Restorative justice - Legal reform in victims’ grasp

For any victim of a sex crime, nothing could be more demeaning than being portrayed by some smart lawyer as the perpetrator, rather than the victim, of the most heinous of crimes.

As those who work tirelessly at rape crisis centres constantly remind us, this is the main reason why rape statistics in Ireland fail to give the true picture.

To be fair, lawyers are not entirely to blame (though it has to be said that many lose the run of themselves, using lurid language to attack victims, sometimes making offenders think they are not guilty). As every rape victim knows, the fault lies squarely with our adversarial legal system, an outdated procedure which allows women, by far the main victims of sex crimes, to be painted as harlots before the court.