What if everything you thought you knew about the investigation and prosecution of rape and serious sex offences in the criminal justice system was wrong?
What if the most widely accepted and powerful rape myth is that police don't believe, prosecutors don't prosecute, and juries don't convict?
In Rape on Trial, Dr Candida Saunders, a legal scholar with twenty years’ experience researching criminal law, evidence and procedure, and criminal justice practice, takes you beyond the headlines and conventional wisdom to look at the evidence—so you can see for yourself how the system really works, and how it doesn’t.
You’ll go inside police investigations, Crown Prosecutors’ offices, and Crown Courts to see real-world decision-making in real-life cases to ask the difficult questions that cut to the heart of criminal justice:
What is the difference between cases that result in conviction, those resulting in acquittals, and those that don’t even make it to trial?
How do Crown Prosecutors decide whether to charge and prosecute a case?
What is the burden and standard of proof?
What is the presumption of innocence and how does it work?
What does 'not guilty' mean?
What does cross-examination really look like in rape trials?
When is sexual-history evidence admissible? Why is it even relevant?
How common are false allegations, and why do they matter?
For students, criminal justice professionals, policymakers, and those who simply want to see for themselves how criminal justice really works in these cases, Season One: Rape on Trial offers a rigorous, evidence-based look at rape in the criminal process; separating myth from reality, ideology from evidence, and putting you in the position to judge for yourself.
