Victoria Law Reform Commission Papers on Improving the Response to Sexual Offences

The Victoria Law Reform Commission (based in Melbourne, Australia) has published a series of issues papers for an inquiry into Improving the Response of the Justice System to Sexual Offences:

"The issues papers describe the current state of the law justice system and ask questions about how to improve it. 

• Guide to the Issues Papers
• A Working Together to Respond to Sexual Offences: Systems 
• B Sexual Offences: Key Issues in the Criminal Justice System 
• C Defining Sexual Offences 
• D Sexual Offences: Report to Charge 
• E Sexual Offences: The Trial Process 
• F People Who Have Committed Sexual Offences 
• G Sexual Offences: Restorative and Alternative Justice Models 
• H Sexual Offences: Civil Law and Other Non-Criminal Responses"

This is part of a consultation process launched by the Commission which will produce a report by 31 August 2021.

In its work, the Commission will focus on:

• barriers to reporting sexual offences: what prevents people from reporting sexual harm
• why reports of sexual harm may not proceed through the justice system
• how to reduce the trauma of victim survivors in the justice system
• how to improve data collection and reporting
• the best ways of responding to sexual offences—including alternatives to the justice system