[Download] "Hearing the Sexual Assault Complaints of Women with Mental Disabilities: Evidentiary and Procedural Issues (Canada)" by McGill Law Journal # Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Hearing the Sexual Assault Complaints of Women with Mental Disabilities: Evidentiary and Procedural Issues (Canada)
- Author : McGill Law Journal
- Release Date : January 22, 2007
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 362 KB
Description
When a woman with a mental disability makes a complaint of sexual assault, she must confront a criminal trial process that was not designed in contemplation of her as a witness. The requirements of repeated testimony under oath and the ability to be cross-examined are hot always well-suited to the particular needs and capacities of women with mental disabilities. These problems are magnified by the tendency to infantilize women with mental disabilities, thereby diminishing their credibility and depicting them as hypersexual when they engage in any sexual activity. These stereotypes also manifest themselves in the application of evidentiary rules relating to evidence of sexual history and records in the hands of third parties. In this way, the disabilities of these women are not merely physiological in an "objective" sense, but are also constructed by the trial process itself. This article considers how the experiences of women with mental disabilities demand modifications to evidentiary and procedural rules in sexual assault cases in ways that are consistent with the right of the accused to a fair trial. It also uses these experiences to reflect on the purported tension between sexual freedom and protection from violence that is evident in the feminist literature on sexual assault. The authors argue that substantive equality demands greater efforts to ensure the full participation of women with mental disabilities in the criminal trial process. Lorsqu'une femme atteinte d'une deficience mentale depose une plainte d'abus sexuel, elle se retrouve a devoir affronter un processus judiciaire penal non concu initialement pour l'entendre en tant que temoin. Les exigences propres aux temoignages repetes sous serment et la capacite de subir un contre-interrogatoire ne sont pas toujours adaptes aux besoins et aux competences particulieres de femmes atteintes de troubles mentaux. Ce probleme n'est qu'aggrave par la tendance d'infantiliser ces femmes, ayant pour effet de diminuer leur credibilite et de les depeindre en tant qu'hypersexuelles des lors qu'elles entretiennent des rapports sexuels. On retrouve ces stereotypes egalement au niveau de l'admissibilite de la preuve de rapports sexuels anterieurs et de documents appartenant a des tiers. Le handicap de ces femmes n'est donc pas seulement physiologique de facon objective, il est aussi fabrique par le processus judiciaire. A travers les experiences de ces femmes, les auteures demontrent la necessite de modifier les regles de preuve et de procedure dans les cas d'abus sexuel, tout en respectant le droit de l'accuse a un proces juste. Ils se servent egalement de ces experiences pour illustrer la tension entre la liberte sexuelle et la protection contre la violence suggeree par la litterature feministe portant sur l'abus sexuel. Les auteures soutiennent que de plus grands efforts sont necessaires au niveau de l'egalite substantielle afin d'assurer aux femmes atteintes d'une deficience mentale une participation totale au sein du processus judiciaire penal.