have been brought before the court, rape is still significantly lower as compared to the violence that takes place against the person or burglary. There has been a major overhaul of the sexual offences legislation in the UK since the beginning of the 21st century. Before these reforms, the law related with sexual offences was primarily based on the laws that were based on the legislations that were implemented in 1956 and some of these legislations even dated back to the 19th century.
However, these laws were not in tune with the requirements of the 21st century. Although several amendments were made to these provisions after the 1956 law which included the provisions related with marital rape and male rape that were introduced in 1994. But the result of these fragmentary changes was very confusing laws and the position was that many different acts had to be accessed for the purpose of deciding what the law was on a particular subject matter. It was also acknowledged by the Home Office that this situation resulted in a “patchwork quilt of provisions”. At the same time, these provisions were beset with several anomalies, discrimination as well as inappropriate language that can also be construed as a violation of the human rights legislation.
Under these circumstances, the newly elected government in 1997 decided to help the victims of sexual offenses in obtaining justice and as a result, a lengthy and comprehensive process of review what initiated by the government in 1999 which was known as the Sexual Offenses Review. The result of this review was the Sexual Offenses Bill and in the end, the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 was introduced by the government and this legislation came into effect in May 2004. Before the introduction of this legislation, the feminist activists and academics have pointed out certain criticisms in context of rape law that are similar to the ones that are present in other countries where adversarial legal systems are present. They have particularly pointed out towards the difficulties that are present in proving non-consent, rape myths, cross examination, the use of sexual history evidence as well as the ruling given by the court in 1976 in Morgan v DPP in which it was stated by the court that an honest belief it may be mistaken, regarding consent may result in the acquittal of the accused even if such a belief regarding the consent of the victim cannot be described as reasonable under the circumstances. At the same time, the considerably high rate of education in rape cases was also cited as a major cause of concern behind these criticisms and at the same time, it also provided a strong push for strengthening the law related with sexual offenses. Therefore, simply stated the position can be summed up that most of the victims of rape who had reported the offense to the police were not able to even see that the case has reached court, leaving aside any scope for the conviction of the perpetrator for rape.
In this regard, a number of studies have been conducted which have documented the high rate of attrition and also how this rate of attrition has increased with the passage of time. Therefore the situation is that the number of men who are being reported to the police for the offense of rape is increasing and at the same time, the proportion in which the offenders are being convicted for rape is also falling steadily. At the same time, these studies have also established that the ratio of convictions for the offense of rape as compared to the reported instances of rape has also fallen at a steady pace from one in three in 1977 and it has come down to one in 20 in 2002. At the same time, it was also found after a comparative analysis that the highly rate of inflation in case of the offense of rape is not prevalent in England and Wales but similar trends can also be seen to some extent throughout Europe. At this stage, it is also pertaining to mention that in most of the cases, the offense of rape is not even reported to the authorities. Therefore the figure of one conviction out of the 20 reported cases is specifically alarming and there has been a significant campaign by the activists. In this regard, some experts have also given a warning that the rate of attrition may even be higher as compared to the figures on by the researchers to do the reason that these studies do not considered the instances of rape that are reported to the police but they are not recorded by the police and also the convictions that are overturned by the courts during an appeal. In this regard, it has also been found by the recent research conducted in this regard that nearly one out of 10 convicted rapists were successful in getting their convictions overturned from the court or having their sentences reduced after preferring an appeal.
The process of reforms in this regard started in 1999 with the Sex Offenses Review and the purpose of this process was to achieve “protection, fairness and justice” by remaining within the overall theme of the home office to create a “safe, just and tolerant society”. The terms of reference of this review included, “review of the sex offenses in the common law as well as the statute law of England and Wales and also to make recommendations that are capable of providing covenants and clear sex offenses that can protect the individuals, particularly the children and the more vulnerable sections of the society from exploitation and abuse. It should also be capable to allow the abusers to be punished appropriately and at the same time, it should be fair and non-discriminatory, keeping in view the requirements of Human Rights Act and the ECHR.
This last mention point is considered as a significant factor behind the need felt by the government to introduce legislative reforms. The Human Rights Act, 1998 came into force in October 2000 and encapsulates the rights that have been guaranteed by the European Convention of Human Rights in the domestic law of the UK. In this regard, it needs to be noted that although no ‘new’ rights have been provided by the Human Rights Act to the citizens, still it has provided a power to the judges to make a statement regarding the incompatibility of a particular piece of legislation if such legislation does not respect the human rights enjoyed by an individual. At the same time, the European Court of Human Rights has also stated in the past that the states can be considered as accountable for any violation of the human rights if they fail to introduce appropriate legislation related with the offense of rape.
At the same time, as a part of the review, and internal steering group as well as an external reference group was also established. The external reference group included well-known feminist academics, feminists who were campaigning for the reforms in rape law, the representatives of the organizations who were working with rape victims. The result was that intentionally or unintentionally this review had a very strong feminist influence.
As a result, two very comprehensive documents were produced. These documents consisted of the literature reviews as well as the reports obtained from consultation seminars and recommendations. At the same time, as a result of this review, a white paper titled, “Protecting the Public” was also published which provide the details of the proposals made by the government in this regard. In his foreword, the home secretary described the present law on sexual offenses as being archaic, discriminatory and incoherent.
Under these circumstances, in January 2003, the Sexual Offenses Bill was introduced in the House of Lords and certain amendments were made to it. In the same way, the House of Commons passed the Bill in June 2003 and the Home Affairs Committee also reviewed it. This review was published in July 2003 as well as the oral and written evidence that was submitted as a part of the inquiry that had taken place regarding certain sections of this Bill. In the end, the Sexual Offenses Bill received the Royal assent on November 20, 2003. Thereafter it was called the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 and this legislation came into effect in May, 2004. The effect of this legislation was that it replaced the Sexual Offenses Act as well as the amendments that were made to this legislation. It has been widely acknowledged that this new legislation is capable of representing the largest overhaul that has taken place in the law related sexual offenses for more than a century.
The Sexual Offenses Act, 2004: for the purpose of securing a conviction for the offense of rape, it is required to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the act has been committed by the defendant which fulfills the legal definition of rape but at the same time, also needs to be established that the defendant was aware of the fact that the victim had not consented to such an act. These two requirements are called the guilty act (actus reus) and the guilty mind (mens rea). In the next part of this assignment, these two aspects related with the offense of rape will be discussed in detail in order to see if the current law of rape has been successful in maintaining a balance between the protection of our the rights of the victims as well as the rights that have been provided to the accused persons.
Actus Reas (Guilty Act): in case of the offense of rape as prescribed by the Sexual Offenses Act, 1956, the actus reas has been simply described as an unlawful sexual intercourse that has taken place with a woman. Later on, it was amended in 1976 and therefore it stated it as an unlawful sexual intercourse that has taken place with a woman without her consent. However, two very significant changes were introduced in 1990s related with the actus reas of the offense of rape. First of all, after more than 100 years of campaigning by feminists, eventually in 1991 rape that has taken place within marriage was made illegal by the common law system and this was incorporated in the statute when the word ‘unlawful’ was removed from the definition of the offense as prescribed in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994. Before this change, it was stated in the common law that a married woman did not have the authority or capability to ‘not consent’. For example, it was stated by the court in R v Clarence, 1888 that “the sexual communication between them is by virtue of the irrevocable privilege that has been conferred once for all on the husband at the time of marriage” (R v Clarence (1889) 22 QB 23).
The infamous statement made by Sir Matthew Hale also needs to be noted in which it was stated, “But the husband cannot be guilty of rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for their matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.”
However, within their legal circles, the criminalization of marital rape was considered as controversial. The reason was that when it was criminalized in 1991, it was considered as being criminalized by the judge made law instead of being done by the elected government. An important case in this regard was that of R v R where it was alleged that the husband had tried to have sexual intercourse with his estranged wife without the consent and has also physically assaulted by squeezing her neck with both his hands. The issue that was required to be decided in this case was not in the husband had tried to force his wife for having sexual intercourse without her consent but if this act can be considered as falling within the purview of the legal definition of ‘unlawful’ sexual intercourse.
In this regard, the defense relied on the above-mentioned statement and also argued that due to the reason that the acts of the husband were directed against his wife, it cannot be classified as unlawful. However, while discussing the argument forwarded by the defense, it was stated by Justice Owen that the statement made by Hale cannot be considered as valid any longer because the statement has been made in general terms and also at the time when marriage was considered as in-dissolvable. But in this regard, it needs to be noted that this dismissal of the statement made by Hale appears to be related more to the fact that physical force has been used by the husband while attempting to rape the wife instead of being concerned with the lack of consent. However, the court stated in its decision that the act can be classified as an attempt to rape and as a result, the defendant was sentenced for imprisonment of three years. However, in an appeal, it was argued by the defendant that Justice Owen had been wrong when he ruled that rape within marriage can be considered as being against the law when the marriage itself has not been revoked. However the court of appeal dismissed the appeal of the defendant unanimously and at the same time, the statement made by Sir Matthew Hale was also dismissed by Lord Lane when he termed it as a “statement of the common law and that epoch, where the common law rule no longer remotely represents what is the real position of the wife in the current society”.
In this regard, the Court of Appeals stated that, “We take the view that the time has now arrived when the law should declare a rapist a rapist subject to the criminal law, irrespective of his relationship with his victim”.
Later on, this judgment was also upheld by the House of Lords as well as by the European Court of Human Rights.
In the same way, the second significant change was also the result of the 1994 Act. According to this change, it was acknowledged that a can also be a victim of rape and for this purpose, the actus reus of rape was amended so that it can cover vaginal as well as anal intercourse against the woman or against another man without the consent of such a person. In this way, although some other parts of the Sexual Offenses Act, 1956 have been revised during the period between 1995 to 2003, the actus reus of rape retain the definition that was provided by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994 until the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 came up with a new definition of rape.
According to the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003, the actus reus of rape has been described as penile penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth of any other person without the consent of such a person. As a result, when it comes to the actus reus of rape, there has been a slow change for nearly half a century in which it transformed from unlawful sexual intercourse that has taken place with a woman to the penile penetration of vagina, anus or the mouth of another person without the consent of such a person. Therefore the actus reus of rape has been considerably widened as now it includes the penile penetration of mouth. This is based on the arguments that were forwarded in the Sexual Offenses Review according to which, other forms of penetration, like the penile penetration of mouth or the penetration of vagina or anus with another part of the body or an object, also needs to be considered equally serious as the penile penetration of vagina or anus is considered. In this regard, therefore a decision was made that the actus reus of rape should be extended so that it can include the penile penetration of mouth. In this regard, it was particularly stated that, “forced oral sex is as horrible and equally traumatizing and demeaning as the other forms of penile penetration are”. However this means that it is still a gender specific offense when it comes to the perpetrator because such an act requires the penis, however with regard to the victim, it is a gender neutral offence. At the same time, a new offense of assault but penetration was also created so that the instances of penetration by objects other than penis may be covered because the offense of rape carried the maximum punishment of life imprisonment. In this regard, it is also been stated by some experts that if the offense of rape is allowed to be committed by any other object, in such a case, even a woman may commit the offense of rape and such a provision may create issues according to the Human Rights Act, 1998.
In this regard it needs to be noted that the second part of actus reus is related with a lack of consent. Generally, there are three lines of defense that are used in cases of rape. These are that the intercourse never took place, or that it took place but not by the accused or the defense that it took place but the victim had consented to such intercourse or that it was believed by the excuse that the victim has consented to it. Therefore, it has been pointed out that there are a few cases of rape where the question is, who done it? Similarly, the defense that the sexual intercourse never took place is also not very common. At the same time, the use of these defenses is expected to become further scarce in future owing to the developments that have been made in DNA testing. As a result, the issue of consent is used much more significance as compared with past and it is also the main focus of defense. Therefore, the issue of consent was also one of the main focus of the review of sexual offenses so that the laws related with consent could be clarified.
The basis of the problem that is based while dealing with the issue of consent in cases of rape lies with the requirement that the prosecution has to prove that the consent was not present, instead of a requirement on part of the defense that steps were taken by the accused to ascertain consent. In several ways, this problem is unique in cases of rape. For example, when it has been reported by a person that their car has been stolen, it is not required to be established that the car has been taken without the consent of such a person. In the same way when a person has been physically assaulted, such a person is not asked if they had agreed to be assaulted. Another problem that is generally faced in rape cases is that the only direct witness of the offense is the victim of the rape. This means that in these cases, generally there is the word of one person against that of the other. In such a case, if it is claimed by the accused that the victim had consented to the act and on the other hand, it is claimed by the victim that she had not consented to the act, in such a case it is difficult to validate the statement made by both of them (Kelly, 2002). The reason is that the nature of the offense is such that it is highly unlikely that any third party will be available to corroborate the statement made by the victim or the perpetrator.
For the first time, the Sexual Offenses (Amendment) Act had used the term consent in the statute. Before this, there was a force that was called the relevant factor. However, the issue of consent has been present in the common law since 1845 in Camplin [1981] 3 All ER 443 where the woman was charged with alcohol and the court gave the ruling that although no force was used still it can be said that the act was against the will of the woman and under the circumstances, she was unable to consent to such an act.
After this decision, there have been several other cases in which it was deemed by the court that consent was automatically absent, this is also known as the ‘category approach’. However it appears that the situation was changed with the decision given in Olugboja has changed the standards that were required to establish non-consent. Therefore the court stated in this case that consent is a state of mind and the jury needs to be directed to make up their own mind regarding the effect if the consent was present, keeping in mind the state of mind of the victim at the time of the rape.
In this way, it appears to overturn the standards that were used under the category approach. But in this regard it is not clear and the situation was described as having a threefold uncertainty. The first element of uncertainty was related with the fact that there was no statutory definition of consent. Similarly, the decision given in Olugboja individualized cases regarding consent therefor it moved away from the idea of a legal standard of non-consent. In the same way, uncertainty was present regarding whether or not this decision has replaced the earlier category approach under the common law.
With a view to deal with these uncertainties, the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 has defined consent. Therefore, section 74 of the Act provides that a “person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice”. In this way, it has returned to the category approach as it has listed the categories in statute. However, the 2003 Act has maintained a distinction between 6 categories where it can be presumed that the consent is not present unless sufficient evidence to the contrary is present to suggest that it was reasonably believed by the defendant that the victim consented. Similarly, there are two categories where it can be conclusively presumed that the consent is not present. In this way, the issue of consent is still, at least to some extent, is dependent on the mental state of the defendant even in cases, for example where the defendant was asleep or unlawfully detained or has to face violence from the defendant, even if the burden of proof has been reversed in these cases and the responsibility is on the defendant to show that steps were taken to ascertain consent.
Mens rea (Guilty Mind): it is the second part of the offense of rape which is known as the mens rea and it is based on the demise that an individual should not be punished for the act which was not known by the person to be committed by them. In this way, although actus reus and mens rea are present in case of war crimes, however mens rea is only relevant when the conduct in question has a certain level of ambiguity. There are certain other crimes apart from rape where it is required that both actus reus and mens rea should be proved to be applicable (Lees, 1996). The most common example in this regard can be given of the crime of trespass. The law prohibits a person from trespassing into the property of other person but the person cannot be convicted unless such a person knows that they are trespassing, for example where the private property has not been marked clearly. In this way, whether or not it was intended by the person to commit a crime is perhaps more important in case of rape as compared to the criminal offenses when the question is of proving the guilty mind of the mens rea. While earlier, if a person committed the actus reus of the guilty act of rape, but it was honestly believed was such a person that the woman has consented regardless of the fact that how unreasonable such a belief was, the person cannot be convicted of the offense of rape because in such cases the mens rea of the guilty mind was not present. Formerly, it was called the mistaken belief clause while informally, it was known as the ‘rapists charter’ because the meaning of this provision was that a woman could be actively non-consenting, for example shouting ‘no’ or trying to free herself but even in such a case, a man can be acquitted of the charge of rape. In this way, it is very difficult, nearly impossible to disprove this defense because in such a case, the defense had relied upon the things that are going on in the mind of the defendant.
The clause of ‘mistaken belief’ was introduced for the first time in 1976 in Morgan when the husband colluded with three of his friends in raping the wife. It was alleged that the husband had told his friends that his wife will say no and struggle as if she did not want to have intercourse with them but in reality it ‘turned her on’ as she was ‘kinky’. It was claimed by the accused that it was honestly believed by them that she was enjoying it and consented to it and they did not have the intention of raping her or in other words, they did not have the intention of raping her. Although the men were convicted in this case and at the same time, the husband was also convicted for abetting and aiding rape, it set a new precedent. In this regard, the House of Lords stated that if it is honestly believed by a person that the women had consented, even if such belief was highly unreasonable, such person cannot be convicted of the offence of rape.
Sections 41-43 of the youth justice and criminal evidence act, 1999 can be described as the most recent attempt to deal with the failure of section 2 of the Sexual Offenses (Amendment) Act, 1976.
All this under the circumstances, the feminist groups have campaigned for several years that some test of reasonableness should be provided for the defense of mistaken belief or the mistaken belief clause should be completely abolished. Similar issues were also being debated in other common law countries. For example in Australia, the rape law reform campaigners were divided into two groups. While the first group wanted that the Morgan ruling needs to be upheld. This means that if it is honestly believed by a person that the woman had consented to sexual intercourse, irrespective of the fact that such a belief was highly unreasonable, the person should not be found guilty of the offense of rape. On the other end, there was the other group who believe that this belief regarding the consent of the woman should be reasonable.
Therefore, although a number of piecemeal reforms have been introduced between 1956 and 2003, these reforms did not have any significant impact on the continuous decrease in the rate of conviction for the offense of rape. At the same time, it also needs to be noted that the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 now defines ‘consent’ but there are several issues related with consent that have not yet been solved. For example, it is still a problem that the law equates non-resistance or passivity with consent, particularly where no evidence regarding physical violence is present or in the cases where the victim had consented in the past. In the same bed while it is a significant step forward that the mens rea has been reworded and it requires that they should be reasonable belief in the consent of the woman, but it is not yet clear how this ‘reasonable belief ‘ will be interpreted by the courts. Therefore, it needs to be saying that the belief should be reasonable to whom and under what circumstances.
At the same time, initially there has been some skepticism regarding the impact of the Sexual Offenses Act, 2003 even during the stages of consultation. For example, in 2001, some experts have warned that such a review may result in ‘another false down’ due to the reason that it only focuses on the black letter law. In other words, it was not likely that it will be decided by men that they should not rape only due to the fact that the law has been made slightly strict. In the same way, the high attrition rate in case of the offense of rape cannot only be related to the fact how the offense of rape has been defined by the law, therefore the impact in this case may also be marginal. At the same time, it has also been suggested by some other experts that the focus of the law reforms should be on the process of trial, particularly on how the rules of evidence and the way in which the cases of rape or constructed related with social perceptions of gender, sexuality and coalition. In this way, it suggests that it is required to look further than only the ‘black letter law’ and consider the process of trial in an effort to explain why there is a problem related to the prosecution of rape.
At the same time, it also needs to be noted that while the campaign for the rape law reform is significant but it is not enough in itself. This fact has been acknowledged by the feminist activists for a long time. It is also believed that the reforms can only be implemented effectively if along with these reforms, there is also a transformation in the attitude of the men. Simply stated, it can be said that it is easy to change the law than the prejudiced attitudes. In this way, even after the reforms, there are still several issues related to the prosecution of the offense of rape but at the same time, it cannot be denied that these reforms in the rape law represents a big step forward. The same can be said regarding the other sexual offense laws that have been informed by the Legislature and also the new offenses that have been created in this regard. However, the consent of the victim and the sexual history of the victim are still relevant factors despite the introduction of significant reforms in this regard.
Baird, V. (1999) Changes to section 2 of Sexual Offences Act 1976, Medicine, Science and the Law, 39 (3), 198-208
Cook, K. (2004) Rape Appeal Study: Summary Findings, available at www.truthaboutrape.co.uk
Hale, M. (1736, published in 1971) The History of the Pleas of the Crown, London: Professional Books
Harris, J. and Grace, S. (1999) A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990’s, London: Home Office.
Harris, L.R. and Weiss, D.J. (1995) Judgements of Consent in Simulated Rape Cases, Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 10 (1), 79-90.
Henning, T. (1997) Consent in sexual assault cases: the continuing construction, Violence Against Women, 3, 4-10
Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 2), London: Home Office Communication Directorate.
Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000a) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 1), London: Home Office Communication Directorate
Kelly, L. (2002) A research review on the reporting, investigation and prosecution of rape cases, London: HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Kelly, L. (2004) Legal Reform, Sexual Autonomy and the Justice Gap: Sexual Offences Law in the 21st Century, paper presented at the European Rape Congress, Brussels, 1st – 2nd April 2004.
Kelly, L. and Regan, L. (2001) Rape: The Forgotten Issue? A European research and networking project, University of North London: Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit.
Lea, S.J., Lanvers, U. and Shaw, S. (2003) Attrition in rape cases; developing a profile and identifying relevant factors, British Journal of Criminology, 43, 583-599.
Lees, S. (1996) Carnal Knowledge – Rape on Trial (1st edition), London: Hamish Hamilton.
Rumney, P.N.S. (2001) The Review of Sex Offences and Rape Law Reform: Another False Dawn? Modern Law Review, 64 (6), 890-910
Temkin, J. (2000) Literature Review: Rape and Sexual Assault, in Setting the Boundaries, London: Home Office
Case Law
R v Kevin John Cartwright, unreported, (2007)
R v A [2001] UKHL 25
Morgan v DPP [1976] AC 182
X AND Y v. THE NETHERLANDS. 8978/80 8978/80
Olugboja [1981] 3 All ER 443
Temkin, J. (2000) Literature Review: Rape and Sexual Assault, in Setting the Boundaries, London: Home Office
Rumney, P.N.S. (2001) The Review of Sex Offences and Rape Law Reform: Another False Dawn? Modern Law Review, 64 (6), 890-910
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000a) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 1), London: Home Office Communication Directorate
Lea, S.J., Lanvers, U. and Shaw, S. (2003) Attrition in rape cases; developing a profile and identifying relevant factors, British Journal of Criminology, 43, 583-599.
Morgan v DPP [1976] AC 182
Kelly, L. and Regan, L. (2001) Rape: The Forgotten Issue? A European research and networking project, University of North London: Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit.
Kelly, L. (2004) Legal Reform, Sexual Autonomy and the Justice Gap: Sexual Offences Law in the 21st Century, paper presented at the European Rape Congress, Brussels, 1st – 2nd April 2004.
Home Office Review of Sex Offences (2000) Setting the Boundaries: Reforming the law on sex offences (Volume 2), London: Home Office Communication Directorate.
X AND Y v. THE NETHERLANDS 8978/80 8978/80
Sexual Offenses Act, 1956
Baird, V. (1999) Changes to section 2 of Sexual Offences Act 1976, Medicine, Science and the Law, 39 (3), 198-208
Hale, M. (1736, published in 1971) The History of the Pleas of the Crown, London: Professional Books
R v R [1991] 1 All England Law Reports, 747
R v R [1991] 1 All England Law Reports, 747
R v R [1991] 4 All England Law Reports 481
CR v United Kingdom (1995) 21 EHRR 363
Cook, K. (2004) Rape Appeal Study: Summary Findings, available at www.truthaboutrape.co.uk
Harris, J. and Grace, S. (1999) A question of evidence? Investigating and prosecuting rape in the 1990’s, London: Home Office
Harris, L.R. and Weiss, D.J. (1995) Judgements of Consent in Simulated Rape Cases, Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 10 (1), 79-90.
Henning, T. (1997) Consent in sexual assault cases: the continuing construction, Violence Against Women, 3, 4-10
Sexual Offenses (amendment) Act, 1976
Olugboja [1981] 3 All ER 443
Sexual Offenses Act, 2003
Morgan [1976] AC 182
R v Kevin John Cartwright, 2007
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