Waatea News Column: The good intentions of the Sexual Violence Bill will see more Maori men guilty of rape
The desire to see justice for victims of sexual assault has eclipsed the need for a fair justice system.
The proposed changes to the law would see those accused of sexual assault lose their right to silence and remove any defence.
To justify gerrymandering the law to gain more convictions, the Green Party use questionable statistics claiming only 1% of sexual assaults get successfully prosecuted when in fact the number is 43% for sexual violation and 42% for attempted sexual violation.
Because Māori are poorer, Defense Lawyers are warning they will fall foul of these new rules regardless of their innocence.
The fact Labour and the Greens are the ones pushing these changes through means Māori men become the sacrificial bargaining chip in a fight for victims of sexual assault.
The best DNA science from America tells us that for every 100 convicted of sexual crimes, 11 are wrongfully convicted.
An 11% wrongful conviction rate is concerning enough, add to that the changes the Greens and Labour want to make, and anyone accused of sexual assault is likely to be found guilty regardless of their innocence.
Māori men are the ones who will feel this injustice most keenly. Why are they so expendable in this legal experiment?
First published on Waatea News.
Jacinda likes to say she and her government listen to the experts but that is only when the experts agree with their policy
I would be surprised if it was as high as 1% successfully prosecuted for assault. so few cases go to police and only some of those that do go onto prosecution and then …
This is analogous to the medical profession being assigned a politically prescribed set of procedures that would prevent health professionals from asking you certain questions relating to an underlying health condition – on the assumption this would serve to eliminate the prevalence of false negatives. The cost of excluding objective and relevant medical information indicative that you might not have the condition is guaranteed to increase the number of false positives.
It is one thing to discover one has a flawed medical procedure and correct it, another to enshrine it in law.
A cursory reading of Title IX in the US, as an example, highlights the potential pitfalls of judicial overshoot: “Hundreds of lawsuits already seek justice on behalf of accused male students in federal courts. Title IX for All, an online archive, currently tracks around 500 such suits, many of which have led to favorable rulings.”